Back to Arapey

What to do? We have slowed our journey south for two reasons. First our refrigerator won’t arrive in Buenos Aires until January 7th and due to the weather, we need to wait until then to head to Patagonia. January and February here is the same as July and August in the north. Termas Del Arapey has the most decent facilities for a motor home and we decide to go back there for a couple of weeks. We want to be in Buenos Aires for Christmas. No particular reason, it just sounds nice. However, Arapey is the perfect fill-in for the interim with full hook up, internet, thermal spa pools and stores for groceries. It takes us two days to get back there and the first thing we notice is all but 3 of the German vehicles have left. The remaining Germans welcome us back, admire our new window and we settle back into the lazy lifestyle of the campground. Besides cleaning the RV, basic chores and laundry our days are spent relaxing, reading, swimming and getting to know our neighbors. There is a tree beside our campsite which, during the day is host to flocks of green and blue parrots. They are some of the most raucous birds we have heard and spend their day chattering and shrieking to one another. If they weren’t so beautiful and darned cute, it would be annoying but we love it. Winston loves his walks along the river where we can let him loose. Unfortunately we need to keep him on his long tether in camp as there are just too many other campers. Being a beagle there are just a plethora of opportunities to snag, beg or otherwise obtain food from other people and we need him to maintain his boyish figure! The downside to Arapey is Saturday nights. During the week it is quiet and peaceful. Friday night there is a small build up of people which rise to a crescendo by Saturday. These are for the most part, young and we mean young, maybe 14 to 26 year olds. They arrive “en masse” complete with trucks containing monstrous speakers that play music, loudly until 4 and 5 in the morning. It is so completely obnoxious and there appear to be no rules regarding noise observance, even the parrots are driven away. Weekenders come from all over. Arapey is close to both the Brazilian and Argentinean borders and to several of the larger Uruguayan cities so there are many people within driving distances. It makes for a colorful Saturday night. Then by Sunday afternoon, they have all left and the site belongs to the sane again. And the parrots return. Speaking with Nobert and Wolf, two of our German friends, we learn of an RV campsite in Argentina, close to Cordoba. This is only a two day drive from here and after talking it over we decide to try it. We still have a couple of weeks to hang around and seeing a new place, especially one with a campground for RV’s, sounds appealing. Our new plan is to leave here Friday, spend the weekend at another thermal campground in Dayman, which is even closer to the border and then cross on Monday