URUGUAY
Uruguay is a country the size of England and Wales, located in the south eastern part of South America and bordered by Brazil to the northeast. The Uruguay River is situated to the west, the estuary of the Rio de la Plata to the southwest, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. Uruguay has a warm and friendly population of only 3 million people. Within the country's diverse landscape the climate is non-tropical, making it a little-known destination ideally suited for riding.
Wild and Exotic organise exciting riding holidays in the beautiful province of Rocha close to the Brazilian border. These rides take you along deserted sandy beaches, between sand dunes and into pine forests, around fresh water lagoons, through palm groves and across grasslands. During your stay in these idyllic settings you will be provided with gourmet lunches and you will also be able to explore the comfort and history of traditional estancias and working farms. Guests are accompanied by skilled gauchos, seeing a large variety of wildlife along the way as you pass through an unexpected mix of landscapes.We can also arrange any other services you may require in Uruguay, including accommodation and transfers as well similar services in the neighbouring countries of Brazil and Argentina and throughout the South American continent.
Scenes of riding in Uruguay - Please click on any of the images below to enlarge
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Wild and Exotic fact sheet on riding in Uruguay with Ride Andes
We hope that the following information will be of assistance in preparing for your trip to Uruguay. Uruguay is a very tranquil country with an excellent safety record, safe water supplies and few dangerous species of animals/insects and plants. As a relative new comer to tourism the infrastructure is limited but this gives huge scope for exploring areas off the beaten tourist track.
Altitude: The ride takes place just above sea level so riders need not be concerned about any effects of high altitude.
Book list: There are guidebooks available that include a section on Uruguay, many of the publications are limited and misinformed. We can recommend certain books, depending on your interests, many of which are available internationally. If you need more information please do not hesitate to contact us.
Climate: October to April the weather can be hot – above 30 centigrade (January and February near 40C), the evenings do cool down a little. In October, November and April the evenings and early mornings are cooler, but the middle of the day can still be hot. Guests must be prepared for rain storms during the rides and an occasional cold onshore wind on the beaches. The sea is usually warm enough to swim in and guests tend to use the outdoor pools from late October to late March.
Communications: The international telephone service is efficient, though subject to delays (certain nights guests can make international calls from hotels/estancias). One can now use many U.S. telecommunications companies for direct service calls to the United States. Uruguay is two time zones ahead of Eastern Standard Time (USA) and four hours behind the UK during British summertime (only 3 hours end October-March). There are many internet cafes with email facilities and telephones for cheap international calls in both Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Mobile phones from Europe seldom work (must be tri-band) without visiting a local agent in BA/Montevideo. Some US telephone companies have agreements in South America.
Departure tax: Departure taxes are levied when leaving both Uruguay and Argentina (subject to change without notice) which are payable in cash only. Some flight tickets include the BA-Montevideo tax or approximately US8-12 can be requested, it is very difficult for us to know if or not this tax has been included in your ticket. On leaving Uruguay on a long haul flight the tax is currently US27.
Electricity: Electricity in Uruguay is 220 volts, 50 cycle, single phase. U.S. appliances can be used with step down transformers, which are available in Montevideo. Sockets are for 2 or 3 round pins, or rectangular pins - an international adaptor is very useful. (Argentina has a different socket system; most hotels will lend you an adaptor.)
Equipment: Guests are kindly requested on all rides/treks to take a minimum of personal belongings with them. A vehicle brings guests’ belongings on to the Estancias/hotels. Luggage storage can be organised in Montevideo during the ride (there may be a small charge) if you are returning to Montevideo after the ride.
Clothing List: A separate clothing list is available on request.
Exchanging money: In Uruguay the local currency is the Uruguayan Peso, and there are approximately 23 pesos to US$1 or 45 pesos to 1.00 pound sterling. (NOTE this may have changed a little by the time you arrive). In Argentina the local currency is the Argentinian Peso and there are approximately 2.8 pesos to US$1 or 4.5 pesos to 1.00 pound sterling. Depending on the time of arrival, there are opportunities to exchange money in both Montevideo and Buenos Aires airports. If not money should be changed in the cities as during the ride there will not be any opportunities. Guests should always change money at the official, designated places and the current exchange rate will be posted (please ask your guide at the airport for the updated exchange rate). Travellers cheques have to be signed very carefully when exchanging them and guests are finding it increasingly difficult to cash travellers cheques. We suggest you bring a small amount of dollars in cash and use your credit card to withdraw cash in Montevideo/at the airport. N.B. Foreign currency must be in perfect condition, otherwise it may not be accepted). Having left Montevideo/ the airport there will be little chance of changing money, many hotels and restaurants accept US dollars but the exchange rate will not be as good as at an exchange house. When changing money/accepting change, please be careful of false notes, although this is not a big problem in Uruguay. Credit cards are accepted in large hotels, shops and restaurants in Montevideo but it is unwise to rely on this. Guests will need to bring money for drinks (soft drinks and alcoholic beverages) although water is provided while riding; expenses such as telephone calls and laundry bills; discretionary tips and souvenirs
Film / photography / video: Please bring enough film / memory sticks and batteries with you, especially film/cartridges etc. for the more modern equipment. (We advise 400ASA for 35mm cameras.) The backup vehicle can carry video cameras for guests but the vehicle will not be with the riders all the time (we do not advise riding with video cameras.)
Health: Medical kits are carried on every ride and every effort is made to ensure the safety of guests. In Uruguay there are English speaking doctors and dentists. Appropriate travel health insurance is the responsibility of each guest and is OBLIGATORY. It is each guest´s responsibility to ensure that they have all the necessary health/vaccination certificates to enter the country. General advice would be to drink only bottled water/beverages and avoid food from street vendors. No specific inoculations are required to enter Uruguay, but it is recommended that all standard immunizations be kept current (please always consult with your Doctor/travel health clinic). Sanitation and food-handling standards in Uruguay are high, and the water supply is well maintained.
Language: Most of the population speak Spanish - little English is spoken except in certain of the Estancias/hotels and larger shops.
Luggage: Please see equipment lists. Guests are required to bring the minimum of belongings and we suggest that you pack your belongings for the riding tour in one bag. Checked in bags: 15kg maximum on Argentinean domestic flights (and they are strict!) and 20Kg on most flights from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. You will be charged if your luggage is overweight.
Montevideo: Your guide will be happy to assist you in the city by pointing out post offices as well as recommending shops, restaurants, bars etc.
Time zones: Montevideo is 2 or 3 hours behind GMT (daylight saving in operation).
Tipping: Tipping is at your discretion. Airport and hotel porters: $US1. Taxi drivers do not expect tips. Guests often leave an envelope with the guide at the end of the ride to give to local guides/grooms/drivers etc. (this is entirely discretionary, as a guideline US100-120 per guest for the 9 day ride).
Valuables: Although Uruguay has one of the best records in Latin America for safety we advise: please take the minimum valuables and avoid wearing expensive watches/jewellery in public; please use the hotel/estancia safety deposit box; please use money belts and do not leave valuables ‘on show’ or in back/outside pockets; while riding, valuables can be handed in to the guide for safe storage; in Montevideo/Buenos Aires, taxis should always be taken at night (i.e do not walk). Ask the hotel/shop or restaurant to call you a taxi, particularly in Buenos Aires, do not flag down a taxi in the street. Ride Andes cannot accept any responsibility for loss/theft during your stay.
Visas: It is the responsibility of each individual guest to check that their passport and necessary papers are in order. Passports must be valid for at least six months after the date of departure from Uruguay. Please leave a photocopy of your passport at home and bring an additional copy with you to Uruguay.
Wild and Exotic sample itinerary for Ride Andes Emerald Province set departure rides in Uruguay
(Estancias, beaches and lagoons (9 day tour)
A country the size of England and Wales with a charming, warm, friendly population of only 3 million, an ideal non-tropical riding climate, unexpectedly diverse landscapes – a little-known destination made for riding! Riding along deserted sandy beaches, between sand dunes and into pine forests, around fresh water lagoons, through palm groves and across grasslands, we arrive at idyllic settings for gourmet lunches then journey on the comfort of traditional estancias and working farms. Guests are accompanied by skilled gauchos, seeing a large variety of wildlife along the way as you pass through an unexpected mix of landscapes.
Day 1: Guests have a chance to relax in the very easy-going capital of Uruguay: Montevideo. Guests are met at the airport or port and driven to the hotel. The guides are on hand to help plan the day which can be spent wandering along the unique ‘Rambla’ – a very pleasant, wide boulevard with beaches, along the river estuary - soaking up the sun, exploring the old part of the city, visiting the gaucho museum, galleries and shops with local crafts and tack and also getting acquainted with one of Uruguay’s best kept secrets: the excellent wines. The city is very safe and guests can explore at their own pace or a guided city tour can also be arranged, taking in the wonderful theatre and main square and learning about the country’s history along the way. A traditional ‘asado’ lunch is included in the old town at the converted old port market, now a place full of lively restaurants where the locals congregate for leisurely lunches. Musicians play in the sunny streets and guests can often hear the local music – candombe and also tango, very popular here in Montevideo. Overnight: comfortable hotel in Montevideo’s centre. Meals included: Lunch only.
Day 2: After an early breakfast, you will be driven north-east to Rocha, the most beautiful province in Uruguay with its pristine beaches, emerald shores and network of lagoons. You are right on the Brazilian border and, just before your arrival at the country hotel, you pass through Chuy where the official boundary between Uruguay and Brazil runs down the middle of the main street. The locals speak a strange mix of Spanish and Portuguese, on one side of the street the shops have signs in Spanish and on the other in Portuguese! We arrive at the country hotel, built in the same stone as the nearby Portuguese fortress, in time for lunch (4-5hrs). From the hotel, you can admire the views out across a huge stretch of water - one of the largest fresh water reserves of South America, the "Merin Lagoon". Once inside the imposing walls of the hotel, guests will appreciate the comfortable rooms and enjoy the delicious food, a far cry from the austere life in the nearby fortress! In the afternoon, guests will meet their horses and ride around the rocky hills of San Miguel Reserve (3hrs) enjoying a wonderful panoramic view of the area from the top of the boulder-covered ‘Cerro Picudo’. This area is home to a wide variety of birds including several species of vultures that, rather unnervingly, soar overhead in large numbers. The park is a very important flora and fauna reserve now protected from the effects of modern agriculture and is also home to pure Cimarron cattle and Uruguayan criollo horses, giving us a chance to see this wonderful native breed of horse and its gorgeous colourings. We also ride to the granite fortress built in 1734 by the Spaniards, and rebuilt after its destruction by the Portuguese in 1737. You will stay at "Fortín de San Miguel" where guests can enjoy the pool, the gardens and visit the ‘pulperia’ - the traditional meeting point for the gauchos from miles around. AB, L, D.
Day 3: In the morning you ride out of the hotel, through the customs post and along the Uruguay-Brazil border, riding for several kilometres in Brazil! Then you turn south along a track and cross the wide, flat expanse of the arid pasturelands. There are opportunities for long canters across the flatlands and you often pass a horse and cart heading into town for weekly supplies. The ride passes fields covered with bizarre conical shaped mounds, the result of very industrious termites. Rheas graze in the fields and you may occasionally spot their enormous eggs; birds of prey hover overhead as they hunt. The burrowing owls sit watching us on their earth mounds, field flickers and woodpeckers are busy drumming holes in the trees while oven birds build mud nests atop the fence posts. Lunch is a delicious picnic under the shady trees at a large estancia then, after a siesta, we ride on to the beach for an incredible ride along the wonderful, isolated shores of the Atlantic Ocean (7hrs riding). Visitors seldom reach this beach so we can enjoy a long, exhilarating canter with no signs of habitation as we ride along the pure, firm sands at the waters edge. Guests can ride into the sea. We arrive 12km (8 miles) further south at "La Coronilla", normally riding right to the ocean front hotel. Overnight at Parque Oceanico, situated next to the beach. Indoor and outdoor swimming pools. AB, L, D.
Day 4: Today you ride your horses along another beautiful part of the coastline to Santa Teresa Fort. Crossing the forested Santa Teresa National Park you arrive at the imposing restored fort which is the centre piece of the park - started in 1762 by the Portuguese to defend the edge of their territories then completed by the Spaniards who took it by assault just a year later. This was just the start of a succession of conquering, losing and re-conquering the fort; it was not until 1825 that the newly formed ‘Uruguayan nation’ finally captured and held the fort. The fort is surrounded by 3000 hectares of forest containing over 2 million trees, the majority introduced from other parts of the world and, after lunch in the open air, you will enjoy riding along the forest trails down to the beach. The ride passes a shipwreck buried in the sand – one of many along this treacherous coast. Indeed, Polonio, where we ride to later in the week, is named after a Spanish galleon that went down just off the point. Luckily ‘Beagle’ with Charles Darwin aboard did not succumb to this fate and Darwin spent quite some time in Uruguay collecting species and most likely starting to formulate his theories of evolution. Most days there is the wonderful sight of dolphins feeding in the bay. (5-6 hrs riding). We leave the horses and are driven (10 minutes) back to our hotel located next to the beach for barbequed fresh fish, Uruguayan wine and a second pleasant overnight by the ocean, drifting to sleep with the sound of waves. AB, L, D.
Day 5: After an early breakfast, we will be driven a short way towards the famous "Laguna Negra" and later in the day, before enjoying a wonderful barbeque at the lakeside, riders can go into the lake, bareback if they wish. We meet the horses and set off through an area of palm tree forests and to the lakeshore, passing bird-filled wetlands on the way - we will surely see black-necked swans, spoonbills, ibis, herons, egrets, storks and a legion of other birds (migratory birds arrive here from as far as Alaska and the Falkland Islands). (4hr ride). Despite a number of stories, no one knows how the palm trees got here - some 300 years old; they are not native but the band of palms gives the landscape a very unique look. During the trip we will pass roadside stalls selling the palm fruit and the less innocent ‘hooch’ brewed from the palm nuts. The cloudy, sticky liquid is so potent that if you leave the cap off the old bottles it is sold in, the liquor evaporates in a flash! After a typical lunch on the lagoon shores, we ride on into a dense forest of strangler figs, as sinister looking as their name suggests, through a protected area of native vegetation and into the Don Bosco hills from where we will be able to enjoy an incredible view of the unique expanse of palm groves and Laguna Negra (2hrs). We meet the vehicle and head to a wonderful working estancia a little further inland (40 minute drive). Overnight at Estancia El Sauce. AB, L, tea. D.
Day 6: El Sauce is a working estancia run by its owners who are also your very hospitable hosts. You will be enjoying a full day’s riding (6-7hrs), with plenty of chances of fast paced riding for those who wish, around the farm seeing the rice fields and other crops on the property. Once again in very distinct scenery, you cross creeks and flatlands and ride past the various crops and to the herds of cattle. The owner often joins the ride as he checks the land and his animals in the company of the gauchos that work with him. The estancia, built in 1920, is very comfortable – it is not a hotel but the family house in which you have been invited to stay as guests of the owners, offering one an incredible experience and a very special insight into the life in the country. For example, guests can sample the ‘mate’ sipped hot out of a dry gourd. The gauchos and their ‘mate’ are inseparable and a very sociable ceremony has developed around drinking ‘mate’. In addition to the cattle grasslands this estancia has a large area of marshlands which, along with the rice crops, create habitats teeming with bird life (nearly 500 species in this area). This gives us another chance to see the graceful black-necked swan (largest population in the world found here), the rare white goose and many ducks and other birds such as the largest bird in South America - the ‘ostrich-like’ nañdu (Rhea). Otters, coypus and capybaras inhabit the marshlands and streams. At several points on the trip we should see the roseate spoonbill with very bright pink pigment which, although rare in the world, is quite common in Uruguay. Overnight at this authentic working estancia. Swimming pool. AB, L, tea, D.
Day 7: Today your ride takes you along the beach and into the desert! (5hrs riding) Having visited an excellent local store selling wonderful leatherwork (including tack and riding boots), gaucho’s clothing and crafts, you meet your horses and ride to the coast through the grass covered dunes and across rocks close to the roaring sea. You canter along the firmer beaches and ride along in the water to Cabo Polonio, an enchanting fishing village which can only be reached by horse or four wheeled drive vehicles. Guests can walk round to the lighthouse and view the huge colony of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. They make up one of the largest populations of sea lions in the world. While riding along the beautiful sandy beaches occasionally we spot a migrating Franca whale (October-November rides). After a swim in the sea and a delicious lunch at a restaurant in an idyllic location right on the waters edge, you ride on into the dramatic landscape of the sand dunes. After one last canter, we leave the beach, pass between huge sand dunes and ride through an area which has been declared a Biosphere Natural Reserve by UNESCO. The sand dunes and daunting sand walls are quite an unexpected sight. Reaching a picturesque estuary we turn and ride through the pine forest. We say goodbye to these horses and are driven south to a wonderful working estancia ‘ El Charabon’ in the rolling hills, set back a little way from the coast. A very comfortable overnight. AB, L, tea, D.
Day 8: The day starts with a breakfast out on the veranda with homemade bread, jams and cakes, admiring the views out across the hills. Guests can take a close look at the rheas, the estancia has some of these native South American birds as pets. Armadillos often pop up out of holes ruining Jorge’s (the owner) beautifully manicured lawns. The ride today takes us through the scenic estancia lands traversing the eucalyptus forests and grasslands then across the huge fields of the neighbouring estancias, towards the coast. There is the chance of some long canters as we ride across the flatlands. Riders enjoy the glorious blue skies and tranquility as we gallop across the pastures, often sighting the abundant wildlife. A game of armadillo jumping often inadvertently gets underway, as the little armour-plated animals make a dash for their holes as the horses approach. After a picnic lunch, guests can return to the estancia on horseback and relax around the pool or take the minibus to the nearby beach for a late afternoon swim in the sea, sunbathe or stroll along by the ocean returning to the estancia for tea or drinks in a prime location to admire the sunset over the surrounding hills and then gaze in awe at the star-filled southern hemisphere sky. (4-6hrs riding). Another delicious dinner with our delightful hosts. Overnight at the estancia. AB, L, tea, D.
Day 9: A morning spent working alongside the gauchos and their trusty dogs as they tend to the cattle and sheep on this 1200 hectare (2900 acre) ranch (4hrs riding). The work varies depending on the time of the year, but the gauchos always welcome a bit of help checking and moving the stock or putting animals in the corrals. Sometimes a lame animal has to be caught and tended to. The wonderful, friendly gauchos with their berets, ‘bombachas’ (riding trousers) and with their knives tucked into their colourful belts all seem to have been born on a horse and it is a delight to be riding with them. Their dogs are very much work animals and it is an amazing sight to see four dogs working in unison moving a herd of cattle. The dogs unfortunately cannot count and that gets very tricky for us, especially with the sheep, a recount often being required! After a final swim in the estancia pool and a wonderful home-cooked lunch we say goodbye to the horses and head back to Montevideo – to the airport or the city, or to start an extension tour. AB, L.
2008 departure dates
New dates often added please consult with us.
Private tours of any length possible from October to April. Shorter tours available.
The cost of this itinerary is £1,170 per person, provided at least four people join the ride. The cost include riding on eight days, all services mentioned in the itinerary, (all transport including to / from Monevideo, horses, guides and grooms, accommodation and meals (from lunch day 1 to lunch day 9, except dinner on day one). The price does not include flights to Uruguay, airport departure taxes, items of a personal nature, gratuities, and visa fees. A single supplement is available on request if separate accommodation is required.
Neither Wild and Exotic nor the operators or suppliers can accept any responsibility for changes to itineraries or dates that may arise due to weather or unforeseen circumstances such as changes, disruptions or delays to airline flights for whatever reason. This holiday is subject to Wild and Exotic’s terms and conditions, a copy of which is enclosed with your booking form.
