The long weekend —after a Thursday holiday for the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and a sandwich Friday— served as an excuse for more than 25,000 Uruguayans left the country. They mostly did it with destination to Argentinataking advantage of the exchange rate and geographical proximity.
The border crossings had, between Thursday and Friday, delays of up to ten hours due to the number of vehicles that wanted to take advantage of the offers and the cheap dollar on the other side of the river.
This Sunday began the return operation. According to official figures from the National Directorate of Migration, until 6:00 p.m. there were no queues of vehicles except for the passage of Paysanduin which the delay was about two hours, and Jump in which the delay was five hours due to the controls of the Uruguayan customs (not so due to migration). Earlier there was a line of about 20 cars on the Fray Bentos bridge.
Specifically, through the nine migratory posts in Fray Bentos, 4,694 passengers had entered Uruguay in the first 18 hours of Sunday. In that same time, 3,600 did so through Paysandú, 2,627 through Salto, 208 through Río Branco, 355 through Chuy, 171 through Rivera, 4,478 through the port of Colonia, 1,643 through the port of Montevideo, and 1,229 through the Carrasco airport.
The largest flows, however, are expected for this Sunday night and the early hours of Monday.
“Tourism to Argentina is full, taking advantage of the exchange rate. Many even go on the road in their own vehicles to take advantage of an exchange difference that today favors us”, he had explained to The Observer the Undersecretary of Tourism, Remo Monzeglio.
But the number of vehicles that passed to Argentina these days “surprised” the Highway Police. Its spokeswoman, Vanesa Briozzo, acknowledged that “the long lines to cross into Argentina have been striking, mainly from the San Martín International Bridge, in Fray Bentos.”
On the other hand, some people reported this Sunday on social networks delays to board to Montevideo at the Buquebus terminal in Buenos Aires.
Buquebus does it again. It’s already been an hour and a half waiting to board and people, tired of protesting, sing the hit “Eduardo, come look for Juan Cruz.” pic.twitter.com/EWhiSOUn2p
— Dario Klein (@KleinDario) August 28, 2022
