The violent past lives strong in the memory of the South American people.
We eaded north to the small town of Salto, 496 kilometres northwest of Montevideo.
This small country on the Rio de la Plata, pincered between Argentina and Brazil, proudly boasts that it's made up of 3 million people and 9 million cattle.
We barely scratched the surface of this beautiful and complex country during our 16 day visit. Here's what we got up to.
Rio de Janeiro is blessed with over 80 kilometres of sandy coastline and 15 in-bay and oceanic beaches. Two of them are so world famous that they've been immortalized in the public consciousness in music and films.