Not to be confused with Rio Branco (without the accent), an unrelated city in Brazil.

Río Branco is in the Central Interior of Uruguay, located on the border with Brazil right across from the city of Jaguarão.

Understand

Appropriately for a border town, the city's name is a mix of languages: río with an accent is the Spanish word for "river" (in contrast to Portuguese rio), whereas branco is the Portuguese word for white (in contrast to Spanish blanco).

Get in

Río Branco is located at the end of Route 26. Buses arrive from cities such as Montevideo, Minas, and Treinta y Tres.

To get in from Jaguarão, across the border in Brazil, just cross the 1 Mauá Bridge over the Yaguarón River, which does not have border controls. You're free to cross back and forth between the two cities, but if you're coming from Uruguay and want to continue farther into Brazil, or if you're coming from Brazil and want to continue farther into Uruguay, you're required to go through passport controls in both cities, which to make things more confusing and difficult are located some distance away from the border on each side. 2 Uruguayan immigration is on the outskirts of Río Branco at the end of Bulevar Aparicio Saravia, and 3 Brazilian immigration is located several blocks into Jaguarão at Rua Júlio de Castilhos 1572.

Go next

• Jaguarão, right across the border in Brazil