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Uruguay-bound means Argentina-legal for 90 more days, according to our passports. We finally understand the simplicity of living as a "tourist" in Argentina for multiple years at a time. All you need to do is buy a US$20 ferry ride to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, a small cobblestone-road city an hours ride across the river. Since there isn't too much to do there, you can turn around a few hours later and immediately get stamped for a 90-day tourist visa. We were asked zero questions when we returned to Argentina; it was only our second stamp, but I've heard of people doing this for 9 years. Pretty easy.
One thing we noticed right away in Uruguay is that the people are very white. Some of the Uruguayans could easily pass for American, so we felt like we blended in a bit more. Another thing we had to get used to was the money and paying UR$1000 for a nice dinner. Besides practicing Spanish all week, we practiced mathematics. Everything we paid for we divided by 4 to get to Argentine pesos. Then we divided by 4 again to get to the equivalent of American dollars.
And about that nice dinner we had in Uruguay... Sarge ordered the meat plate. We only recognized two of the meats, asado (steak) and chorizo (sausage), but decided to wing it. After a few tastes and examinations, we asked the waiter what we were eating. Kidney and intestines. So that was why there was a literal tube in the two chewiest pieces of meat... First time I've ever seen Sarge not finish a meal.
When we first got to Uruguay, we asked the tourist kiosk about camping and she recommended Camping Nogales. A taxi dropped us off, so even though it wasn't the camping we imagined, we were stuck. The woman pointed to her backyard and mentioned the perimeter in which we could choose a spot. It was hilarious. The candy being sold inside the "office" had to have been from 1980, the boys "bathroom" was a hole with no door, toilet paper didn't exist, and there were some little kids running around that we assume lived there. Since there was one other tent where two french people were sleeping, we decided we were safe. We set up camp and spent a long, cold night under the Uruguayan sky using a sock as an eye mask.
We took a bus the next day to Salto, a city with the best fishing in Uruguay. We stayed at a great hostel with an even greater desk clerk, Raul, who was so helpful in telling us things to do. He suggested going to Dayman (10 km away) which was famous for it's thermals. We didn't try out the thermals (and actually thought people who did were crazy because it was a blazer outside), but took Raul's advice about crossing a bridge, paying entrance to a campground, trekking around the lagoon, and finding the river. We set up hammock, made cheese sandwiches and Tang, and spent the day fishing in the Rio Dayman and lounging.
That night was Uruguay's 200 years of independence celebration. When the clock struck midnight, all the Uruguayans sang their national anthem- some celebrations were broadcasted on television. We went to the plaza to watch, but location had been switched because that's when the rain started...
...and wouldn't be stopping for a week... the reason why we cut our trip short. Cutting our trip short meant 30 hours of straight travel. Sin dormir. But because of the travel, we met some great people. We took a bus back to Colonia and got there at 1 AM to find that they close the bus station for a few hours. Our ferry was at 10:30, so it was pointless to get a hostel for the night, but we decided to see if a hostel would let us hang out in their TV room while we waited for the station to open. We ended up sitting outside eating cookies and drinking wine until 5 AM with Sebastian, Cristina, and Juan Anton. Cristina had been taking a few months off of work to travel, so she had some great advice on where to go/what to do. Juan Anton was the 70-year-old brother of the hostel owner who Sebastian referred to as the "cazador" (the hunter) of ladies. His nights consisted of hanging out at the hostel and flirting with girls. Nonetheless, he won my heart over.
And finally, we made it back to BA and slept for 20 hours.
The trip was one of transportation:
- Ferry (we took Buquebus)- so comfortable; the giant boat had a restaurant and duty-free shopping center. Plus, we got window seats.
- Bus- 16 hours on the bus could have been better if we had more things to do. Too much Hangman can be a bad thing.
- Taxi- our favorite way to practicar espanol, especially in BA. They love us. We always get a few business cards and in Colonia, a business card was a miracle. We were camping about 10 minutes outside the city where taxis didn't run. The owner of the campground (aka owner of the property since the campground was her backyard) didn't own a phone to call one, so she sent us to sit at a bus stop at the corner in the middle of no where. After waiting 45 minutes with only the occasional scooter zooming by (sometimes with 2 kids squeezed between 2 large women), I took out my phone. In the middle of nowhere... in that nothing part of Uruguay...the Iphone picked up Wi-fi well enough to get on skype and call our taxi driver from the night before. And we can't even get Wifi in our Buenos Aires apartment.
- GO-CART- mhmm.
- Subte
Weather changed our plans and we didn't get to see the Atlantic coast of Uruguay, so we'll be making a "Turuguay" pt. 2 to Montevideo, Punta del Este, etc. And maybe with Mandrew and Pella, eh?
What we learned: Bus travel definitely has it's ups and downs. The up being that you get to see a lot of land; and Uruguay is a very flat country. It's also cheap and comfortable travel if you only have a backpack. But the downs (stop/go, stop/go) (strange smells coming from the bathroom) (time spent waiting in the bus terminal) (a paid destination that you can't change) made us have an epiphany- car rental is the way to go.
And next stop (in a car): Iguazu falls on the 3rd.
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