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Gem and Lob's Big Adventure
Uruguay
Colonia:
It was an exciting trip across the Rio De La Plata on BuqueBus (a catamaran thingy). The main reason of our trip was to renew our visas and just the coolness of going to Uruguay.
It was only 1 hour on the fast boat and we reached the lovely, quaint town of Colonia. Colonia is a World Heritage site beacuse it is one of if not the oldest modern settlements in South America. It is about the size of a postage stamp and is a really charming place. The only things really to do there is either to visit the beach (not too attractive an option in Winter) and the main attraction of the small museums which are based in original settlement buildings. Unfortunately most of the museums were shut - although we weren't too bothered about missing the tile museum particularly!
In this sleepy town, we decided to go for lunch - Lisa was rather alarmed when looking up from her menu to order from the waiter who had a rather large puppet image of himself on his shoulder which was asking for our order! He is the barmiest waiter either of us had encountered, each time he came out he was adorned with a different outrageous hat or mask. Unfortunately no pics, but Mr. Pin we salute you (that's his nickname due to the many badges he also had). Oh and it was by far the best pasta either of us has ever eaten, home made spaghetti with two beautiful sauces. Yummy! The food just gets better and better.
You can see from the pictures just how pretty the town was! We both loved it and hope you get a sense of it from the pics.
Sooo....
Montevideo
The capital of Uruguay was only given a day by us and one night, and that turned out to be quite adequate really!
A short 3 hour bus ride took us in to the heart of Uruguay (A two time World Cup winning country btw - everyone really is better than England). We took a stroll around the city and decided on a bar to eat in and have a drink or two. It was quite a surprise when, in this totally different country, the owner of the hostel we were staying in in BA sat down on the table next to us! Gem was so surprised she smashed her glass - a very smooth move indeed.
The next day we marched around the city taking in the main sites. Underneath the monument to a uruguayian hero called Artigas is a mausoleum. We both approached this place nonchalantly and were quite shocked by the really dark imposing vast space which is designed solely for this man and is guarded by two dangerous (and quite silly looking) armed guards! It was like something out of a James Bond movie. Safe to say there are no pics and we got out of there asap, very creepy.
Montevideo is a cool place and it was very pretty, however there is little there to actually participate in so after looking at the old buildings we went shopping! This led to the purchase of a mobile phone, the instructions and pin to which Lisa unfortunately left in Uruguay. Very helpful indeed! Fortunately all resolved now, after much much faffing, phone calls and good international relations.
So we headed back again on the BuqueBus to our beloved BA.
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