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Welcome to Uruguay (or as homer simpson calles it, You Are Gay).... small country jammed between the rivals of Brazil and Argentina with a currency that you generally won`t find anywhere else! This is why I found myself sat at Uruguayan customs at 5.30am on a Monday morning with no money and no chance of finding a bank that opens before 10.00am. Fortunately I wasn`t alone. There was another poor person in the same predicament and this was Chris from Canada so at least there was someone to talk to! Turns out he had sold his chartered sailing business up in Canada and decided to travel South America for 6 months before going into business with his father who imports machinery from Taiwan. Never a dull moment!
We were heading to Punta Del Diablo, a tiny fishig village just past the Brazilian border having come on a 14 hour bus journey from Florianoplis in Brazil. Turns out they fail to tell you the bus, although is supposedly direct actualy isn`t and abandons passengers 25 km from the village (with no money). So, we waited for a couple of hours watching people just cruise through customs showing no documents and waving at the guards and then headed into town to change some money or find an ATM. 8 hours later, we arrived at the hostel!
Punta del Diablo was worth the wait though and I managed to find a hostel that offered a great social atmoshphere yet that was very chilled out at the same time. This was going to be a holiday from the holiday! No alcohol (or little alcohol!!) early nights, sunbathing and healthy eating to counter-act the last three months. It really didn`t disappoint and although coming out of season, the days were hot at about 28 degrees, sunny with chilly nights which was a perfect contrast to the insufferable heat of Brazil. And here I stayed for 9 days! I read 5 books in a week, went to bed before midnight every night and get very tanned. It was all going so well....
And then the girls arrived! Five girls (4 Aussies and another English) who I had been hanging out with in Florianopolis. I knew they were heading this way so made the arrangements to hire a beach cabana to save money. I found this little house 50m from the beach with sea views that looked like something from a childrens story book. We had an outside BBQ, a lounge with cable TV, dining room and outdoor patio. And all for four pounds each a night! It was perfect for partying which is exactly what happened the first night we were there.
I think after the not so minor trauma over a stray, very sickly looking dog who entered the house looking for a warm place to curl up and die we all needed some wine. The dog had an eye missing, the other one was oozing puss and it was so skinny you could see it`s skeleton. I heard the girly screems first and then, just getting out of the shower (locatd downstairs next to the kitchen) I got a whiff of dog like you could never imagine. Walking out in my towell I was confroted by this poor animal whose eyes bore into mine and begged for help, it was awful. The sad thing is we had to shoo him away, he would have been carrying diseases and fleas most likely and finally he left only to curl up under the BBQ outside whilst our chicken was cooking on the top. There was no option but for me to go and tell the landlord to come and help us out!! Damzels in distress the landlord came down with his friend but the dog had gone by then. However, as he was there, the landlord then rigged us up outside lighting, found candles and generally helped make our new house a home.
News in the hostel had got out that we were all in this cabana so slowly through the evening people started turning up and the party went from there. Over the next few days, people kept turning up around dinner time with their food wanting to cook on our BBQ and eat dinner with us. We had started in our cabana with 6 and by the time we left there were 8 full residents as two American guys we had met at the hostel briefly invited themselves to stay on the dining room floor rather than sleep on the beach which is what they had been doing! At one point, coming out the shower again in a towel, I was confronted by 7 people I didn`t know in our kitchen preparing their food.....one had the cheek to ask if we had oil they can use to which the response was simply, "sorry, do I know you?" it was quite funny I suppose. I think after we left Punta Del Diablo returned to the quiet and lovely place it was before. If ever anyone gets the chance to go, it really is idyllic. There`s no electricity on the streets so the stars are the best I`ve seen possibly since Tikal in the jungle of Guatamala. You can see the whole of the milky way including the southern cross without even trying. The one thing you probably don`t want to do there however is drive too much for the roads are ad hoc at best. Walking along at night generally arms outstretched feeling the way, the path lit only by the stars ahead, suddenly you find yourself facing a ledge that is waist high however is still part of the same road you were walking on 5 minutes ago! They get torrential rains that just wash the roads away, pretty crazy.
Here the days really only consisted of beach, swimming in the ocean and playing in the huge waves, beach yoga (Juno and I, the others watched!), more beach, reading more books.
So that`s Punta del Diablo. From here the 6 of us headed to Montevideo which I don`t really have much to say about apart from the drunken oldies dancing tango in the street and Bek being the victim of a hit and run bum pincher. It really is just another city and as the old man in the hotel we stayed in said to me when I asked him about the nightlife "La fiesta comienza Viernes y Sabado, hoy es Miercoles Senorita" (the party is on Fridays and Saturdays young lady, today is Wednesday!)". And he was right!
From here we headed to Colonia prior to catching the ferry to Buenos Aires. Spent a night in an overpriced hostel, bought mother of pearl necklaces with our names written on as a momentum from some strange arty guy in the street, had a pretty bad iced coffee that was pretty much nescafe and iced water, had a wonder round the old town which is small but actually very pretty and then homed up in the hostel and watched the film Australia!
I was in this country in total 14 days exactly and after the relaxation was definitely ready to hit the city of Buenos Aires for Friday night.... Ciao Uruguay
Sorry, no pictures as I then had my camera stollen in B.A with all my pics. Gutted! Also, following a visit from my fab Dad who told me that he wasn`t aware my blog even had pictures attached I feel this could be a good time to clarify that for every blog (aside this one) there is a set of photos and the best way to view them is through the slideshow that is actually a very good tool. There is also a message board where you can write comments (non-compulsory!) and follow my route with the travel plan. Any questions, just ask!
Georgie
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