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Traveling Mandy
Guest blog - from Ashton......
Ole' moley, Uruguay is a s***hole. Oh ok it's beautiful, but the journey for an hour on Burquebus (pronounced 'ancient rubber dingy with airplane seats') over what is quite literally poo-brown water as far as the eye can see wasn't a great introduction.
Colonia has one purpose and one purpose only - to entice girls to buy expensive rocks. At least, that's what happened when I followed Kirsty and Amanda from store to store. Where were the hi-fi shops and the strip joints? Amanda wants me to say something nice about the cobbled streets so here it is -- they have these streets, and they're cobbled. Oh ok they're pretty and all.
Ok ok I'll stop being a b****** now. Colonia is this sweet little town with ancient buildings populated by great people and copious museums surrounded by a sea of poo brown water. Initially it seems uninviting and backward but in truth it has a wonderful charm and, bar the language barrier and hyper-inflation, would probably be a nice place to live.
We only had a few hours to spend in Uruguy thanks to the departure systems in Argentina which were probably built by the same engineers that loudly declared themselves through sinage at the airport as 'ARGENTINIAN ENGINEERS'who happened to be building a better customs system. For the last few years, we think. Anywya, at the BURQUEBUS terminal we had to join 65 queues. Some seemed to have a purpose, such as actually buying a ticket, while others seemed to exist soley to give people jobs. It took us an over an hour to get a fricking ticket on a boat ride that takes on hour. We all joked about Artgentinian efficincency, then b****ed about the loud abnoxious American tourists nearby, and a laugh was had by all.
That said, they do have this cool system whereby one bored Argentinina customs officer stamps your postcard followed by one Uruguayan officer stamping it again right next to them, as if you get to leave one country and enter another with one fell step.
Amanda says to include an interesting fact of the day -- alchohol is cheap as chips! You can get a humungous bottle of London Dry gin for about $8AU. Same think back home would be $50. Oh, and the pollution here is insane. Beunos Aires my arse. We all started to get headspins today. Oh and road rules and in particular road markings apparently seem to be random flecks of paint on tarmac, because no one abides by them. Crossing the road when the walking man is green almost always involves dodging cars. And everyone here seems to have a dog, which is nice.
Overall Uruguay was a nice trip, and Beunos Aires is fantastic for food -- had some of the best meals ever at five star restuarants for the equivalent price of a pizza and a beer back home. Very friendly people, wonderful architecture, and nice weather.
Oh and Amanda and I think there are some hot chicks here. Damn, Kirsty just leant over to check what I was writing. Looks like no hanky-panky tonight.
Take care all, lots of love, having a great time and will see you all when I get back,
Ash
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