Uruguay: Montevideo and Colonia

Upon getting back to Buenos Aires, I had much more success, as this time, I didn't have a single thing thrown on me! After heading back to the hostel, I spent most of the day ticking off a list of odd jobs to do before my much anticipated visit to La Cabrera. La Cabrera is a highly recommended steakhouse, both from Lonely Planet and from fellow travellers. One even said it was better than Don Mario's, and that's high praise! Unfortunately, I was one of the unlucky ones and wasn't at all impressed by my steak there. They did have Wagyu steak on the menu so I may return there to see if that is any better.

Over the next couple of days, I checked out some of the last things I wanted to see in Buenos Aires, then spent the Saturday morning looking for a pub open to show the All Blacks game. Despite a number of Irish pubs being around, none of them were open - how very unIrish of them. In the end, I headed to the internet cafe and managed to watch most of the second half online. Shame about the result though.

After my time here, it was time for another new country - Uruguay. It was easy enough to get there, just a ferry across, so I headed over to Montevideo, staying in an area called Pocitos on the outskirts of Montevideo. It was a beautiful area and a fantastic town and I actually preferred it to Buenos Aires! That afternoon, I checked out the waterfront area and walked along the beach before heading back to hostel to hide from the cold.

The next day, I headed into town and checked out the centre before heading to Mercado del Puente, which is basically an area just for restaurants on the waterfront, famous for huge steaks. It was here that I had a steak to rival the one I had in Mendoza! A great way to finish as it will probably be my last steak in South America! For the afternoon, I headed out to Estadio Centenario, which was a stadium built for the first ever Football World Cup back in 1930, which was won by the hosts, Uruguay. They had a cool little museum of football stuff there which I perused for a couple of hours.

The following day I headed along the coast to Colonia, which is one of the more beautiful towns in South America. At lunch, I got talking to a girl from Brooklyn, and worked out it was my longest English conversation since Santiago! She had a ferry to catch in the evening so we checked out the sights before she went off and I headed up to the lighthouse for sunset. Amazing views and I could see all the way to Buenos Aires!

The next day I had my ferry back, so after passing the time with a couple of movies in the hostel, I headed back to Buenos Aires where I had one night before I flew out. Originally my plans were to head back to London straight away, but after the very little convincing, I am extending the trip by a week and heading to Guatemala for a week with Lee, before heading back to London. So another exciting new country, and a chance for some good temperatures before London!

---

---