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Published: March 12th 2014
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2 hours west of Punta del Este sits Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Much smaller than most other SA capitals, you could be in any city in Spain but for the multicoloured housing all over the place. I know I aleady mentioned it but it really does feel Spanish being here. Culturally it feels similar, and visually too. We haven't eaten out here as we have majorly tightened our reign but again the food seems delicious! They are very big on burgers and hot dogs and streets have plenty of vendors. We bought one and oh my god was it good, cheap too. I was quite worried after PdelEste about the prices here but they are significantly lower but still much higher than Brazil.
Uruguay feels much more forward thinking than Brazil, you are able to flush paper down the toilet(!), can pay things by card, wee things like that. Still we are withdrawing all the USD that we can so we can swap them for ARG pesos once we cross the border. The poverty here is more like back home, dodgy characters, homeless aplenty, some junkies,but you dont see children sleeping on the ground or men with one leg
pushing carts about like you did in Brazil. With the wealth comes the higher prices though, we havent spent a penny bar food and bike hire and the prices are probably similar to southern spain. Fortunately I have been told Arg is cheaper which is a relief. Chile not, however!
As the city is quite small it has been manageable to see at a laid back pace. They have lots of nice wee plazas and impressive buildings (always look up!). They have an old quarter which is picturesque with hippy markets and food. Mate (said matty) is huge here, it is a kind of herbal tea which folk drink out of a wooden mug with a metal straw, folk are so mad for it they carry thermal flassks around all day just to give them a top up!
After the old town finished we kept walking towards the port, and the area just got dodgier and dodgier. Suppose I should have known that but there certainly wasnt much to see except some ships and cruisers in the background. The nearest beach here is about a 20 minute walk and we spent as much time as we could endure
as the temperatures were roasting! Since leaving the coast the temperatures have varied, 22 on our first day, 29, and then 25.Very pleasant though. The beach certainly isnt picture postcard, its actually the Rio de Plata river rather than the ocean, so it may be manmade. Regardless it was quite stinky and dirty but the sand was fine.
On our third day we decided to hire some bikes. Perhaps traveling leads to being bold as it has been a while since I was on a bike and probably the first time i've been on a bike in a city. At the time of writing I am already aching from the ride and fear the worst for tomorrow! I suppose the bikes were cheap because the handlebars were made from such rough material my hands were red raw, the saddle was hard and painful and there wasnt much in the way of suspension so bumps were hard! There were also no gears. Due to my inability to make it up kerbs, when we werent on cycle paths we were on the road (I hope my mum doesnt have a heart attack reading this!) which was actually ok, the roads were
quiet as it was a sunday.
What was more difficult was definately the hills! It was so hard i thought i was going to have eto get off my bike and push! I managed it though and had a good wee day. We cycled down the Rambla along the coast, went to the further out beach which was nicer, then up alng to a football stadium and back into town. Gary estimated we done 20k! Quite an acheivement for me.
The hostel we are in is great. ITs called the Willy Fogg!I coudnt stop laughing when I heard the name, apparently it is the spanish adaptation of Around the world in 80 days. who knew?! It is big, clean, lots of chill out areas, probably one of the bes we have had. Our nighs have been enjoyable as we have met a couple (Birmingham/Belfast combo) who are a good laugh. They are probably the first folk from back home we have spent any real time with and it has been refreshing to have jokes and chat with them with the same kind of humour that we are used to! They are going to BA wen we are there
so hopefully see them again. We have met a few folk who have been to Oz and the likes who have been really helpful and we have been learning as we go. Its not what you know....
Random fact - did you know Montevideo is the most southern capital city in SA? Might come up on the chase one day... how I miss it!
ps - pics of old pretty town are of colonia where we took the ferry!
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