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Day 6: Colonia, Uruguay. Nick and melissa brought me breakfast in bed, which was nice. Nick went for a run on the beach in the morning. Then, we all headed off to the coast. Fresh churros for lunch, Greg´s choice. Nick made a friend in Diego, the stray dog we found. Diego was a fan of cliff bars, especially the sandy variety. We had dinner at a local restaurant, then went to a casino for awhile. Both Nick and Greg walked in with 4 dollars to spend, walked out with a combined 12 dollars. We used the winnings for bday gelato.
Day 7: Headed from Colonia to Montevideo. Montevideo blows. After three hours, we moved on to Piriapolis, a small beach town. It was dark when we got there. We tried to stay in the second biggest hostel in South America (citation needed)...but it was closed. A local directed to the beach, AKA wealthy district, where we found a small hotel. It was a little overbudget but it had personal TV´s, so I was sold. jk. We walked along the beach and found dinner, then called it a night.
Day 8: Woke up late in Pineapple. We walked along the beach (finally got to see it in the daylight) and found what is supposed to be the second highest point in South America. There´s no way that´s true, but it still looked sweet because there was a chairlift that went up to the top. The beach was beatifullll but not super warm. We spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to plan the rest of our trip, which is taking a drastic turn. We´re considering going to the northern part of Argentina or Santiago, Chile after we hit Iguazu. Then we ran out of things to do and tried to get a bus to Punta del Diablo. After a very long and complicated Spanish conversation with a bus guy, we finally made it on a bus. We skipped over a touristy town called Punta del Este. We arrived in Punta del Diablo late at night again (dumb, we´ll never do this again) but as we got off the bus there was a guy picking up other backpackers who happened to own a hostel. He drove us to his hostel (i was a little nervous) but he turned out to be from Madison and he owns a suuuper nice hostel. All of the staff here are surfer-hippie chill. There are about 15 or 20 other backpackers here like us and we´ve gotten to know a lot of them. There were actually 3 Minnesotans! And lots of Canadians, Brits, French kids, a German and an Aussie.
Day 9: Got to explore Punta del Diablo. Its a very small beachside vacation town that has absolutely nothing going on during the Uruguain winter season as all the locals close up shop and move elsewhere. We woke up and had breakfast of tea and caramel bread (they put caramel on everything down here, its glorious). Afterwards we grabbed a couple of surfboards and hit the beach. My favorite quote from the trip thus far.. Greg to Aussie Surfer: Hey wheres a good place to surf around here? Aussie Surfer: Oy! Wherever theres waves mate! Thank god we had him to clear that up. Anyways once we got in the water it all clicked. There were about five of our fellow hostellers out surfing as well and we had a blast. Melissa got it up the first time out. Prodigy. Eventually Greg got cold and went to keep Melissa company on the beach with the stray dogs that follow her. Other memorable quote.. Seven Year Old Uruguain to Melissa: So are you the dog lady? I stayed in the water for a while longer. I´ve really taken to surfing. Mom if you read this call Vanderbilt and tell them I won´t be back in the fall. The oceans calling to me and I´ve decided to ride the waves of life in search of the endless summer toward that forever sunset. Not really. Afterwards we climbed some big rocks that jutted out into the ocean. For dinner we decided to save a few bucks and cook for ourselves. We spent about 15 bucks (American) to get ziti noodles, tomatoes, sausage, onion, garlic, and strawberry wafers for dessert. Everything came together beautifully considering there is a single working burner and an oven that gets up to about 250º (American).
Day 10: Woke up this morning and started the day with yet another caramel breakfast and then started on the days activities. Actually while we were out on the patio eating we saw a whale in the distance.. Going extinct my ass. Greg and Melissa decided to spend the day exploring a national park and I decided to surf again. The sea was angry this morning mates. But, I managed to stand up and ride a couple good waves. Hopefully I will make it back out tomorrow. Greg and Melissa walked for miles (says Melissa) along the beach until they reached Santa Theresa National Park. Today they hit 26000 steps (says Melissa´s pedometer). They walked through eucalyptus forests, saw some cacti and neon green birds they wandered around the entire time in search of a fort. They kept mistakenly thinking that they were little public bathrooms but when they found it it was "huge, and old, and cool." We met up back at the hostel later in the day and made Melissa´s mom´s mac and cheese for dinner which was absolutely wonderful. Mrs. Cedarholm you are a gifted cook. Tomorrow looks to be a beautiful day. Hang Loose.
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Chad Harris
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Great Blog
Hi Melissa (and companions). Your mom forwarded the link to this blog. Sure sounds like an epic trip. Have fun and stay safe!