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Published: January 14th 2008
Oh, Colonia
This car´s been here awhile.After leaving BA, we spent about a week in the tiny, easy-going country of Uruguay on the way up to Iguazu Falls. We spent this week traveling with our friends Mike and Jenny from Santa Barbara who are currently on the South American leg of a year-long trip around the world. They have been great travel partners, laid-back and flexible and always down to get some helado.
A few general observations about Uruguay. It is very similar to Argentina. The people look and dress the same, they are possibly more obsessed with màte, soccer crazed (they´ve won 2 world cups, not bad for a country of less than 4 million), similar European architecture, and gaucho culture, etc. A couple of notable differences though: Uruguayans seem way more laid back than Argentines, the beaches (primarily on the coast between Montevideo and Punta del Este) are way nicer, and...
Uruguay has the Chivito, everywhere. I could dedicate a whole blog to the Chivito. This is probably the most amazing sandwhich I´ve ever seen or heard of. Wrap your mind around this: in between two huge pieces of bread you have steak, ham, bacon (apparently ham was not enough pork for one
sandwhich), cheese, a fried egg, french fries--and they even throw a little lettuce in there (Uruguayans love their veggies!).
Anyway, we started off our trip by hopping on a fast ferry and taking a quick 2 hour ride to...
Colonia Very tranquil little town across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Has a very well preserved colonial area of town with a light tower from which we watched the sun set. Decent beaches, and warm water that is very shallow--you could walk a half mile off shore and the water wouldn´t even reach your waist.
Punta Del Este South America´s premier beach destination--just not when we were there. High season in Punta supposedly lasts about 2 weeks (apparently late Dec/Jan and it´s supposed to be crazy)...yeah, we must have been a week or two early, because the place was more or less deserted, very tranquilo. Punta del Este is brand new: brand new buildings, restaurants, and luxury shops (looks like South Beach). The city is a long strip of high rises that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Rio de la Plata, which is cool, because you can go from one body of water to
Colonial cannon
John likes to party. another in about 5 minutes.
A funny story: while we were taking a look at the famous "giant hand coming out of the sand" landmark, we were interviewed by 2 different Chilean news stations. Both news stations wanted us to tell them how fun and crazy Punta del Este was, even though we were the only people on the beach that day. We are probably celebrities in Chile right now and don´t even know it.
A highlight of this trip was seeing Casapueblo, the amazing house/luxury hotel designed by artist Carlos Paez Vilaro. The whole place (built entirely without right angles) kind of looked like one of his paintings (minus all the oddly shapen breasts). The hotel was out of the main town, actually in a much prettier area than Punta (long stretches of beach with no ugly high rises). We took a loooooong walk there and an even longer (7 miles?) walk back.
Another highlight of Punta was surprisingly our first day there, when it rained all day. While we didn´t get any beach time in, the four of us had a blast playing endless rounds of Eukre and Shithead at our hostel. Great card games.
Were we glad we saw Punta, the world famous beach resort? Sure. Would we go there again? Probably not. It just lacked character. It was nice to lay on the beach and all, but surely there are nicer places in the world to do so. Including...
Montevideo Uruguay´s capital city. I would call it a poor man´s Buenos Aires, with one huge exception...it has amazing beaches. Even though Montevideo and Buenos Aires are right across from each other on the Rio, Montevideo has a substantially nicer coastline. Though we had anticipated a day of looking at old buildings, statues and mausolems, the day turned around when we rented bikes and cruised down a picturesque boardwalk to the beach. It was a beautiful weekday afternoon and the beach was packed full of people playing soccer, volleyball and listening to music (Jack Johnson, made us feel at home). Mike and I decided that the people, the clothes and the waterfront condos reminded us a lot of Orange County, which simultaneously made us feel at home and disappointed that soon, no matter where you go, if there is money, it will all look the same.
Salto Not much to say
The hand
Wow, that´s a big hand. about Uruguay´s "second city," six hours north of Montevideo except that we enjoyed a relaxing day in the thermal hot springs, probably the only reason they receive any tourism.
And now, after a relaxing week in Uruguay, we´re off to Iguazu, where we hear they have a waterfall or two.
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Ashley Lynn
non-member comment
Miss you!!!!
I am so happy you two decided to follow Jenny and Mike's lead and start a blog of your own! I read everything and I can safely say that i am so jealous of your adventures!! I love you both so much and i am glad you seem to be having the time of your lives! Things are great in NYC. can't wait for you to come visit me when you get tired of traveling the world! xoxo