Uruguay

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March 9th 2009

Published: March 17th 2009

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Victor78

Sea Lion, Punta del Este

Sea Lion, Punta del Este A few minutes of the life of a sea lion - sleep, yawn, scratch, sleep some more, yawn some more, scratch some more...

After being away 'travelling' for a little over 5 months but not actually feeling like I had done any travelling I set off on 3rd of March for the start of a new adventure - South America!

I took a flight from Guatemala City to Montevideo, Uruguay which was relatively painless but the two legs of 4 hours (via Lima) meant that I didn't get any sleep on the plane. I arrived in Montevideo at 5am on Wednesday morning and shock horror it was raining cats and dogs! The first rain I had seen in 4 months and in the very place I wanted to chill out on the beach for a few days!

From the airport I took a bus to Punta del Este, 2 hours up the coast, and a place which is (not so jokingly) called a suburb of Buenos Aires ( 3 hours away by bus and boat) because of the hoards of Argentinians who holiday there. I arrived at the hostel - "La Lomita del Chingolo" situated away from the centre of town in a nice residential neighbourhood. I spoke to a few people who had been staying at the hostel but it soon

Sea Lion, Punta del Este

A few minutes of the life of a sea lion - sleep, yawn, scratch, sleep some more, yawn some more, scratch some more...

emerged that everybody there was checking out and for the next two nights I was the only guest! It was a great transition from living with my friends in Guatemala to a hostel because it was essentially the owner's (Rodrigo) house so all of the creature comforts were available to use - a nice kitchen, a lounge with cable TV and a nice terrace to sit on.

By Friday the weather had improved enough to sit on the beach and I walked to the nearest beach and sat there chilling out for a few hours. On Friday evening some other guests arrived, American students studying in Buenos Aires, and Rodrigo got the barbeque going and we had a great feast of steak before heading out into town for some drinking.

On Sunday I took the bus to Montevideo and arrived in what seemed to be a ghost town, it was absolutely dead with nobody around! I checked into the hostel and had a wander around the city of centre, which was pleasant but didn't really excite me so I left on Monday afternoon. I headed to Colonia del Sacramento, a quaint little town two hours west of