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Published: January 20th 2007
Matte and Beach, Montevideo
SOOOOO uruguay -argentina
got their thermos and their matte cup. ready for a day at the beachGreetings from Uruguay!
Tour is over and i am once again wondering the globe solo. Once we left Ushuaia, we only stopped once on the way back up to Buenos Aires. Our driver was in a rush to get home early to a friends wedding, so unfortunately for us, that meant waking us up at 5 am for 15 hour drive days and camping by the side of the road. But by the middle of the first drive day, it warmed up enough in the truck to layer down to short sleeves. And by the second day, we were able to walk around outside in short sleeves. It was a bloody miracle. (And now i am SO curious to know why the Pacific side was so cold but as soon as we started up the Atlantic, it was warm). I swear, everyone turned manic and we all realized how much energy -mental AND physical- it takes to keep from freezing to death! We stopped at a lovely town called Puerto Madryn, complete with warm beaches. It was heaven! We toured the Valdez Penninsula and saw a sea lion colony with lots of babies and onto a penguin colony on a gorgeous
stretch of beach. We were scheduled to leave the next day, but in a lucky twist of fate, our truck started leaking radiator fluid on a Sunday night. Seeing as they roll up the streets on Sundays in SA, we were "stranded" (yipee) at the beach an extra day.
After a day's delay, onward we went, arriving in Buenos Aires on Jan 10th. This is a city that travelers all rave about. I had heard so many great things about it that i thought i would want to stay forever. But although i did enjoy it, it definitely did not steal my heart. Two of it's claims to fame are it's all night club scene and the steak, 2 things completely lost on me, being a vegetarian not much into clubbing. The city is massive. There is a street which claims to be the widest in the world. It has, no joke, i think 18 lanes across, which is so novel at first, but a real drag to have to cross after the 2nd time! It's not a very walkable city, being so huge. I blew out a pair of flip flops in one day of walking. That being
said, i think i took full advantage of all it has to offer.
The first night our group took in a tango show, which was cool. The second day a few of us took a mediocre city tour, where i went off on this obnoxious Chilean lady (in Spanish no less) with 2 kids who got on late and subsequently stole 3 of our window seats and refused to move or share them. Sigh. We had a final group dinner, and then the group started disappating one by one. The next day a girl from my tour and i went to visit the La Boca region, a hippie artsy area with happy colored buildings- so Tana!!! Then i walked the famous Florida avenue, a massive pedestrian walk street with loads of shopping. And onto the mission of finding the Cannon repair shop to look at my dead camera. I did find it, but sadly, they looked up the error message and told me that it was a problem with the lens (very expensive), that it would take 2 weeks to fix and that they may need to send it to the States.. Um... pass. 😞( By the end of
the day i had done so much walking and was so exhausted that i was having trouble reading my map and kept walking in the wrong direction! The next day, 4 of us went to the Tigre markets. Not too impresive, but there was a nice river area though. Onto the Recoletta area, home to the cemetary where Eva Peron is buried. I wasn't too excited about this- i mean boxes (coffins) creep me the hell out. (Note to family members, dont EVER put me in one- just fry me up and scatter me in a nice warm park please). But i digress. Anyway, i was surprised to find it was so cool. The moseliums were HUGE. It was less like a cemetary and more like a little city, complete with mini buildings and street signs. Really neat, despite the sight of all the coffins-yelch. The area around the cemetary was equally cool, with lots of craft vendors and a great park. A few of us met and ate dinner with the new Kumuka tour group, who was starting in BA and heading to Rio. Great fun.
Jan 15th, i took the ferry across to Colonia, Uruguay. What an
ordeal. 2 hours of lines to buy a ticket, pay, change money and go through immigration. But i landed in country number 7, in a cute little cobbled stoned town. Took me 2 hours to realize that was about all the time you needed there. Next day i headed to Montevideo, a city that DID steal my heart. It is like a mini Buenos Aires-all the charm with half the hassle and surrounded in coastline and beaches. Not as many colonial buildings tho, and like Buenos Aires, EVERYONE smokes. Everyone also drinks matte. It is so funny to see people carrying their thermos and matte cup down the street or sitting on the beach sipping their brew! (I tried some- yuck. Extremely bitter) The weather is GORGEOUS here. And i decided that no more trekking and running around in physical exertion or bad weather. The rest of this vacation will be all about lazing around on beaches!!!!! I tried to hook up a Brazilian Visa, but had a hell of a time, as they require a ticket in and out of the country, which i dont have yet. So i will try to hook that up in Iguazzu falls. I
spent today bumming on the gorgeous beach, thinking, now if someone would bring me an umbrella drink and the man of my dreams, life would be PERFECT! I could SO stay here for a very long time!!! Traveling through Argentina and Urugay is SOO easy compared to Peru, Boliva and parts of Ecuador. I realized how rough that was in comparison. It is so nice to be in a civilized world again and see some diversity in the population. (That being said, even the Uruguayan post office has not caught onto the fact that it might be a good idea to sell envelopes, boxes and tape- dear god!) I will be here one more day and then move up the western side of Uruguay to Salto, cross back into Argentina a final time to visit Iguazzu falls, and then onto Brazil (Visa willng).
In final news, i FINALLY had the epiphany i was looking for and decided what i want to be when i grow up. (career-wise). I will let you guess and give special recognition to the person who guesses correctly. Please, everyone leave your votes in my comment section! I will give you a hint- to those
of you who have been paying attention, you will say, "well duh! why did it take her so long to figure THAT out?"
Besos y abrazos (hugs and kisses). dont forget me! i am coming home eventually!!!
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Korky
non-member comment
Civilization, nice....
Tana, Glad you finally got off the dirt/mud/rock roads and on some pavement. Any Starbucks in the civilized world? :-) I would guess what your epiphany was, but I can't guess worth a damn! ;-) Have a good rest of your trip!!!!! Your son misses you. Korky