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Published: March 15th 2009
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Montevideo
view from ciudad vieja After the week long orientation at UCA, we had a week off before classes started. Obviously we really needed a vacation after the long, strenuous months of sitting at home since December and the overwhelming orientation (please note, there is sarcasm in that sentence). Anyways, most students traveled, and most students that traveled went to Uruguay.
Uruguay is right across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. You can take a ferry in be there in an hour if you want. I traveled with four other students, three from GW. We took a ferry from a company called Buquebus, which took us on a ferry ride straight to Colonia, then on a bus ride to Montevideo.
In Montevideo we stayed in a hostel called Posada al Sur. It was in the old city, or ciudad vieja, of Montevideo, so it was an old house that someone converted into a beautiful hostel. All the rooms had high ceilings, there was a balcony and a roof top terrace, a big kitchen with breakfast included, and very clean bathrooms. This hostel experience definitely spoiled us. We were the youngest people staying in the hostel though, everyone else seemed to be in
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Michael was a bit upset when he saw this their late twenties early thirties.
The only thing about the trip to Uruguay I would change is I didn't learn as much about the country as I would have liked, especially for being there for five days. This is partly because for most of the trip I was sick and did not really feel up to making concrete plans for the day, and also partly because other than going to the beach, we didn't really have much on our list of things to do. We were very American tourist, I would say. The first day in Montevideo, we wandered around, did some people watching, and mostly tried to find some sort of entertainment. But we stuck to the ciudad vieja, which gets pretty empty, especially on Monday nights. Day two we walked around the entire city, saw the central downtown area, walked along the coast. It was very nice, but still I would say to go to Uruguay you need more of a plan. We also met up with a few other American groups that were traveling during the break at UCA.
After Montevideo we took a bus to Punta del Este, a major tourist spot, especially for
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until we realized there was another side Argentines. We were only there for two days and unfortunately on the first day it absolutely poured. It seemed like we were in the middle of a hurricane. Everyone was freezing because who ever thought a beach trip could be so cold? But we made the most of it and hung out at the hostel, met others who were traveling and were much younger than the crowd at the first hostel, a few Americans and a few Chileans.
As I said before the first hostel experience spoiled us, so when we arrived at the second hostel, after having walked six blocks in the pouring rain, we were a little less than impressed. For a dollar more per night than the first accommodations, we got a modly room, a "kitchen" and some bathrooms that looked like they belong at a campsite. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if we were able to go to the beach, but we spent hours in that place, so we decided to only pay one night and look for another hostel in the morning.
Thankfully the second day in Punta was sunny and gorgeous. We looked up a second hostel that we heard
of from another traveler and packed up early (after I applied for gw housing on the hostel internet). The second hostel was in a residential area and farther away from the beach than the first, but it was worth the move. It was a place called "Roger's Place," though neither of the owners were named Roger. Literally it was a house someone filled with bunk beds. It was also a lot cheaper than the Punta del Este Hostel of night 1.
The good thing about the sunny day was that we finally got to go to the beach. The bad thing was most of us got wicked sunburns. But still, we were at the beach in MARCH!
The last day we spent in Uruguay, we got up early and took two buses to get back to Colonia so that we could ferry home. We spent a few hours walking around the old city of Colonia, also called Colonia del Sacramento, founded by the Portuguese originally, then took the Buquebus back to Buenos Aires.
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Christine
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Caught up!
Nice pictures! It sounds like a fun adventure. I'm finally caught up with your blog! Yay!