Montevideo

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After a week of Buenos Aires and with 4 days until my Sister and her mate James arrive we have decided to go to Uruguay for the weekend. We did a Spanish course in BA which was OK but very basic and we had some very slow people in the class which held up the progress, but was a good refresher so we can now say Gracias!!!!! We took the ferry to Montevideo from BA, it is well posh, much better than those cross channel affairs back home, took 3 hours across the river. It is like another world when you get there compared to BA, very colonial and quiet, hardly anyone about, so we walked through the old town to our hotel. I knew the day was going to be good as the ferry across was packed with Paraguay fans who were playing Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier later that afternoon. I quite fancied that but we could not find anywhere selling tickets, so instead did some museums. There is a big statue in the main square and underneath is a Mausoleum with the remains of the founder of the country, it is reallyu errie as it is almost pitch black inside and all made from marble, then as you get a bit further in you notice two soldiers stood next to the urn with massive guns, we were the only 2 people in there at the time and both gave a little yelp when we spotted the soldiers, all very bizarre. Then went onto the artifacts museum which has got some great music boxes, and replicas of old Spanish wooden ships, all the descriptions were in Spanish so we did our best to translate and then made the rest up................They also had a music festival on outside with Uruguyan Elvis and Johnny Cash, was well funny. 5pm arrived so we headed off to a local bar to watch the football, we were the only foreigners in there and the atmosphere was really good, although everyone sits down here not like at home. Uruguay won 2 nil so everyone as happy, and halfway through the game a man dressed as a doctor came into the bar and offered to check everyones blood presure and was also selling stephascopes, he wasn´t to successful but it made us laugh!!!!

The second day we just chilled on the beach, which is a river beach, so the water is really brown, i didnt risk it but Becks had a dip, I am waiting for her to grow a 3rd arm or something now. The next 2 days we spent in Colonia del Sacremento, a lovely little town 3 hours west of Montevideo. It is tiny with cobbled streets and many tiny museums. You only really need a day there as not a lot to do, we went and visited every museum in town, one was a mock up of a Portugese house and another has loads of dinosaours, the others weren´t so good, but all were done in 2 hours. We also climed the big lighthouse, and that is all there is to do, honestly. Lovely place though..........................Back off to BA now to go and meet Claire and James

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Photos

Johnny Cash Tribute
quite fit really

Off to Uruguay
thats a stylish couple isnt it

Typical House in Colonia
God thats so typical

Lighthouse
you can walk up it.