Uruguay

---

---

I´ll lead off by apologizing for the lack of pictures. I´m having technical difficulties (like the computer instructions are in Spanish) and I can´t figure it out. I PROMISE that you will see plenty of pictures later, especially after I get home when I can actually talk to you about the experiences.

I´m currently in Buenos Aires, which is amazing. The first REAL city on the trip. I could be in New York or Barcelona and see a similar lifestyle. They are fashionable (except for the mullets), have really good inexpensive food and live at a similar pace and quality of life as us.

But I´ll tell you more about BA later, after I leave and have gotten a full taste of it.


I left off with the last post telling you about Iguassu Falls, a great wonder. We left Iguassu on a night bus toward Uruguay. The bus literally dropped us off on the side of a road near Concordia, Argentina where we waited the better part of a hour for some taxis to arrive and take us to Salto, Uruguay, a small town in the Northwestern part of the country known for its thermal baths. We all still wonder if they were actually thermal baths or simply hot tubs, but the day was relaxing, food was CHEAP and the town was small, non-touristy and cute. The popular thing to eat in Uruguay is Chivito. You can get it as a sandwich or on a plate with fries, potato salad and lettuce. It´s a thin sirloin steak, topped with grilled parma ham, cheese, bacon and a fried egg. I had one for dinner, along with a liter of beer for under $5. GOOD.

Another night bus brought us to Montevideo, the capital and largest city of Uruguay. It´s an ugly, dirty, decaying city that hopefully was nice at one point, but is no longer. The old city is located on a peninsula jutting into the Rio de la Plata, with water on 3 sides so you can see water from many intersections in the city, sometimes on 3 of the 4 corners. But the buildings are old and falling down, garbage is everywhere and kids ride around on horse drawn carts scouring the garbage dumpsters for bottles and other scraps to recycle for cash.

The highlight of Montevideo is the Mercado del Puerto, a large hundred year old warehouse in the Old City filled with Steak restaurants. We sat at a counter to watch the meat on the grill and ordered a sampler platter, called a Parilla, which included rump, sirloin, tripe, intestines, blood sausage, chorizo and short ribs. And they serve it with a drink called Medio y Medio, half sparkling wine and half white wine, so you get the cool, refreshing bubbles of sparkling wine before the dryness of the white wine hits.

Also, in Montevideo, we happened along the abandoned train station, a once beautiful structure now covered in weeds, graffiti and the sleeping homeless. South America has all but abandoned rail travel in favor of buses. It´s the opposite of Europe which has embraced train modernization while also building great highways. South America has abandoned its trains and continues to use mostly two lane roads creating extremely long travel times.

We spent 2 nights in Montevideo, before heading to Colonia del Sacramento, in the west of Uruguay. It´s an historic town, once used by the Portuguese to smuggle goods into Spanish Buenos Aires. But this city too has seen better days, and after having visited Paraty in Brazil, which is a clean, well-kept and pretty old city, Colonia couldn´t really compare.

A 3 hour ferry ride brought us from Colonia to Buenos Aires on Monday night (A modern, large ferry like they have in the Greek islands) and I´ve been enjoying the city since then. This is a great city of neighborhoods. Yesterday, we walked though San Telmo (full of cobblestone streets and small alleys, good stores and restaurants and an interesting place to explore) and La Boca (the home of Tango and Boca Juniors, the soccer team, but a little sketchier and you have to stay on the main tourist roads in order to not become another statistic).

Today, I´m headed to Recoleta and Palermo on a bike tour to see Evita and the other areas. I´ll let you know how that goes. Tonight, I begin the second leg of the group trip, and will meet a new tour guide and some new members of the group.

Hope the Swine flu hasn´t got you down!

---

Comments

[lisa]

food
blake = the food critic of the southern hemi.