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Published: October 6th 2009
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On Friday 31 July, I met Gill at the ferry terminal 20 minutes before our ferry to Uruguay was due to depart. It took forever to buy the ticket, check in and get through immigration so luckily our boat was delayed by an hour. After the 3 hour crossing, we docked in Montevideo and got through customs (after Gill was caught trying to smuggle in a banana). We joined the line for taxis and waited as they slowly pulled up every few minutes. We were next in line when this taxi raced up, spun around and screeched to a halt. We squeezed into the back of his compact racing car and held on to the necessary bar (think rollercoaster) while he raced us to our hostel. After checking in we went for a walk and had dinner in a very nice Italian restaurant. After a surprisingly good sleep on an uncomfortable dorm bed, I had lots of bread rolls covered with dulce de leche for breakfast. We set off around 10am to walk around the capital city of Uruguay. It was a nice day and we stopped for a while to sit on the promenade looking out to sea. Then we
spent some time at the docks, fascinated how they move the big shipping containers around. After a few hours of walking around we were tired, hungry and lost. We managed to find a taxi and asked him to take us to the football stadium. We then realised that we had walked so far that we were off the tourist map. As we neared the stadium we passed a pizza restaurant so we shouted at the driver until he stopped. Food had never tasted so good. After a nice big pizza and a bottle of Pepsi, we were ready for some more walking. The football stadium was old, colourful and covered in graffiti. It was cool to be where the first ever World Cup final was held in 1930 - won by Uruguay. The museum housed the two Jules Rimet trophies that Uruguay had won but unfortunately it was closed. Further walking took us through some fruit & vegetable markets, parks and also the beach. We sat on the promenade and watched the sun go down over the city before walking back to the hostel. In the evening we went to a horrible vegetarian buffet restaurant. Then we walked around for
Montevideo Football Stadium
Hosted the World Cup Final in 1930 - won by Uruguay a while trying to find a bar but all we saw were strip bars. We returned to the hostel around midnight and checked the guide book for good local bars. A short taxi ride later and we were sitting outside an Irish bar enjoying a 9% Belgian beer. There was basically just one street in the city with a few bars so we checked out a couple of them. After a few drinks we returned to the hostel around 4am. On Sunday morning we took a two and a half hour bus ride to Colonia del Sacramento. We were dropped off at 12.30pm at the bus/ferry terminal. There didnĀ“t seem to be much around and we didn't really know why we were there. After walking for 5 minutes we saw a buggy for rent on the street. After walking so much the previous day, there was only one option for exploring this historic town that's on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list. After sitting outside a restaurant for lunch in the glorious sunshine, we returned to the rental shop and negotiated for the buggy in our best Spanish. The next few hours were so much fun. We cruised around the
historic old town whilst getting numerous stares as our engine roared. Then we tested it for speed as we drove along the coastal road, stopping on the beach occasionally. After checking out a few tourist sights, we drove along a dusty road through the middle of the countryside. It felt a million miles away from the big city of Buenos Aires. There was a great sense of freedom just driving endlessly into the sun. Sometime later we drove past a local football match so I spun the buggy around and we drove into the car park. There were about 100 people watching the game and they all turned their attention to us as we pulled up. We decided to leave at half time and everyone (including the police) watched us as we hopped back into the buggy. Gill was in the driving seat now and after a wheelspin start she spun the buggy around on the gravel surface. All eyes were fixed on us and a few of the locals were warning us to be careful but the majority were laughing. Then Gill produced another wheelspin and we raced away in fits of laughter. We drove back towards town along
the coastal road as the sun was beginning to set. We stopped at the historic town and took a quick walk around. An old lighthouse presented a good option to watch the sunset so we climbed the narrow winding stairs that seemed to be never ending. It was an amazing place to watch the sun go down but just before it set we realised that we only had 45 minutes to get down, get the buggy back to the shop and then get to the ferry terminal for our 7pm boat back to Argentina. We got on the boat in time and took our seats in the 1st Class section (tourist class was sold out) for the 50 minute crossing to Buenos Aires. After 90 minutes, we began to wonder why we had not arrived. After asking a crew member, we discovered that we were on the slower 3 hour crossing as the express ferry was sold out. We eventually arrived back in Buenos Aires at 10pm and took a taxi home.
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