Tongue Sandwich

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Day 65

We catch the slow boat (3hrs) across the brown river to Colonia in Uruguay. Again walking in the midday sun uphill we eventually find our hostel. After dumping our bags we head out for something to eat and quickly discover that no one in Uruguay speaks English so I leave Em to decipher the ‘menu turistica’. We both order fish (sole) to start and calamari rissotto. When the first course arrives Em just looks at what we are eating and says' that's not fish' and I look down and notice that there are large taste buds on the side of the 'fish'... yes, you guessed, it is tongue. Oh well this is not the first time Em has put me in this situation, so trying not to look at the hairy taste buds I eat mine (Em struggles a bit more and is unable to finish). Then the rissotto arrives and it is revolting, I don't know what part of calamari is crunchy but we get a lot of it. Then to top off the menu is a very cheap pink and yellow ice cream, although we are just relieved to have something edible.

After our 'menu we hate tourists' we down copious amounts of water to get rid of the taste and head into the old port area to climb the lighthouse for a fantastic few of the beautiful town. Colonia has a very romantic oldy-worldy feel with its meandering cobbled streets filled with ancient houses and cars. People tend to visit as a day trip from Buenos Aires and strolling round in the early evening we feel like we have the place to ourselves.

For dinner we head to the ‘Drugstore,’ not a chemist but a little restaurant tucked away in the old port. Here we actually managed to order some real fish, comforted by the fact the kitchen is situated in the dining area and there are no signs of any offal. The place is decorated with lots of pictures, some of which are from old English railway stations and we almost feel at home. It also has its resident singer who gives us a cheesy rendition of Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’ in Spanish.

Day 66

Catch the 3 hour bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and grab a taxi to our hotel. Hotel is really nice but when they say we have only booked a single room I have a momentary panic that the price will be double the price I expect. However after I check my email I am relieved to find that the mistake is on their part and the room is still only £25 a night. Even with my creative accounting skills, or as Em would say 'over complicated spreadsheet', we are struggling to stay within our budget.

Next a visit to the Torres Garcia museum which displays works of the Uruguayan artist, Joaquin Torres Garcia. Good display and we buy some postcards as a souvenir. In the evening we go for a few drinks at a local cafe called ‘The Manchester’ before devouring some crepes for dinner.

Day 67

We wake up to rain so we decide to waterproof up and explore the museums. Unfortunately all the museums are closed on Wednesdays. So after wandering round we head for some lunch and then spend the day doing practical boring stuff like making a back up the 8gb worth of photos we have taken so far.

Day 68

Today is sunny so we decide to hire some bikes and go riding along the coast enjoying the different beaches. It appears there are a lack of bike rental companies in Montevideo because after about an hour of asking people and going to nonexistent shops we give up and take the bus instead. We have a map but Em asks the driver (in her best Spanish) to tell us where to get off the bus for the beach we want to visit. When the driver tells us to get off we are confused as it doesn’t seem to correspond with our map, but we happily step off the bus and thank the driver. After about 5 seconds we realise he has deliberately dropped us about 2 miles from where we want to be, and after some expletives we start our trek to the right beach. We turn the situation into a nice walk and chill on the deserted beach.

In the evening we visit a couple of the museums before heading to a lovely local restaurant run by a young couple – the meal is delicious and we even splash out and have a desert (or pudding as Em would say).

Day 69

We head to Colonia for another night before catching the ferry and bus to Iguazu. It is a bank holiday in Argentina and all the hostels are booked up but we manage to squeeze into an 8 bed dorm with curtains for doors (how secure). We have exactly 45 minutes to visit the museums we missed the first day and so we whizz round 3 out of the 6 in the town (one has some cool old 16th century maps) before heading for some cold cerveza .

Back at our hostel (bags still there - phew) we meet 3 American girls from Buenos Aires who are sharing our room and agree to go for some food and more drinks (Em – a bevvy of beauties that Si is well happy to go out with!). Showing off our local knowledge we take them to the Drugstore where the same singer is playing - this time he does a half Spanish English version of ‘Wonderful Tonight’. The singer brings in his cute looking dog to charm the ladies, and Em says, ‘how cute’ and reaches out to pet it, at which point it turns into a gremlin and nearly takes her fingers off and we all have a good laugh (Em - including me once my heart rate has returned to normal). We then head to the busiest bar in town which has bad Karaoke. Em resists the urge to get up and sing ‘eye of the tiger’ and opts for the local drink Fernet and coke (Em - which is absolutely disgusting, think medicine with a minty flavour).

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Comments

[Nick]

Ole
Hey there. Loving the blog. Loads of adventures, pretty jealous of you both! BA sounded awesome, shame about Boca. Love the pics of the Igueza falls. Don't get robbed...good job so far! Off for a holiday on Saturday to Lanzarote...not quite as cool as where you are but there you go...will be a much needed break all the same. Hope you are having fun in Rio