Blogs from Montevideo, District of Montevideo, Uruguay, South America - page 31

Yllatys, yllatys matkalaiset eivat enaa olekaan Paraguayssa tai Argentiinassa vaan naapurissa pienella Uruguayn pyrahdyksella...taytyihan sita tulla tanne pitamaan huolta, etta sellutehdas alkaa Fray Bentosissa valmistumaan...emme tosin kayneet paikanpaalla, vaan hoidimme tyonjohdollisia toimia taalta Montevideosta kasin... :) Uruguay osoittautui varsin mielenkiintoiseksi paikaksi ja erityisesti positiiviseksi yllatykseksi - ei taalla tosin oikein mitaan tekemista ole ollut, mutta muutoin paikka on erityisesti hintatasoltaan ja matkustamisen helppoudellaan aivan omaa luokkaansa verrattaessa esim. Argentiinaan ja Brasiliaan. Valittavasti vain tulimme tanne keskitalvella eika maa oikein nayta talloin parhaita puoliaan, koska taallakin parhaita matkakohteita ovat Atlantin rannikon biitsit, joilla ei ymmarrettavasti ole tungosta lampotilan huitoessa noin plus kymmenessa asteessa...Hann... read more

Hello from Uruguay, hello from Montevideo. Another quick update. Sorry for falling behind again. Combo of internet access difficulties and sheer laziness! OK...so W arrived. Together (YAY) we tooled around Buenos Aires. What a great town! Visited markets, neighbourhoods, saw Evita's tomb and enjoyed several lovely cafe's and restaurants...YAY (W wants to add we went to 'Fangio's favourite cafe'). So here we are in Montevideo. Arrived yesterday. Plenty of time to see the town. New and old sites. Great architecture, a real sense of history. The people are very cool too...all walking around with the mate tea 'bombs' and thermos...at least I assume that it's tea! Today we visited historic town of Colonia. Which over the years has been an important Portuguese, Spanish, Argentine & Uruguayan town. Tomorrow we head back to Buenos Aires for the ... read more

Well, here I am in Uruguay. This weekend has been absolutely amazing! I left on Friday morning from Buenos Aires to take the Buquebus (ferry for us English speakers!) over into Colonia. Basically I had scheduled about 7 hours for myself to bum around exploring Colonia. It's an extremely small town, but beautiful. The old city, where I spent the majority of my day, is one of the places that is protected by UNESCO as having International historical value. As I wandered around the city it was strikingly clear how few historical buildings and monuments we have in Oregon. Walking along the water front, I suddenly heard someone call out "Hello, beautiful!" in english. I looked around and it was this kind of grubby looking guy sitting out in front of a house/restaurant. I started talking ... read more

The guide book puts alot of pressure on Colonia to impress, describing it as ´a superstar´. Initial reactions were somewhat confused as it appeared to be like any other small town. We left our bags in the hostel and set off to find the beauty we had read so much about. By the time we reach the water´s edge it has grown dark, the town is scarcely lit with small green streetlights barely illuminating the crazy-paved cobbled streets. A notable feature was the abundance of stray dogs which, for some reason, took a liking to me. At one point I must have looked like a proffessional dog walker with about five dogs following me casually down the street. In fact, despite it being Friday night, there are more dogs on the street than revellers. We have ... read more

So when I last wrote I was in Rocha sipping wine on a terrace. Well lets see what I have been up to since. -I rode to La Paloma. Discovered that although they are a large enough city for a bank, they are not large enough to have an ATM machine that accepts Visa. Therefore I was forced to catch a bus back to Rocha just to get some money. Remember Visa may be everywhere you want to be, it may not be everywhere you are! On the other hand all the businesses use and accept visa (well those that take credit cards anyways), while the banks are focused on Mastercard. If traveling in this area carry both, plus American dollars- everyone uses them as a common form of currency between nations. While in La Paloma ... read more