Blogs from East, Uruguay, South America - page 5

Dear reader What on earth is payada, I wanted to know? Guapo tells me it’s a form of singing to the accompaniment of guitar. But it’s not your usual singing. No, it’s improvised singing, and done in rhyme. Each singer must answer the questions posed by his or her opponent, and then pose some questions in return. This form of singing, really a form of poetry, is very popular in Uruguay. Sometimes it’s done as a duel. Duet payadas can last several hours, even days. And they don’t end until one of the singers stops. A kind of cricket with only one player on each team. Bad analogy but you know what I mean. The great thing about travelling virtually in Uruguay is that I can sit in my living room, at our computer, and learn ... read more

It’s raining and my bus doesn’t leave for another 3 hours so I figured I’d get to blogging.. Where to begin? I love Uruguay. Ever since I spent time in Uruguay in high school I’ve been dying to go back. There is just something so magical about this place. It’s very laid back and I love being on the ocean. I took the ferry from BsAs to Colonia, Uruguay early Friday morning and then bussed from Colonia to Punta del Este. In total it’s about a 6 hour trip. After getting checked in at the hotel in Punta del Este, my pals had not arrived yet, so I hit the beach to lay out in the sun. Just hearing the ocean was great. Soaking in the sun, I passed 3 hours starting & finishing the last ... read more

One of the things I am learning about travelling on your own (and there are many!) is that every risk is your own but on the other side of the coin every triumph is also your own. Every decision I make ultimately I have deal with the consequences entirely myself and to be honest this is quite a scary prospect for me. So the decision to head to this small fishing town of Punta Del Diablo came with slight apprehension. I had only read a small paragraph about it in the Lonely Planet, hadn´t met anyone who had been there and on the map it looked as though it was in rural Uruguay away from bright lights and big cities. After catching the ferry over to Uruguay from Buenos Aires a 3 hour ride in which ... read more

Im sitting in a dingy, dark, windowless room with an overhead fan whirring and clunking above me in the town of Carmelo in Uruguay. I have left the security of Pepe in Buenos Aires and ventured across the muddy waters of the Rio Plata to yet another South American country. The place I am in, the Hotel Orientale is a dive…the cobwebs in the corner of the room are fluttering in the fan’s paltry breeze and I am unaware of any other guests. This hotel could be in The Shining! In fact, Hotel is an overly ambitious term for this establishment but the sheets are clean, there is nothing crawling (that I can make out) and having arrived in Carmelo from Tigre at dusk, I didn’t want to travel onwards into the night alone with no ... read more

Fabled Cabo Polonia was as magical as my South American friends had foretold. I'd come for the summer solstice--the longest, lightest day of the year, which this year coincided with a lunar eclipse, and a bright, light night thanks to the full moon. I love extremes when all possibilities are exposed, and the veil between worlds is thinnest. Cabo was perfect--isolated by the Atlantic and by tall, shifting sand dunes, there were no roads into the town, and thus no cars. No electricity to mask the parade of stars in the heavens or to run noisy machines. Founded in the 70s by hippies and fishers, the town was filled with colorful, dreadlocked characters, hand-built homes with murals, painted banners and creative touches, and almost completely surrounded by water. I was born on an island (Coronado Island ... read more