Blogs from North, Uruguay, South America

Colonia is easy to get to from Buenos Aires. We used the ferry service Buquebus, it has a large station in the Puerto Monte area of Buenos Aires. We bought our tickets a few days in advance but it was not necessary because the ferry is very large and could have carried at least a hundred more passengers. We knew how much the tickets were. We tried to buy the tickets online but the tickets were more expensice online so we went and bought our tickets in person. You need to have your passport with you when you buy your tickets. You make your reservation at one window, then pay at the cashier. You need to get to the ferry an hour and a half before your departure time. When you arrive you go to a ... read more

At 4 AM it is pitch dark in Colonia Valdense, Uruguay. Walking around this small city never worried me, late or early. But my friends insisted I call a taxi. At the last minute Friday night Javier announced that the family would be at my door at 4:20. Javier, Marcela, Donald, Edith hauled my two backpacks, my sack of food to the car. I insisted I had to stop at the bank to give money to Donald for Argentina pesos. No, I'll meet you in Ecuador in a few weeks and you can pay me then. Javier drove right past the bank. As we rolled into a parking place the bus was nearly on our bumper. Had we stopped at the bank I would have missed the bus! The Agencia Central bus, Yes, the right temperature! ... read more

I am not known for my attnetion to detail. As my former bosses will tell you. Which means I don´t bother reading anything beyond the first two lines of everything. Which means if you are reading beyond this point you are a bigger man (sic) than me. It also means sometimes i end up in whole new countries i didn´t even know I was visiting. And thus it was with Uruguay. To break up the journey and try and avoid another night bus and the entire group mutinying we do an overnight stop over in Salto in the north of Uruguay. We stop in Termas which is an area made famous and dominated by its Thermal Springs. Its a small place with a spa that offers therapeutic spring water. We all decide to book treatments. Alfresco ... read more

This morning I woke up to find it unusally dark out. I thought it was still around 3am but the clock said 5 an dI had to get ready for work. After the scoulding hot shower with my frog friends I stepped outside to find this dramatic sky. A ribbon of bright orange lay low to the ground while huge cloulds pillared to the heavens glowing purple, pink and blue. All I could do is stop and stare, it seemed as if the lighting set the sky on fire, with one crack of thunder the rain came. the rain was so hard we all decided it was best to go back to sleep and wait for it to ease. By 9 am the rain didnt cease and Jiale came to summon us to work. With little ... read more

Why visit a big city popular with foreign travelers when you can soak in thermal baths? I jumped off the gringo trail in Argentina and hopped across the border (after a 7-hour bus journey) to Salto in Uruguay's little-visited north. And as Robert Frost would agree, taking the road less traveled has made all the difference. I'd decided to skip Rosario, Argentina's third largest city with well over a million people, in favor of visiting towns with thermal springs that run along both sides of the Uruguay River that marks the border between these two countries. From Mercedes, Argentina, I traveled 7 hours past open fields dotted with flowers and cows to Concordia, then another bus to the border with Uruguay. There, the two countries shared an office, making this the easiest border crossing so far. ... read more