A day in Uruguay and PANIC!

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We had one free day so our group decided to follow the suggestion from a travel magazine and took a fast boat on a 2 hour trip to Colonia, Uruguay. This is a quaint old town with ruins of a fort, lots of nice restaurants, a light house, and many artists. We all agreed it would be a fun place to relax on the beach for a few days, buy some nice art works and eat seafood but we had to return for our flight the next day. We had a nice dinner along a waterway in a new restaurant district before returning late to the hotel.

Getting back around 10 PM, I packed my stuff for our flight the next day. Logistics for that were tough; they offered breakfast at 3 AM for the 3:30 AM departure of the bus to the airport for our 5:30 flight. We were told if you miss the departure at 3:30 AM you should try to find your way to Ushuaia on your own. Tom went down to use the hotel internet and he wasn’t back by the time I had finished so I left the lights on for him, set my watch for 3 and put on my eye shade and ear plugs so he wouldn’t wake me. I promptly passed out from all the adventures so far, as well as lots of late nights, and strange travel schedules. When Tom later returned he decided not to bother me and went straight to bed.

I awoke to see the clock saying 3:37! I threw on clothes in a panic while Tom began throwing everything into his bag. Once I had pants and shoes on I hoisted my 20 pound backpack threw my 55 pound duffle over my shoulder and ran down the stairs for 4 flights because I knew the elevator would be too slow. Only the panic allowed me to do that without pulling a muscle. I saw Jane, our tour leader at the curb by the bus holding two remaining boarding passes and grabbed mine. “Where’s Gillman?” she asked. “Right behind me,” I lied.

They were nearly panicked about everyone missing the flight when Tom made it down 12 minutes later to the cheers of all on the bus. We were halfway on the hour trip to the airport when someone else realized their passport was still in their hotel room safe. One of the tour operators got off with them and took a taxi back with them while the rest of us made it on our way to load bags, get through security and get to the gate still feeling stunned by the early hour, lack of sleep, and panic. Everyone got on board and I fell asleep for the 3 ½ hour flight despite the strong dark coffee from the airport vendor.

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Photos

Crane
There are a number of old sea cranes along the harbor where the restaurants are. They are dramatic when lit up at night.