Blogs from West, Uruguay, South America - page 2

Sinking my teeth into Uruguay...much like Uruguay's most famous current footballer sunk his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini. And Branislav Ivanovic. And Otman Bakkal. Hopefully the only thing I would be sinking my teeth into literally would be Uruguay's famous beef. As much as he is known for his controversial actions, Luis Suarez is a also a brilliant footballer with skill, pace, guile and a fiercely competitive spirit. The rest of the Uruguayan national team isn't too bad either, considering that Uruguay only has a population of 3.4 million - even less than New Zealand. What kind of a place produces such extraordinary talent that allows such a small nation to punch so far above their weight? I was hoping to find out. Mixing up the modes of transport I was taking, I was travelling to Uruguay ... read more

That's right, we went to Uruguay today! Check another country off the list (and update the map)! Unfortunately, this did mean we were getting up at 5:30 to catch the ferry across the Rio Plata. Since it's an international ferry, and our professor is insistent on allotting far too much time for things, we showed up at about 7:00 for an 8:30 crossing. Fun fact: depending on where one considers the mouth of the Amazon to be, Rio Plata is either the first or second widest river in the world, coming in a bit over 140 miles at its widest point. Where we crossed, our boat trip took just over an hour. We got in to port and off the boat by 10:00ish, but didn't really get moving until almost 11:00. We started with a quick ... read more

Saturday 7thFebruary 2015 This blog is being written half way across the Atlantic on a flight bound for England. It is the early hours of the morning. Very sadly, John’s mum passed away on Wednesday evening, so we are returning to the UK. We shall return to South America to continue our travels in a week or two and resume the blogging. Here follows a very brief update, since we left Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning… The ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia de Sacramento took just over an hour and it was a smooth crossing. Colonia is a small town, the oldest in Uruguay, with some of the old walls still intact. It is located in a strategic position, guarding the entrances to the River Uruguay and the River Parana. We stayed ... read more

7/1 I walked to the beach, Playa Pocitos, and around the Pocitos area until I found a bar, La Pasiva, to watch the Argentina v Switzerland game. I cheered for Switzerland. I ate lunch there during the game and had a Uruguayan attempt at pizza. It was strip slices like Pokey Sticks or the dessert pizza at Ci Ci's, and just had tomato sauce on it. Clearly not the greatest thing on the planet. I went back to the hostel to chill and stopped to restock on deodorant along the way. After a while I went back to the bar, this time wearing the American Flag as a cape, to watch the USA v Belgium game. When I walked in I saw two girls at a table. One of them was wearing a UNC hoodie. It ... read more

We arrived in Colonia on Friday 22nd March after an 8 hour bus ride from Salto. The taxi from the estancia into town to catch the bus was quite an experience, the car was very old and with thick fog the dirt road was invisible, goodness knows how the driver got us there! On the bus we passed Fray Bentos (thats right where the pies were made), we didnt stop there but the old factory is now a museum, at the height of production they were getting through 2000 cattle a day! The signature product was actually the Oxo beef cube which has sustained many travellers and soldiers over the years. During its time this factory employed over 25,000 workers from 60 different countries. I cant help thinking of my Gran though who used to use ... read more