Crossing over into Uruguay..

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We hopped on the bus in Iguazu and headed south towards the border crossing with Uruguay. Little did we know that we would be on the bus from hell. Literally. It must have been. Because the air conditioning was broken - and it was pretty much like a little oven in there. We decided that because it was only a 12 hour ride we would go budget and get the cheap seats. Worst decision to save 5 bucks EVER. The air worked just fine on the upper floor. But the lower ´cheap seats´had nothing. We both thought we were actually going to die from heat exhaustion. It was indeed so bad that they stopped after about 6 hours at one of the main stops along the way and fixed it. They realized we were actually about to die i think. So there we were, in the middle of the night, on the side of the road, waiting for the air conditioning to be fixed! We didn´t really mind waiting if it meant we´d get a little cool air on the first floor of the bus! Eventually it got fixed, and off we went...our stop wasn´t really a stop - the bus basically dropped us off at 6am on the side of the highway and told us that the bus terminal was ´that way´...so we caught a cab with this couple who was also travelling to Uruguay and got to the bus terminal to find that the next bus to Uruguay was leaving 5 minutes ago! (Which meant it was still there, and we still had time to buy our tickets and hop on...good ole South American time..gotta love it!) So we headed over the border and crossed into Uruguay. From the moment we arrived in Salto, I was in love with the country. The people were really nice, and it just felt like a realy comfortable place. We made a few decisions here and there, and ended up forgoing the famous Salto thermal springs (who needs a hot tub when it´s 35 degrees out???) and headed for Artigas - a small northern town where we planned to take the next bus from. Once we got there we were informed that the bus to where we wanted to go was at 11pm. It was only 2pm.

I will not bore you with the details...but really the only mentionable events from up there were the people and the sunset! We arrived into Tacuarembo (our next interior destination) at 1am that night and checked into a small - but very comfortable room. The next day we slept in and then went to this awesome little lake in the middle of Uruguay (in the middle of nowhere). It reminded me of Lost lake and White Pine Beach rolled into one. It was fantastic! We bought soem food and took it to the lake, hung out, swam and read all day. We took a little walk aroudn the lake for some nice pictures too. It was a nice relaxing day - a nice treat after all those buses! The next morning we headed for Montevideo - to catch our connecting bus to Punta del Diablo...my favourite place so far...and the star of my next entry! I realize this entry isn´t very exciting...deal with it. The next one will be full of exciting birthday shenanigans and an amazing little surfing town!

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Photos

cool statue..and sunset
artigas

another lake over the hill
we found more on our walk!