Uruguay!!

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Heylo again!!

Right last one.... im supposed to do seperate blogs for the different cities/towns in Uruguay but because i dont have any photos right now and we only spent a day or 2 in each place there isnt really much point!

We got into Carmello in the evening, went out for a yummy cheap dinner and had an early night! The next morning we went to the beach (which is still actually on the River Plata) which was nice - but swimming in the water isnt that appealing as its almost purple!! We had a little picnic there, fed a stray dog and then headed back into town! Its really tiny and there isnt much to see so we just wandered around for a while, we wanted to rent a moped but couldnt find anywhere open because of their siesta (which seems to last about 4 hours here!!) and then decided to get an early bus to Colonia!

We really liked Colonia..... its also quite small and not that much to see but its just really cute with lots of cobbled streets over looking the Plata river! Colonia used to be used by the Portugese to smuggle goods across the river into BA! Unfortunately the temperature had dropped by about 15degrees over night and we only had dresses and shorts with us so we were absolutely freezing!! :o( We wandered around for a while and then decided to get one of those crazy go-kart buggys - it was Aubreys birthday and she really wanted one! :o) It was really fun... her driving was a bit scary sometimes though, I had a go for about 5 minutes on quiet roads and then switched back once i realised we were getting to a main road because i didnt trust myself to not cause a pile-up! :o)

That afternoon we got the bus to Montevideo (the capital) but unfortunately by the time we got there it had gotten even colder and started raining so we just hung out in the hostel and chatted to people! That evening the hostel put on an all you can eat pizza event so we joined in which was really fun especially as we met a group of really fun English guys! Decided to be good for once though and went to bed reasonably early and left Aubrey partying away..... so ofcourse she was too hungover the next day to do any sightseeing and everyone told us there wasnt much to do in Montevideo so we ended up just getting the bus to our final stop... the beach town of Punta del Este!

We really liked it there... we stayed in a really cool hostel on the beachfront which was on the sea-side of the town rather than the river-side so it was really nice to finally be able to swim in the sea instead of the dirty river! :o) We spent 2 days there on the beach... thankfully the weather had gotten hot again! And in the evenings we played cards and had drinks with some crazy Australian guys and Wille (the guy who then came back and met me in BA)! We had heard that the steak in Uruguay is supposed to be even better than in Argentina so on the last evening a couple of us, as well as a group of American girls we met, all went out for a posh steak dinner on the seafront - it was absolutely amazing!! Apart from the fact i had an allergic reaction to something afterwards and my face swelled up like a beach ball... not an attractive look! :o(

The next morning we wandered around the town for a while before Aubrey headed off to try and get a visa for Brazil (poor Americans have to pay 200 plus dollars to go to Brazil.. ouch!!) and I headed back to BA with a Scottish guy staying in my room! It ended up taking over 10 hours to get back though as we had to get 2 buses and then a boat and the boat was sooooooo delayed!! :o( The boat ride back was a bit of a nightmare though.... the water was sooo rough - after about 2 minutes i realised why the woman had insisted i take a sick bag when i kept insisting i wouldnt need one! Luckily i didnt need it but it was a very close call - i couldnt do that focus on the horizon thing to avoid sea sickness because it was nearly midnight and obviously dark so i spent most of the journey starting at the exit sign in front of me like a lunatic, and then tried to go to sleep! I vaguely knew what was going on around me and didnt want to see because it would have made me feel worse but Keith told me afterwards that everyone was running to the toilet to be sick and a woman near us starting having some kind of fit! yikes! :o( When we got back to Palermo hostel everyone was partying as usual but i decided to make the most of not knowing anyone while i could and went straight to bed! :o)

Right im going to go and try and get on a bus to Santiago, Chile now! This will be the 4th time ive tried to get a bus there in 2 days so im really hoping it works this time otherwise im going to have a big tantrum! I know quite a few people who are in Santiago so it will be really nice to get somewhere and already know a few people! :o) Im only in Santiago for a few days and then i fly to NZ on Dec 9th!! Im slowly starting to look forward to NZ and accept i wont be home for xmas although even the mention of xmas (even claire cleaning along to xmas songs) or the sight of a xmas decoration can start of the waterworks! :o(

Lots and lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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