Advertisement
Published: January 19th 2009
To the East
Hey Mom, just over the horizon is where you were born.The sun here is really hot. A couple of days ago it was 37 C (approx. 104 F). We enjoyed a good walk on the beach and eventually got lost. I’m embarrassed to admit this but it is true. We even had a map. None of the streets go in straight lines and I did not have a good feel for where we had started. Those are the excuses anyways. We thought we were walking toward the mainland, back to our hostel, but we were actually going further out on the spit of land. Every time I looked at the map I got more confused because the streets were all backwards. Samantha finally saved the day with the simple inquiry, “maybe we are walking the wrong direction?”
Long story short I thought we had crossed the spit laterally, but in fact we had not. We were still on the original side of the spit, so I had simply put the ocean off my right shoulder and started walking the wrong direction. I was so convinced I knew which side of the spit I was on that I never question our basic orientation…wow. Good thing I have a GPS in
the airplane. Normally I would not go into all this detail, because this is no big deal. Well, let me tell you why this was a big deal…we are very, very, very, white. The sun is equally hot and penetrating. Having lived in Hawaii and being aware of the consequences we had rationed our minutes in the sun very carefully. The extra 40 minutes cost me all of the skin on my forehead, the remainder of my scalp, as well as that 6 square inch patch of skin exposed between my Birkenstock straps…I was irritated, in fact I am still healing.
We got back to the hostel in time to drink a beer with our new Finnish friends, who, believe it or not are from Finland. We cooked a pizza in the oven, and enjoyed speaking to someone in English, it was great. We stayed up until 0230am trying to increase our chances for sleep. We also purchased some earplugs. (NOTE: Bring your own earplugs from the states because all we could find were silicon plugs for swimming and they make the inside of your ears sweat.)
I thought I would outsmart the noise by shutting the
window. NOT A GOOD IDEA AT 90 F. I was almost thankful to be woke up at 5am when somebody emptied the ice tray with a sledge hammer and dynamite, as my body had reached a temperature that I am certain is not healthy. I had to open the window again. I wanted to scream, but instead got up and went for a walk to the beach and watched the sun rise. Some body’s party had left a nice little fire burning on the sand near the surf. I sat down and thoroughly enjoyed the flames. Our time in Uruguay was memorable. We did a poor job of seeing this country. We will come back someday and rent a car. There was so much to see in Uruguay and I was very sad to leave…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.039s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0382s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
