Blogs from Uruguay, South America - page 93

January 24th, 2006, second day of 3 at sea, south along the coast of Uruguay, day 20 of our cruise, over 6000 nautical miles from Ft. Lauderdale. At Montevideo( means: see a mountain) we will be at latitude 35 degrees south, same as our South/North Carolina, temperature on deck this morning was in the high 70s. The days are getting longer, sunset is 2 hours later than at the Amazone. I wonder how long the days will get at our most southerly point! Sea days are soooo… busy. Today, Terry will attend a lecture by Terry Hughes the producer of TV shows in Britain and US and participant in the production of Monty Python- not my cup of tea. I will be busy being creative: watercolour class and creative writing. Here is my haiku homework: Out ... read more

I´m starting to get used to taking long distance buses. After listening to Spanish lessons for a few hours I get sufficiently bored to fall asleep. I arrived at Montevideo still thinking about my time in Brazil and the friends I made. But then I also felt good about moving on, as it was the beginning of something new. Although a bit exhausted, after checking into Red Hostel and buying a ticket to Punta del Este, I went for a walk through the east part of the city, and then the beaches in the south. Later, when I returned to the dorm I noticed someone sleeping on my bed, and my clothes ( previously on the bed), placed neatly on the adjacent chair. Too tired to be amused I decided to take the next bed for ... read more

A happy new year to one and all! We also hope that Santa brought you loads of cracking pressies. We've been told that in Holland they have a guy called Evil Pete who works alongside Santa. Everyone that is not on Santa's list gets a visit from Evil Pete and I don't think he makes do with just eating your mince pies and quaffing your scotch. We trust that none of you lovely people ended up cowering behind the sofa over Christmas while Evil Pete set about your house! We've been taking a well earned break from travelling. It's been amazing just to be in the same place for a fortnight, not constantly packing and repacking your bag, not sleeping on buses or wondering where you are going to be able to spend the night. That ... read more

Post Rio we have stopped off at the Iguacu falls, which have been a real highlight of my travels. We visited both the Brazilian and Argentinean sides, and found the Argentinean side to be just amazing. They had constructed trails and walkways which allowed you to get really close to the vast amounts of water pouring over the falls. The main cascade is, (appropriately), called the "Devil´s Throat" and is suitably awe-inspiring given the name. We were standing less than 10 metres away from a massive horseshoe of thundering water. The highlight of the day was probably when we decided to act like naughty teenagers and ignore the "do not pass" signs to go exploring and rock-hopping around some of the smaller falls. We discovered a shipwreck (artistic licence taken - read rusty rowing boat) ... read more

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Montevideo is pretty quiet today. We aren´t sure whether Montevideo never get crowded in general, or because it is Christmas that everybody is staying home with their families. Either way, the city is very enjoyable and surprisingly have a lot of pretty structures, although there are many trash everywhere and some of the ornate buildings seem to have seen their better days. We had to do our best of not stepping on dogs poo, which were visible ranging from the fresh warm ones to days old ones, dried off under the Uruguayan summer sun. From what I was told, the majority Uruguayan live in Montevideo, a three quarters of the population. The other twenty percent live along the coast line, leaving a small minority living inland. There is one university in ... read more