Blogs from Uruguay, South America - page 96

And so to Montevideo..... had a feeling we had entered a time machine. It is just so dated and stuck in the 70ｴs. At first we thought it was the hotel we were staying at - it was a mock style castle walls, everything patterned and in brown. There are photos of the room so you can see for yourselves when I finally get them loaded. We sauntered off to the tourist office to see what Montevideo had to offer. Apparently a walking tour of the old city to view all the different styles of architecturefrom Neoclassical to our favourite historical eclecticism. In other words anything which does not fit in to the other 15 categories they had - most of them we had never heard of. It is an old town though - the people ... read more

12.02.05 Ich stellte den Wecker sehr frueh, denn ich musste um 08.00 Uhr schon am Hafen sein um auf die Faehre nach Uruguay zu gehen. Marcelo und ich fruehstueckten ein letztes Mal miteinander, danach brachte er mich zum Hafen. Dort checkte ich mein Gepaeck ein und danach kam der grosse Abschied. Ich haette echt heulen koennen, dass ich Buenos Aires schon verlassen musste, aber irgendwann gehts halt weiter. Die Fahrt mit der Faehre dauerte etwa drei Stunden. Bereits zu Beginn der Fahrt habe ich Anna kennengelernt, eine Italienerin die schon seit drei Monaten in Buenos Aires ist und nicht mehr weg moechte... Mit ihr habe ich mich eigentlich waehrend der ganzen Fahrt unterhalten. Uns erwartete Colonia, ein kleines Staedtchen, welches viel Charme hat und wo man sich um Jahre zurueckversetzt vorkommt. Staendig sind uralte Autos oder ... read more

Uruguay - 25 Days 3 Dec - 11th Dec 2004 I intended to spend Christmas in Buenos Aires but was a bit early to go straight there so I decided to visit Uruguay with a friend and take the ferry across to Argentina. On the 3rd of Dec we took the night bus from Rosario, Argentina to Rosario, Uruguay continuing straight on in the morning to Colonia del Sacramento. Colonia was a nice enough place, cute streets and buildings so we stayed a couple of nights until heading to Montevideo for another couple of days exploring. We found nice colonial buildings and statues like most capitals have. From Montevideo my friend went home and I went to the Benidorm/Acapulco style Punta del Este, for a few days, to enjoy all tourist facilities. Whilst here I hired ... read more

On the 23rd of December we took a ferry from Buenos Aires (the Buquebus - pron. Bukkybus) to the capital city of the second-smallest country in South America, Montevideo. The Ferry Crossing Much the same as getting the ferry to France it was a smooth and relatively uneventful affair. The queue at immigration for passport stamps and suchlike could have been more smooth - these countries really do need to create some kind of mini-EU where nationals need only to show a passport - but anyway, we got through whilst noting that the population travelling with us probably had an average age of over 50, and that their attire and fashion sense was most distressing (bearing in mind that the residents of Buenos Aires are reputed to possess a certain ammount of chic). Well, on board ... read more

I bet, reader, that you probably dont know a huge amount about Uruguay... It is a relatively small, but affluent country on the Atlantic coast, nestled in between Brazil and Argentina. It´s mainly agricultural, and produces huge amounts of wheat and beef.. Fray Bentos is actually the name of a cow town here! It was also a banking and touism centre for rich argentinians, until the Argy currency crashed a few years back. Still, it is pleasant, without being spectacular, and with good roads, clean hotels, and great food all costing not a lot, a really nice place to travel through. We arrived on a windy morning on an overnight bus from southern Brazil, at a place called Punta Del Este. Now this place, basically is the Monte Carlo of south america.. A mixture of high ... read more