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Published: January 19th 2009
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Buquebus
The ferry to Uruguay with Buenos Aires in the background. So we walked to the Buquebus terminal this morning where we went through Uruguayan customs. I was surprised at how easy it was. They just stamped the passport and handed back tickets and papers that I can’t read. Then we just stumbled down the hall and onto the ferry where they met us with free glasses of champagne and crackers…pretty nice. Big huge seats, just like first class on the airlines. It is a huge boat and this is when I began to realize what a tourist trap we had fallen into.
The boat took us to Colonia, Uruguay where the immigration agent repeated himself twice but was met only with our smiles, “hola”, and “no comprendo”. Then he just smiled back and waved us into Uruguay. I guess I am surprised that we have crossed two foreign borders and no one has bothered to look in our bags, except Alaska Airlines.
We got on a crowded bus and luckily got the last two seats in the back row. It is a 4 hour bus ride from Colonia to Punta del Este. I studied a little Spanish and then fell asleep until we hit the first speed
Buquebus
I took this picture to show the width of this boat. It's huge. Nice seats too. bump. I had hoped that South America would not have these nasty little “safety” precautions but Uruguay is all too familiar with them. Just about the time I would fall asleep my sunburned head would meet the luggage rack above. It was good to get out and see some of the country side. It was a nearly painless trip with one stop in Montevideo. We did notice the temperature rose about 10 degrees…not exactly what this whitey needed.
I should explain Punta Del Este is THE vacation spot for South America. There are miles of sandy beaches, warm Atlantic waters, casinos, money, local celebrities, and lots of parties, and after parties, and after after parties. If we would have known the extent of Punta del Este’s popularity we would have aimed for some place a little further from the beaten path, but it was too late now.
We plan on using hostels throughout this trip but were shocked at the prices in Punta. The hostel cost more than our hotel in Buenos Aires. We got there at about 7 PM. We were starving so we found a nice little corner restaurant on a busy street. We
Transportaion For Four
This ought to be legal at home too. I love it. tried to order some pasta off the dinner menu but were told it was not available for 2 more hours. This should have been our first clue that this was a party town. I just thought, “Dinner starts at 9:30 PM? Hmmmm maybe Uruguay is 5 hours behind Argentina?” So we ordered some empanadas and a local beer and headed back for the hostel. This was a pretty big hostel with 30+ beds crammed in a single house. A nice big back yard and some really cool young local guys running it. We got our own room with a bunk bed and a “shared bathroom” (“shared” means anyone who needs to use it walked through our room first). If we both turned sideways and sucked our stomachs in we could almost pass each other without rubbing...it was small…actually it was really small. The doors are only 5’ 9” tall, so now I have a bloody, bumpy, sunburned head. There was also a nice big open window facing the yard. We went for a nice long walk to the ocean and watched some locals catch fish off the dock. When we got back to the hostel it was 1130pm and it
Shopping Cart
I laughed till I cried when I saw this. This should be legal at home too. What a great advertisement for Safeway. was only getting louder. They were barbequing and having a good old time, it was great. I enjoy listening to people talking and laughing in other languages, it makes me happy for them. I questioned this enjoyment at 1am, 3am, and 6am, as the partying continued. Our nice big open window was a portal to every spoken word, not to mention the fireworks that gave me whiplash at 0130 AM. Like I said, Samantha and I fit right in as we lie in our bunk bed sweating and trying to think nice thoughts.
The last out-burst of noise occurred at 9am as a group of hostel members returned from a night on the town. Other occupants did not stagger back from partying until 6 PM. For those of you who know Samantha and I, you would have been impressed by our ability to sleep-in. We brought our bed-head and eye buggers to lunch every day. More later, Cheers.
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