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Published: March 24th 2009
We left our great meal with our new Aussie friends and headed straight to the bus station for our overnight bus to Uruguay. They collected our passports when we first got on the bus and that made me really nervous, so of course, I was asking the guy all these questions, but he could only answer me in Spanish. I just had to trust that it would be ok. Sure enough, they collected our passports so they could go through customs for us. At about 4am they woke us up to hand us back our passports, all stamped into Uruguay.
We arrived in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay at 8:30am the next morning. Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, larger only than Suriname. Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Uruguay won its independence in 1825-1828 following a three-way struggle between Spain, Argentina and Brazil. It is a constitutional democracy, where the president fulfills the roles of both head of state and head of government. The economy is largely based on agriculture. According to Transparency International, Uruguay is the least corrupt country in Latin America, which made us pretty
happy!
I was pretty tired that day so we decided to take it easy that day and not do too much sightseeing. We hung around the hostels, watched movies and generally just relaxed. The hostel was having an ¨asado¨ or BBQ that night, so we decided to participate. We had steak and chorizo sausage with a group from the hostel and had a great time.
The next day, we decided to all the sightseeing in Montevideo. It has a very European feel to it, just like Buenos Aires, but it is a lot smaller and more charming. We stayed in the older area of the city so the streets were smaller and there were many pedestrian walkways with shops and cafes.
Our first stop of the day was the Mercado, or marketplace. It was said to have some of the best steak lunches. However, before lunch we had to get some Uruguay pesos out of an ATM. This seemed like an easy feet, but we probably tried 20 Tam’s before we actually found one that would give us money! By then we were starving and practically running to eat at the Mercado. When we arrived, we were overwhelmed
by the number of paradillos (steakhouses). We decided on one that had a partly English menu and didn’t cost too much money. The market was crowded, but we managed to find three seats at the bar area. We ordered some chorizo, a steak and some fries for all of us to split. Of course everything was yummy. I love being in such a meat eating country! Sorry Scott, you would hate it here. My steak was pretty rare though and I struggled to get down some of the really red pieces. Still, somehow the meat just tastes better over here.
After that, we walked around the city through the pedestrian streets and to Independence Square, the old center of the city. We strolled the town and tried some peanuts they were selling on the street that were covered in caramelized sugar. Montevideo was a great little town with lots of charm. My favorite part was the horses and buggies that acted as garbage trucks. Instead of having garbage trucks, these horses would just roam down the streets with a cart attached to them. The person on the horse would stop and pick up trash bags along the way. Half
of the time, traffic would be slowed because the cars couldn’t get around the horses! It was one of the stranger things I have seen on my journeys and I loved it. I spent forever trying to get a photo of this, but every time I would see one, they would be too quick for me and I wouldn’t get out my camera in time. I did manage to get some photos, but they do not show how hilarious it was to see these random horses trot down the street.
The next day it was off to Punta Del Este for some R&R and beach time. Punta Del Este is the premier beach resort in the summer, but since it is getting to be fall the place was a ghost town. It was a quick bus ride from Montevideo since it lies only 140 km east of the capital. The city is internationally known, among other things as one of the most important and exclusive resort of South America.
We stayed at 1949 hostel, which had a great location in the town, but other than that, was not so great. We spent the next couple days trying to
communicate with the staff at the grocery store, laying on the beach, reading and just chilling out. The night guys that worked at the hostel were on some sort of drugs so I pretty much tried to avoid them all night. The town itself was full of upscale stores and restaurants. I could see how it could be an amazing place in summer, but I was actually quite happy it wasn’t too crowded with rich Brazilians and Argentineans. The weather was still gorgeous so we had some prime laying out time. We also walked along the water to the harbor, which had spectacular views of the city. The harbor also had some of the biggest sea lions I have ever seen in my entire life! They were huge and many of them hung around the various sea food stalls hoping to get fed some scraps. I think they have had A LOT of scraps because they were not starving, that’s for sure!
From there we decided to go to Colonia, near the Argentina border. We recruited an American girl named, Gina to come with us and took a bus back to Montevideo and then another bus to Colonia. We
only wanted to stay one night in Colonia since it is pretty small and then head back to Buenos Aires. Gina had to get back because she had school in BA. We arrived to the bus station and tried to book our ferry out for the next day. The guy at the ferry terminal just kept telling us seven days, no boat. HUH? So we decided to check into the hostel and see if they could book our tickets for us. Since the trio had reserved our hostel ahead of time, we checked in, but they were full so Gina had to stay at a hostel down the street. Then, they finally explained to us what was happening with the boat. The boat was broken and not running for seven days. OK, now what? There was another company who could get us back to BA, but for more money. Still... that’s fine with us. So Jeff and I went to the port to get the tickets and Chris and Gina set off to find Gina a hostel. Of course, we needed everyone’s passports to book the ferry and it was filling fast so Jeff and I were running all over
town to find Chris and Gina to get their passports. We finally go the ferry situation sorted for the next day, got Gina in to her hostel and decided we needed a drink.
Colonia was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 to smuggle goods across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires. Since the town is so old, the downtown area has been declared a UNESCO world heritage sight. The historical downtown is filled with cobble stone streets, old buildings and beautiful flowers. We spent the afternoon walking through the old streets and then found a sidewalk cafe in time for sunset over the ocean. The four us enjoyed some drinks and appetizers while we watched the sun go down.
Then it was back to the hostel for the night. Gina was going to hang out with us at our hostel and Chris went to take a shower. So Jeff, Gina and I were chilling out in the hostel common room. All of a sudden Chris comes and says that he no longer has a bed in his room and there is another girl that has his bed. Jeff and I were placed in a different room when
we checked in so we immediately went to the front desk to figure out what was going on. They told us that it looked like Chris´ room was overbooked and he could sleep on a mattress on the floor. There was no way he was going to do that, so he took his stuff and went to Gina’s hostel. When we returned from checking him in to his new hostel the front desk told us their computer made a mistake and they actually had a bunch of beds open in an empty room. Oh well... Chris had already paid at the other place so we would just spend the night at different hostels. Then Jeff and I walked in to our room and discovered that Jeff’s bed was also being occupied by someone else. So there was no room for Jeff in our room. At that point we told the staff that him and I were going to switch to the empty dorm room to guarantee that we both had beds. No problem there. We had been really understanding about the whole situation and what not. We just wanted to pay so that we could make sure the 10% deposit
we paid for all of us would be applied to just Jeff and I now that Chris was at a different place. The front desk was constantly busy, but we kept asking the girls if we could pay and they kept telling us to come back. Ok no big deal, we will pay later.
Chris and Gina went back to their hostel to get showered up and we ordered some pizzas for dinner from the hostel. Chris and Gina were going to come back and eat dinner with us. Around 10pm Jeff and I got some drinks and started eating the pizzas waiting for Chris and Gina (10pm is normal dinner time here in BA!). Around 10:30pm the front desk lady comes up to me and says that five girls are here to check in that had reservations and they need the room that Jeff and I are in. Well... that leaves only one bed left in the hostel and two of us! This is when I lost it. I didn’t know why we were getting pushed out when we had made a reservation just like everyone else in the hostel, but because we had been so nice earlier
they thought they could just push us out. I didn’t want to give them my business anymore, but I also wanted to hold my ground. We had paid money like everyone else and I was mad that we were being kicked out of our room at 10:30pm when we had checked in at 4pm! I made my peace with the lady saying we will do them a favor and leave, but we want our 10% deposit back. I ran over to the other hostel to make sure they had space for Jeff and I and then came back to ours. The fact that they overbooked was not my problem so I don’t know why I was dealing with it!
But I made my stink and the lady brought over money to repay us. Well, she was giving us back WAY too much money so I was trying to work out with her why she was giving it to us. She was pretty much paying for our accommodation that night, which was the least they could do. So fine, we were switching hostels. Then.... after all this, a girl in the hostel asked if we could keep it down because
she was watching a movie in the common room. I was ready to punch the girl in the face, but kept my cool, went to the other hostel and ended up having a fun night sharing our story with other travelers and hanging out. Plus the other hostel was less expensive so it all ended up working out. It just felt that everything was against us that day between the broken boat and the hostel. Just a typical day in the life of us! These are the times you get tired and want to just pack up and go home, but you make it through and everything works out and you realize that by the end of this, you will probably be able to handle any situation life throws at you.
Then it an early ferry back to Buenos Aires for a few days until we fly south to Patagonia.
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Courtney Enriquez
non-member comment
Man I love...
that house! Very cute :o) Keep on livin' the dream :o)