Uruguay (not "ur-a-gay")

After a quick and painless border crossing from Argentina, Uruguay maintained its laidback attitude for the 8 nights we were there. Seventeen hours of bus rides and transfers deposited us in Montevideo, were we found a small hotel in the middle of the city. 1.4 million of the 3.5 million people of Uruguay live in this capital city. Though we were only there for a day, it proved to be a beautiful and fairly mellow colonial city with baroque architecture and lots of limestone walls/sidewalks. We walked by the congressional building and got to see soldiers all dressed up in there fancy uniforms taking down the blue and white flag, with a trumpet dictating the folding and marching. The next afternoon we caught a bus to La Paloma, which is directly on the Atlantic on the the eastern side of the country.

La Paloma was a super mellow beach town that lived on the sand. Locals were laid back and were all about getting work over with (or postponing it) so they could lay on the scorching hot sand. Our little hostal was basically on the beach, and had a very fun sleepy environment. After a fresh breakfast of fruit and mermelade covered baguette, we would usually just curl up to a book, go to the beach, siesta, take a walk around town, take a cold shower, and reapeat all of the above as necessary... Quite a nice way to spend our 'xmas break!'

Shreddin the gnar

Evoloution

During our stay, a friendly neighbor of the hostal drove us out to the Rocha Laguna, which was a large freshwater lagoon with a whole lot of crabs and riparian life. We got to frolic on the dunes around it that divided it from the sea. Of course, the neighbor was carrying his termo and mate (We found that Uruguayans imbibe the mate tea more than any other culture, and in all likelihood have thermos-elbo--much like the tennis-elbow, but caused by always having a thermos in the crook of the arm). We also got to see the remote neighboring towns that support themselves by fishing and harvesting eucalyptus trees for timber. Though it can't compare to the Pacific, there are waves here. Don't tell any Americans, but this would be the place to retire!!

Stand back!!

Kristin had to make a call to Bank of America, and after several minutes, she finally got through to customer support. Trying to explain she was out of the country "in Uruguay," the mid-western sounding representative was incredulous and asked, "is that a country or something?!" Controlling our laughter, she patiently repeated that she was in Uruguay. "ah! so its called ur-a-gay. Um, can you spell that for me?" By now the entire hostal was in complete stitches, and we could barely answer him. Not the nicest thing to do to the guy, but he kinda asked for it! ;)

After 5 days in the restful La Paloma, we caught a slow bus across the tiny Holland-sized country to Colonia del Sacramento, which is the oldest city of the country. We stayed in a small bed and breakfast style hostel with a very matronly and friendly owner, Maria Teresa. Colonia has a fascinating history of Jesuits, pirates, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italian, and many other influences. The town has retained a lot of these previous cultures, and is quite the friendly mixing-pot. On Christmas Eve we had a big lunch downtown, and then found a moto-rental place that rented a small scooter for $15.00 for 3 hours. We got to see a lot of the small city mounted on this noisy gas-spitting vacuum cleaner. It was the perfect day to toot around, since most people were on vacation with their famalies or BBQing an Asado, or hanging out on the beach. After we felt our butts had had enough vacuum vibration, we split up to get 'useful' gifts for each other as Christmas gifts in the small downtown.

Matando los munchies!!

Christmas morning was very relaxing with coffee, books, and fruit; then we exchanged our small gifts. Ivan got some schmancy writing pens, a Uruguayan flag, some dark chocolate (a real treat here), a traditional alfajore cookie and toothbrushes. Kristin got a nice leather wallet to replace the infuriatingly small and awkward money pouch that had Ivan's fingers in a knot several times. She also got a bombillo straw and some alfajore cookies (which Ivan ended up eating anyways...). All useful stuff that should be easy to carry!! After some calls home we did some walking around town, and a lot of relaxing.

High rollers (divide by 20...)

Christmas dinner

Uruguay was a great way to recuperate from the intense traveling we did in Northern Argentina! On December 26th we caught the ferry across the bay to Buenos Aires into Dante's porteno inferno! BA blog coming soon..!