Uruguay
After being in Buenos Aires for a week we were sick of the city and missing the beach (it’s summer down here) so we decided to hop on a boat and head to Uruguay. Uruguay is the closest place to BA that has beaches that are swim-able (according to South America). The top cities with the best beaches in Uruguay are Punta del Este and Montevideo. According to all the Argentinians these are the places where all the rich families go for summer vacation and since we are poor backpackers we thought we would fit right in lol so off we went.
Montevideo was closer the closer of the two so we decided to go there and in order to get there (the cheapest way) we took a boat from Buenos Aires to Colon at 11:15 pm for three hours and then we took a bus from Colon to Montevideo that lasted another three hours. The one thing I have learned about buses in South America is that they are never on time! We ended up waiting for the bus in Colon for 1 ½ hours (from 2:30 – 4:00 in the morning). By the time we arrived in Montevideo we were exhausted, smelly, and dying to lay on a beach and soak up some rays. Note to self: never show up early for a bus
All in all the boat was very smooth and comfortable
After finding Alfredo’s house, an awesome CouchSurfer we stayed with in Uruguay, and getting orientated with the city we changed into our swim togs and hit the beach. Have you ever heard of the phrase, “you don’t know what you have until it is gone?” Well, after living in Hawaii for two years and having the beaches of paradise no other beach stands a chance. The beaches in Uruguay were great in their own way, they were beaches, but it made us miss Hawaii’s beaches terribly.
Mike kneeling in the water
See me? I am sitting on my bum in the water, seriously if I stood up the water would be to my knees :)
Uruguay’s beaches:
- very fine sand
- super strong sun - check out my stomach
- · very crowded – the sun sets around 9:30 pm in Uruguay and so people are at the beaches all day long
- · helado (ice-cream) boys walking up and down the beach screaming “helado, helado, helado”, with their raspy voices
- · shallow water – you had to walk about 50 meters just to get your thighs wet
- · no waves – rather they had ripples
- · murky water
We spent the whole day and the beached and ended up looking like fried lobsters the next day. Note to self: Wear sunscreen!
This is what you get when you use self timer for your camera, I am talking and Mike is in the middle of taking off his sunglasses lol
One thing that everyone must try in their life time is helado, it’s an Italian ice-cream. They have numerous mouth watering flavors (we tried dulce de leche, of course, Italian chocolate, and banana split), a rich creamy texture, and it will make you come back for seconds and thirds. Just like everything in life be sure to shop around for the best prices.
Montevideo’s garbage system consists of boys on horse and buggies. They ride up to the garbage bin jump down from their buggy and disappear into the garbage. After a minute or two you see them immerge from the bin holding bags of garbage. They manage to climb out, toss the trash in the back of the buggy and head to the next bin. Honestly, it was quite an outstanding occupation to witness.
Chivitos, a mother of all sandwiches, home to Uruguay. When leaving for Uruguay we were strongly encouraged by all that we MUST eat a chivito. For all who do not know a chivito is “The Sandwich”. It consists of a toasted bun, beef, lettuce, tomato, olives, cooked peppers, eggs, cheese, ham, potato, salsa, mayo, some type of orange things that we weren’t really sure of what they were and some random green things too. A chivito and papa fritas (fries) are served for $170 pesos (USD $ 8) and are worth every cent. It was fabulous; the thing was so big that we ended up eating the majority of it with a fork.
All along the coast of cuidad vieja you'll find locals fishing; they use these extremely long fishing polls.
I have decided to do a statue per city we visit and this is definitleys Uruguay's statue. It was located right at the entrance of ciudad vieja and was enormous!
Have I told you how much I love little markets on the side of the street? Well I do! All the stores here are like custom shops, they all specialize in one thing. Example: they have shoe shops, hair accessory shops, bread shops, meat shops, shirt stores, fruit shops, etc... To get everything you need you end up going to many of this little things. One thing is for sure, you get your exercise :)
