Cottage Montevideo

... and something which was going to be a surprise because I had no idea what it was. Well what I ordered turned out to be a plate of hot chips with a steak covered in cheese, ham and egg... a super health food! Together with the coffee it helped me warm to Montevideo just a little!

I got the night bus/ferry combination back to Buenos Aires without much drama, just a little cold in the middle of winter.

... elle était devant son PC nous avons joyeusement discuté par email, je lui envoyais en temps réel ce que je voyais, c'était vraiment chouette et complètement bizarre! Ce fut donc un voyage bien drôle, merci Louise! En arrivant a Montevideo, le contraste avec Buenos Aires n'aurait pas pu être plus grand pour deux villes aussi proches! C'était tout tranquille, tout aéré, beaucoup plus propre, vraiment relax. La première ...

Day 87 Sunday 29th March - Uruguay Woke up at about 9am and went down to the restaurant for breakfast. It was your typical continental breakfast so, bread rolls, ham, cheese, fruit, yoghurt etc (help yourself stylee, so I did). 4000 calories later and we went to get changed and went to meet some of Ismael's friend on "The Rambles", which is basically just the name for the long stretch along the beach. We parked ...

... girlfriend Ximena picked us up to show us the town. We wandered along the coast - with plenty of nice beaches and high-rise condos - before feasting on ¨asado¨ at a well-liked parilla (bbq restaurant). They explained to us that in the summer, there's a mass exodus to the beaches along the eastern coast of the country and weekends are especially deserted in town. We were looking forward to the beaches ourselves, and it was nice ...

I decided to splurge in Uruguay and I am staying at a HOTEL not a hostel! Woo hoo! Quite lovely. :) Montevideo is quite a lovely little town- my favorite thing about this place is certainly the street along the ocean. Well maintained ...

... are high, our plan was to stay in Montevideo for 1 night before heading eastwards to the beaches (Uruguay has some great beaches along its Eastern coast), we were heading first to the town of Punta Del Este, which is a big resort , even could be described as a Megaresort, then heading further east to the much smaller village of Punta Del Diablo. We were going in what is the peak season, christmas and new years period, so we ...

... first two weeks of January, Punta and surrounding areas swell with movie stars and models from all over South America. Film crews, photographers, and magazine staff follow them and watch their every move and parties abound. Prices are also at their highest, easily charging 100% more than usual. According to Lonely Planet´s South America Guide, "The one thing that Uruguayans will tell you that they´re not is anything like their porteño (people from Buenos Aires) cousins ...

... are based, along with the wealthiest of Monetvideo residents. The prison/shopping centre is in a beachside suburb of town and as we walk along the wide boulevard, which seems to run for miles, we feel that we could almost be in the South of France. This area of the city lacks the colonial architecture but is a lot more upmarket than the centre with lots of wonderful house and apartments. I can think of worse places to live!

Apparently the road ...

... there were so many "tourist police" as well as ordinary police around the streets! On Saturday, as we walked along the 18 de Julio(18th July -South Americans seem to like calling streets by dates), we came across a street milonga, so we joined in. Not our finest hour in old running shoes and track pants - not easy to dance with a backpack either. We weren't game to put anything down for a moment. Sunday, Dru insisted ...

... out by changing the big bill and invited us to go to his gym. After putting our few items away, we walked up to the Pal. Leg. area and found out about the English tour (we think - 11 am) and then walked back via Lima St., where we found a very nice butcher shop and mercado, only a couple of blocks away. I called Copa Airlines; they´ll charge us $50 to change our tickets if we choose to depart early. P has attempted to invite Edouardo (the ...