Didn't stay in Montevideo very long.
Trip Start
Mar 06, 2005
1
23
27
Trip End
May 27, 2005
Colonia del Sacramento,
Uruguay
Friday, April 22, 2005
While at the restaurant, though, sitting at the next table were a couple of guys from Louisiana
Countries I've visited so far.
! They are studying law at LSU (Louisiana State University - where I did my undergraduate studies, for those of you who don't know what LSU means!) and are on an exchange program in Buenos Aires, which is just across the river. Is it a small world or what?Saturday, 23 April
Had a productive morning, dropping off my laundry to be washed and then hanging it on a clothesline on the sunny, breezy roof of my hotel. This is the first time I was able to hang up my clothes outside (I usually rig up my clothesline in my hotel room between a couple of chairs), so this time my clothes should dry quickly.
I also took the opportunity to buy my boat ticket to Buenos Aires for Monday morning. (The fast boat, which I'll be taking, leaves at 9:15 and takes an hour to arrive in B.A. - at a cost of about 33 dollars. The slow boat leaves at 4:30 in the morning and takes about 3 hours and costs something over 20 dollars.) I get the feeling that this is their way of forcing people to take the more expensive fast boat.
I took a few nice pictures of the sunset here yesterday (you'll have to trust me on that), but when I just tried to upload them, I discovered that my (very cheap) camera card reader from Panthip Plaza in Bangkok just died on me
Lunch outside on a nice day
. So very likely I will not be able to put up anymore pictures until I get back to Bangkok.Now that I'm back in Bangkok, from the comfort of my home I can show you this picture of that sunset:
Now for some thoughts on South American cuisine: I call it caveman cuisine as it basically consists of salting a chunk of meat and then grilling it by the fire. At the risk of insulting my South American friends who seem to like this way of cooking/eating, I really find it the most basic and primitive way of eating imaginable. I know I've complained about it before, but basically to most South Americans, salt = good; more salt = better; and no salt = not good. Come on, people - use a bit of imagination! We're in an international world where it is possible to import spices from anywhere. At meals here, you don't even find a pepper shaker on the table. Only a salt shaker - and sometimes two salt shakers!
So my typical day's eating goes like this: Start the day with a totally inadequate breakfast consisting of some useless, often sugared, white bread with a bit of butter and jam. (I've gotten to the point where I bring my own breakfast to breakfast.) Then, usually within a half an hour of finishing breakfast, I'm starving again and I start looking for lunch
Nice colonial street
. To get a halfway edible lunch, I have to insist to the waiter three times NO SALT, please! Even then, about half the time the food still comes too salty. (They assume that I made a mistake when I ordered the meal without salt as everyone knows that salt = good taste, right?)As I've mentioned before, there are often all-you-can-eat buffets in South America, which has the advantage of allowing me to try a dozen different types of food, thereby increasing the chances of finding one or two dishes that aren't oversalted. But when I have to order a-la-carte, it's really hit or miss - and usually miss. I'm sorry to dwell on this issue so much, but eating is important - especially when you're as skinny as I am. And it really wears me out sometimes to be walking around starving when there is so much food around that I can't even eat because it's so salty.
Okay, and to close out each day, I usually have a couple of home-made tuna sandwiches, to ensure that I get at least one good meal a day. (Of course the cans of tuna have too much salt, too, so I just rinse them out with water a few times to drain off the salt.)
Do you also get the feeling that it's getting time for me to get back home?
Saturday evening, 23 April
Just a quick note to say that my camera card reader seems to be working again so I'll quickly try to upload a few pictures now
The local lighthouse
. (I "fixed" it with some Super Glue!)Sunday morning, 24 April
I am now experiencing something that in Thailand is absolutely impossible: Both rain and cold at the same time. It has rained so rarely on this trip that I had come to take it for granted that I deserved perfect weather - all the time. Well, with winter appearing to arrive, it's time for me to adjust my expectations.
Other thoughts on the weather: I must say that I've been EXTREMELY lucky with the weather on this trip - something of which I am reminded now that it is cold and rainy. I can only remember one other rainy day on the whole trip besides this one - that memorable day in Encarnacion, Paraguay during which it rained non-stop for 24 hours. I would therefore say that this is a good time of the year to visit South America, as the weather is nice and it is not the high season, so accommodation is relatively cheap and easy to find.
Some other thoughts: I've spoken to several other people about the salty food issue and the verdict is far from unanimous
The sun setting over Argentina - seen from Uruguay
. Some foreign travelers also like salt as much as the South Americans and are therefore not troubled by the excessively salty food. So let's just say that it's a personal problem of mine rather than a problem for every visitor.I was also wondering how some people are able to travel, say, around the world for a whole year at a time (I've met many such people on my travels), among them a German woman with whom I shared breakfast this morning. The consensus appears to be that it is easier to do such a long trip when you have a partner with whom you can share the experience. Alone, not many people like to attempt such a trip.
Thoughts on certain South American peculiarities:
(1) Littering. Any North American or European who travels in South America, or for that matter anywhere in Latin America, cannot help but noticing the different attitudes here towards littering. For Latin Americans, the streets are their private trash cans. Finished with your can of coke? Fling the empty can out the window of your car or bus. Unwrap your cigarettes - just throw the cellophane wrapper onto the ground. I can't help but wonder what these people are thinking when they do that - and what they think will happen after they throw things onto the ground. Is it going to pick itself up? That being said, I don't suppose that any of us are really born with a sense of tidiness. In my own childhood, for example, I remember the anti-litter campaigns that we had in the U.S. So we gringos also had to be taught not to throw things out the window or onto the streets. On the other hand, well, that was 40 years ago. What are they waiting for here? A cold day in July? (That was a bit of a joke as July is winter here . . .)
(2) Smoking. South Americans smoke anywhere, everywhere and all the time. In internet cafes, in restaurants, in shopping malls, even in lifts. (In my hotel in Posadas, Argentina, every time I went to get into the lift, there was the same man smoking in it every time. And every time I would decline to enter the lift with him due to his smoking. Do you think that caused him to reconsider his habit of smoking in the lift?) I had almost forgotten about how we used to have to suffer from other peoples' smoke. Well, here is a chance to experience something else from the past. Even Thailand is more progressive than South America when it comes to smoking - or rather, in the protection of the health and rights of non-smokers. In South America, they haven't even started thinking about the subject. So I fear that a solution to this problem is a long way off yet.
On a totally unrelated matter: Last night I dreamed ("dreamt" for you British English speakers) that I was traveling - not through South America on fancy buses, but rather through Europe in the back of an old truck. When the truck passed through Budapest, I told my fellow travelers that we were now in MY old stomping ground and that they had nothing to worry about as I knew my way around there. We then rounded a corner and who do I see standing in front of her house chatting with a friend of hers? One of my old friends from Budapest, Eva V., who also happens to be on my mailing list for this trip. In the dream, she came up to me and greeted me with the Hungarian triple cheek kiss, and then my truck pulled away - and that was it. There might be some deeper meaning to that dream - such as that I should start traveling in the back of trucks now. Who knows?
Sunday afternoon, 24 April
It's a cold, rainy, windy Sunday afternoon in a very small town, so not much else to do but work on my website. So I'll continue pouring out my thoughts here.
Thoughts regarding safety in South America: Admittedly, before I came here, one of my biggest concerns was for my personal safety. Approaching the end of my trip now, I can say that my fears were exaggerated. I now think that it is possible to travel in most of South America with only the usual precautions. For example, I avoid going down dark streets alone at night in strange places. And I keep my possessions either hidden on my person - or locked away in my bags in my room. And that has been enough to enable me to completely avoid any problems up to now, I am pleased to say.
