A 2 week stint through Uruguay

  Colonia, Montevideo and Punta Del Este, Uruguay
Tuesday, September 20, 2005

A 2 week stint through Uruguay
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It was time to start the traveling part of this trip. After a blur or a month in Buenos Aires, I needed a little tranquility, some time to chill from the 24 hour partying that Buenos Aires is famous for.

So my mate from Australia, Alan, and I caught a 3 hour ferry from Buenos Aires to a Colonial town in Uruguay called funnily enough ´Colonia'.
To be honest, the reason we wanted to leave the 'Mil House' was because we were being stalked by two Canadian girls who had taken a liking to us. The followed us everywhere and we couldn't get a moments peace, so, early one morning we packed our stuff and ran off to the ferry. It was a peaceful trip on the great big catamaran and a few hours later, we arrived in Colonia, Uruguay.

A quiet little town with cobbled streets, very few cars, and loads of bikes. The main transport is on horseback, straight down the main road.

The first day in Colonia we rode around on bikes and discovered a huge abandoned Colosseum, built a few years before bull fighting was banned and since, has no use and is bordered up and sadly falling apart. Other than the Coliseum there wasn´t too much more to Colonia, a few tranquil, relatively clean sandy beaches, some nice board walks and a lighthouse but not much more. At night, from a vantage point on a nearby hill we saw the twinkling lights of Buenos Aires shining across the River Plate.
The next day, after a massive lunch where they crack eggs onto a huge steak and provided all the fries and salad we could eat, we left for Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay and very similar to Buenos Aires.

Montevideo didn´t impress in the slightest. It is basically a rubbish version of Buenos Aires. We walked from the bus terminal to our hostel and were chased by a gang of  teenagers. We ran own a few streets and took shelter in a convienience store and waited for them to leave. We left the next morning.

Our next stop was ´Punta Del Este´ Point of the East, a massive tourist town on a finger of land with the Atlantic ocean on one side and the River Plate on the other. Its similar to Surfers Paradise in Australia with high rises everywhere and is basically just a massively expensive tourist trap. We arrived in their quiet winter season and the place was deserted. A cold wind was blowing in from the Atlantic, and the water was far from inviting, its brown, polluted and cold. There are a number of beaches, a few with decent surfing waves but all were crowded with surfers making the most of the cold, windy, chopped up conditions. This place would be absolutely mad in Summer but unfortunately this time of year just doesn't cut it.

Despite the cold blasting wind, Punta Del Este did however have something for us to see: Seals, Sea Lions and Dolphins. Alan and I spent a few hours strolling around the boardwalk, admiring the sea life and watched as the Sea Lions took liking to an old wooden boat, and climbed aboard. We took a few photos and admired the little guys and continued exploring.
The next day, we returned to see the sea lions and to our surprise, they had climbed aboard the boat and sunk it. Only the top of the cabin was protruding through the surface of the water with a baby Sea lionl ontop. We spent hours getting close enough to touch all of the above mentioned animals and sipping on Mate


The truth about Mate:
Mate. (which is the done thing in Uruguay - Its a herbal tea, similar to Chinese Green Tea but a whole lot stronger with many medicinal benefits, or so they say, I´m Hooked!).

MATE:
Facts:
don't add sugar don't say mate is 'unhygenic' don't say mate is too hot don't leave the mate halve way don't feel ashamed of the noise at the end don't slow down the rhythm it is estimated in Uruguay, each person consumes more than 570 litres of mate per year it contains 'mateina' which affects the cns it is an aphrodisiac   Mate has been used for centuries to:
energize the body stimulate mental awareness aid weight loss cleanse the colon acts as a gentle diuretic accelerate the healing process fortify the immune system  

Friendship:
mate is more than good for the body, its good for the soul in traditional mate use, the straw or bombilla is shared among family and friends the sharing of mate is a sign of total acceptance and friendship Me gusta mate

After a week in Punta Del Este watching the Sea Animals and checking out the place on a bike, Alan and I retuned to Montevideo to give it another chance. It wasn't as bad as our first impressions lead it to be, but we didn't stay long and returned to Colonia and finally, back on a 3 hour ferry to Buenos Aires for one more crazy party session before heading north and begin the real travel.

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Random notes
1.00 Australia Dollar = 17.9352 Uruguay Pesos