Day 7 - Welcome to Uruguay
Nov 20 - Montevideo, Uruguay
(Evan)
Upon reaching Montevideo it became unfortunately clear that
Google maps does NOT know where the bus terminal is. We thought we were going
to only have a 3 block walk to our accommodations, but it turned out to be 3 miles after we found some street signs
and got our bearings. Chelsea pushed the pace- by the time we made it we both
had sweaty backs and a bit of swass.
Our host was waiting for us, not at all bothered that we
were over an hour later than we originally expected (blue door is ours!). Our room was spotless,
this was our first private room with common cooking and bath, and we love it.
After throwing our stuff down and taking a little break, we headed out to explore
the neighborhood. We quickly found several shops that Chelsea really loved
checking out - hip Uruguayan second-hand clothes store, some fun coffee shops, and book stores. It
turns out the area we are staying in is a busy banking and business area in
addition to attracting a lot of tourists, so there was no shortage of sharply
dressed people and nice shops.
(Evan)
Woke up early to pack and double check we have everything. Our plan was to take the ferry from BA to Colonia, Uruguay, then take a bus from Colonia to Montevideo. On paper, sounded easy. We were curious to see how it went, not knowing much about Uruguay.
We hailed an Uber and made it to the ferry at 7:05 for our 8:00 departure to
Colonia, Uruguay. Exit through Argentine customs and Uruguay was easy. Boarded
the boat and basically chilled out for the 1 hour crossing of Rio de Plata to
Colonia.
Leaving the ferry, our bags were checked by Uruguayan
customs. Our bananas and package of salami were considered contraband, so
somebody got a free snack/lunch on us. Chelsea in Spanish told the guys that we had gotten him a gift! as we handed over the goods...he didn't laugh.
Boarded the bus to Montevideo- took 2 hours. The drive was
mainly through farmland. Other than the strange building style- mainly tin
roofs and adobe style walls, it reminded me a lot of southern Minnesota, except
slightly more rolling hills- maybe more western Wisconsin, but I don’t want to
hate on Uruguay so let’s call it a more rolling hills version of southern
Minnesota.
Upon reaching Montevideo it became unfortunately clear that
Google maps does NOT know where the bus terminal is. We thought we were going
to only have a 3 block walk to our accommodations, but it turned out to be 3 miles after we found some street signs
and got our bearings. Chelsea pushed the pace- by the time we made it we both
had sweaty backs and a bit of swass.
Our host was waiting for us, not at all bothered that we
were over an hour later than we originally expected (blue door is ours!). Our room was spotless,
this was our first private room with common cooking and bath, and we love it.
After throwing our stuff down and taking a little break, we headed out to explore
the neighborhood. We quickly found several shops that Chelsea really loved
checking out - hip Uruguayan second-hand clothes store, some fun coffee shops, and book stores. It
turns out the area we are staying in is a busy banking and business area in
addition to attracting a lot of tourists, so there was no shortage of sharply
dressed people and nice shops.
We ended our day by watching the sunset at the water's edge. The colors were gorgeous, except for the color of the water, which is brown, because really BA and Montevideo, Uruguay, while on the coast, are really at the mouth of a river. We then picked up groceries and a bottle of
Uruguayan wine (recommendation from our host - Tannat) to enjoy while we cooked and ate around 9pm. Delicious.
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