Well its about time i wrote another entry!! So I'm up to leaving Brazil for Uruguay (I'm actually writing this entry on a bumpy Bolivian overnight bus that's going about 5km an hour! I can barely read my own writing...( We were on our way to Buenos Aires in Argentina, but thought it'd be cool to check out Uruguay for a couple of days on the way.
So... we got an overnight bus from Florianopolis to Uruguay, which was set to arrive at the Uruguayan border at 4am (the bus was going all the way to Montevideo, the capital, but we were going to a seaside fishing village called Punta del Diablo, so needed to get off at the border town, Chuy(. Once getting off at the border town, Chuy, we needed to get another bus to Punta del Diablo.
At 4am the bus stopped, the driver called out "Chuy!", our stop. But insetad of taking us to a bus terminal, they dropped us off on the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere! Luckily there was the 3 of us and about 6 English guys all getting off together. Unbelieving that they'd just leave us on the side of the road, we asked the driver where the bus terminal was, he shrugged and pointed vaguely in one direction. So off we all traipsed... managed to find a main street with some bus companies on it. Hooray! We thought we could get the next bus in a couple of hours to Punta del Diablo, we just needed some Uruguayan pesos to buy our bus ticket. Except none of the ATMs would accept our eftpos cards... Not good.
Then after discussion with the guy at the bus company, we found out that our other bus didnt stop at the Brazilian immigration office for us to get our Brazilian exit stamp...about 3km back the way we'd come. We had no pesos to get a cab because of the ATMs, so we all then had to walk. Fortunately it was daylight by then, and we were escorted there and back by about 3 stray dogs, all along for the adventure. THen of course on the walk back to Chuy in Uruguay, it started to pour with rain. We werent happy people... only the dogs seemed to be maintaining high spirits.
The ATMs still didnt take our cards, but luckily Claire and I had $US200 emergency money (thanks Carissa!!( So finally, FINALLY, we got onto a bus to Punta del Diablo...
Its a gorgeous seaside fishing village, and when we arrived it was quite blustery and cold. We hadnt booked any accommodation, but the town was filled with quaint little cottages, and within minutes of getting off the bus, we were taken to a cottage by a lovely old Uruguayan lady. So we rented this gorgeous cottage, fully equipped, for 2 nights. We cooked some awesome meals, played lots of cards, ate lots of dulce de leche, Viv played guitar, and just had an awesome time.
I made friends with another stray dog... he was standing outside our cottage when we arrived, and was so cute and friendly, so naturally i hung out with him and gave him some food. Then whenever we'd leave our front door open, he'd run inside and sleep behind the lounge! After the first night i put him outside, and we didnt see him again until when we were waiting near our cottage for our bus to Montevideo to arrive. He ran over to us and licked my feet! So i fed him again.
And that was Punta del Diablo! I really loved it there. From there we caught a bus to Montevideo, so we could then get a bus and then a ferry to Buenos Aires, Argentina...
