Our first visit to Buenos Aires was brief. In and out of the
city in about 10 hours. Flew in at midnight, got to our dodgy narrow staircased
hostel, tried to get a bit of sleep in banana shaped beds, got up early, walked
a few blocks down the street and caught the ferry to Uruguay. Really didn’t see
anything but knew we would be back in a week or two.
In typical South American fashion we had to visit 3
different desks to buy tickets and check in for the ferry but at least the
immigration was super efficient. I didn’t even realise we had gone through
Uruguay immigration till I looked at my passport on the ferry. While buying
coffees on the ferry I tried to translate a breakfast order for a German lady
using what German I hadn’t forgotten and the little Spanish I’d learnt. It went
pretty well till it was time to pay and I got completely muddled up with
numbers and which belonged to which language, some Maori even came out at one
point which really confused everyone.
The ferry docked at Colonia on the Uruguay side of the Rio
de la Plata. Even before getting off the ferry you could tell that things moved
at a slower pace here than the other side of the river. We disembarked, stored
our bags for the day, changed into jandals and wandered into the old town.
Colonia is Uruguays oldest town and has a very well preserved historic quarter.
The town spent its first 200 years being swapped periodically between
Portuguese and Spanish rule and was also a smugglers port at one stage so has a
lot of history and character. We spent a nice day just wandering the streets,
going into the museums and craft shops and also having one of the best meals we
had in South America. In hindsight it would have been nice to stay the night in
Colonia and have less time in Montevideo but we had already bought bus tickets
and booked our hostel in Montevideo so left that evening.
The next morning in Montevideo we quickly realised that
there must be a cruise ship in town by the number of middle aged Americans
walking about. While wandering through the antique stalls I overheard an
American lady buying some junky souvenir. She asked how much and the Uruguayan
stall holder said fifty meaning 50 pesos (approx US$2.50) but the lady
misunderstood and happily handed over US$50. Amazingly the Uruguayan didn’t pull
a fast one and set her right.
We took a bike ride around the water front in the afternoon.
The bikes were hired from a friend of the women working at the backpackers and
were really dodgy. Mine was only suitable for the flat as going uphill the
chain slipped off the gears and going downhill the brakes didn’t work well
enough to stop me and I had to use my feet. It was Saturday afternoon so lots
of people were out strolling the promenade and it was here we discovered that
Uruguayans have a massive obsession with mate. Mate is kind of like sweet
strong tea. People fill their special mugs with mate leaves and sugar, add hot
water from a flask and sip it through a metal straw. It is popular through the
southern half of South America but in Uruguay people take it everywhere. Just
about everyone on the promenade had a mug and flask and there were even venders
going round topping up hot water flasks.
We decided that after 3 months of travelling and being on
the move it would be nice just to relax for the last bit of our trip. We caught
a bus out to Punta del Diablo on the north east coast of Uruguay. While the bus
wasn’t quite as nice as some in Argentina and Chile it did have free on board
wifi! While most people have probably heard of Punta del Este, the famous and
flashy beach resort of South Americas rich and famous, Punta del Diablo is kind
of the opposite with dirt streets, small cabins and little shacks lining the
waterfront. We spent five days there doing not much. Time was spent walking
along the beaches, going to the shacks for fresh fish empanadas, lazing in the
hammocks, being followed by stray dogs, waiting for the weather to warm up to
go swimming and playing frisbee (when the dogs didn’t steal it). My attempts to
learn to surf were thwarted by the surfing coach being more interested in
surfing than teaching surfing. The one time we did go out my hired wetsuit was
too small, had no arms and a huge hole in the backside so I was cold and tired
very quickly and didn’t get close to catching a wave. Finally with our flight
out of Buenos Aires approaching it was time to leave and do the long
bus-bus-ferry trip back to BA. I’d been
a bit sick the last day or two and basically slept the whole way while Dusk got
very bored.
We had about 3 days in BA before our flight and we had
planned to do a few things like bike tours and going to a soccer match but as I
got sicker these didn’t seem like such a great idea. Instead we got to have a
fun trip to the Buenos Aires British Hospital. However, with a few drugs I was
soon fine again. We did see some of the main sights but with me being sick and
on medication meant we missed out on the night life. This didn’t seem like such a bad thing after
hearing all the stories from the people on our shuttle bus to the airport. About
half the people on the bus had been robbed or mugged in BA.
Anyway that was it for South America, now we are sitting in
Canada watching the snow fall outside it is already starting to feel like a
long time ago.
