No more photos - technology won´t allow here....
Day after day on the beautiful beaches of Rio and Florianopolis in Brazil had to take its toll. We had far too many ´pay by the kilo´ icecream buffets (yes as amazing as they sound) and tables full of seafood at beach restaurants. We were starting to feel too relaxed following our tiring ´adventures´ and knew we had to move on before we wanted to stay for good.
We crossed the border south into Uruguay. We spent 3 days in a beach resort where it rained for almost the first time on our trip then went south to Montevideo and then Colonia del Sacramento.
Let me just say that Uruguays steaks are superb! We found this indoor market in an old train station where the restaurants cook on massive woodfired barbeques. We sat and watched it cook and then proceeded to have THE best steak of our lives. Never seen anything so thick. Daniel and Nathan would have been squealing like little girls - we almost were.
People didn´t eat till 10-11pm there either so we tried desperately to eat like the locals, holding on till 9 and sometimes 10. Smokey bbq meals were everywhere, offering an assortment of intestines and organs in the bbq for 2.
Uruguay was relatively clean and felt very safe. The people were friendly although nothing like the Brazilians.
Colonia del Sacramento is a world heritage village and was beautiful. We stayed there for 3 days eating good food and exploring the charming area. We hired a scooter and bounced through the cobbled 16th century streets.
Yesterday we took the ferry back to Buenos Aires where we first began our trip. Frenetic pace and stoney faces. Tomorrow night we go to dinner and a Tango Show before packing up and heading to our beloved home.
Hopefully we´ll leave our tourist ways behind, particularly the fashion ones like wearing running shoes with anything, going to a restaurant in running shoes, shorts and singlets, standing on corners and looking up while everyone else is walking normally and knows where they´re going, consulting a map at every turn, going everywhere with a backpack.
So grateful for the journey and all the learnings: about ourselves, the world and just how blessed we really are.
Looking forward to our country of abundance: yum milk and dairy products, clean streets, a front yard, home baking, fruit and vegetables, being able to relax and not worry about our safety or our stuff, and most of all our f & w (friends and whanau).
