Uruguay

After about a month of freezing Patagonian winter we decided to make a move up north in hopes fo encountering some warmer weather. We had a quick stop in both Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires before leaping across the river to Uruguay, where we have now spent just over a week.

From Buenos Aires we took a ferry to Colonia del Sacramiento, a beautiful old city of narrow cobblestone streets, low houses with worn paint that shows the passing of time, and plazas surrounded by citrus trees - a picture perfect wee town in other words. Since we arrived on Sunday when the towns in these parts are almost completely shut down as the day is reserved for religion and family, we spent our day just walking around and enjoying the sun.

The next morning we hopped into a rackedy old bus towards the capital, Montevideo. There we found ourselves a nice wee hostel just out of the center, which had the most amazing supermarket around the corner. Sounds lame, I know, but after months of travelling and eating the same old pasta and rice with white bread and not being able to find a lot of things it was like heaven walking to this supermarket that had just about everything you could imagine! After an amazing luch we went to explore the ciudad vieja, which was nice but didn´t quite compare to the perfection of Colonia. Back by the hostel we stumbled upon a market where we spent a few hours admiring the local crafts.

The next day we were on the go yet again, this time on our way to Punta del Diablo, a very small town on the coast of Uruguay near the Brasilian border. When we arrived the darkness of the night had already settled over the town, and with no street lights it was just about pitch black. Not so smartly, we hadn´t really found out where the hostel was, but we did know there was only one here open during winter. With no people around it was impossible to ask direction, so we decided to head towards the beach hoping that we would stumble upon the hostel, which luckily we did only after about 10minutes of wondering in the dark.

Stepping into the hostel was like stepping into another world, here we were thinking we´d be just about the only people staying here in tranquility, but instead stepped into what seemed like a raging party in a packed hostel! Turned out though that the hostel is also the only pub open here over winter, so it was packed with locals having a few beers and getting roudy. Luckily that turned out to be the biggest night of the week and we have been able to enjoy a bit of tranquility as well.

We have spent almost a week here now, and don´t seem to feel like moving. For once we actually feel like we are on holiday, waking up late to a perfect sunny day each day, and doing not much at all but reading a book in a hammock, strolling on the beach or fishing (unsuccessfully unfortunately...). Brett has been enjoying the surf which has been good just about every day as well, though the water is freeeeezing as I discovered after one day of practising my rusty skills and loosing my breath in the icy water - will wait to be in warmer waters for more practise, I don´t know how the boys do it!

I think we will find ourselves wondering around the dirt streets of this town for a few more days before we head back to the complete opposite of Buenos Aires with its busy streets and millions of people where we will spend our last week in South America.