This past weekend we had a ferriado (holiday) on Monday for Columbus Day, so I had a four day weekend. My friends Sarah and Kevin and I took advantage of the time and flew to Uruguay on Friday. On the drive to our hostel from the airport, we drove along a kind of mini lake shore drive, with the Rive Plata on our left and smallish apartment buildings on our right. Our hostel was beautiful and old, there was black and white tiling, curved staircases with wooden rails and stained glass windows.
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| El Hostal |
We woke up Saturday morning and ate the breakfast that the hostel provided; there was a new spread to put on bread called dulce de leche, which was really good. That Saturday we spent the day walking around and exploring the city.
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| Plaza de Independencia |
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| Along the Ocean |
We went to the bus station to check out other destinations in Uruguay and after that continued exploring the city. We ran into the American embassy, which was the first time any of us had seen an American flag since we left the States in July.
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| "Amurica" |
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| El Rio |
We had watched the sunset into the Rio Plata and then returned to our hostel and had an asado with the other guests that were there. There were a lot of Argentineans at the hostel, as Montevideo is apparently a popular place for them to vacation. That night, we switched rooms in the hostel because of the high amount of people there and ended up in a four person room; it was Sarah, Kevin, me and a professional Uruguayan soccer player who had just signed his first pro contract and was looking for an apartment in Montevideo. The next day we went back to the bus station and bought tickets to Punta del Este, which is a vacation town a two hour bus ride up the northern coast of Uruguay.
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| The "Hand" of Punta del Este |
Like Montevideo, the city wasn’t very crowded, and we spent the day walking around next to the ocean, trying to spot whales off the coast, which the lady at the tourist booth said was likely to happen. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales, but while walking along the docks in the harbor, we saw seals and sea lions swimming and putting their heads above water, probably looking for food from the fishermen who tied their boats up to unload the morning catch. After seeing the seals, we decided to find someplace to eat. We ended up at this small diner-ish place, where we were the owner/cook/waiter’s only customers. We went there because I wanted to try a chivito, which is a Uruguayan style sandwich. After forgetting to bring us menu’s, calling Sarah a “beautiful angel”, rubbing his hands through mine and Kevin’s hair, bringing us an amazing bottle of wine, and messing up Sarah and Kevin’s orders, the guy finally brought my chivito. The sandwich was made with a layer of steak, covered with ham, a fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and tons of mayo and mustard.
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| Chivito |
It was delicious, although hard to eat without ruining it. After the restaurant, we made our way back to the bus, stopping to check for whales one more time. We got back to the hostel late that night and went to bed early. The next morning we caught our flight back to Chile, and our entry into the country was going smoothly until Kevin and Sarah decided that they weren’t going to declare the single orange they each had in their backpacks. Wow, you would have thought that they each had a backpack full of cocaine, the way the customs officials reacted. They were taken into a back room and questioned individually. Sarah was asked if she “wanted to see the destruction of her product”. It was all a little over the top, but we finally cleared customs and got on the bus to the center of the city.
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| Los Andes |
