Heaven & Hell in Uruguay

It´s been a while since I last wrote, primarily because Uruguay and Argentina have really ancient, slow computers (I´m talking circa early 90s). Apparently some of the poorest countries such as Bolivia and Equador have faster, more modern computers. Ironic isn´t it?

Since I last wrote, we have visited a couple of beaches in Uruguay - Punta del Este and Punta del Diablo. Punta del Este was like a South American Gold Coast - expensive and overcommercialised. We skipped out of there after a night, especially as we were paying US$17 per person to share a dorm room in the 1949 Hotel with 7 smelly boys. UGH! For some reason, even though we specify ´mixed dorm´ there are never any other females in the room. I´ve spoken to a couple of single people since then who loved the place but for a couple, it didn´t feel like anything special.

I have to say that until that point, Uruguay had been a bit of a let down. Don´t get me wrong, the people are so friendly and it´s lovely country - it was just very similar to the landscape at home.

The next day, we caught a bus the next day to Punta del Diablo, a small beachside town in the north of Uruguay with only 700 inhabitants. We were dropped off on the highway more than 5km from the beach so we convinced a local to give us a lift in the back of his ute - problem was that there must of been a dead cow there prior to our lift. Punta del Diablo was breathtaking! We walked down to the beach, which was lined with cabins literally on the beach. Because we arrived on a Monday and it wasn´t quite high season we were able to negotiate a cute little cabin on the beach for only 500 pesos night (US$25). The best bit is that the seafood in Punta del Diablo is fresh, delicious and affordable. So Morgan and I went to the local pescaderia and got a kilo of fresh prawns, some calamari and a 174 kilo of mussels and went and gorged outselves in our cabin with a bottle of the local red, Tannat.

We spent the next couple of days lazily exploring desserted beaches, (we saw a dead seal washed up on the sand) and visiting some of the local cafes. Despite my desire to set down roots then and there, we knew we had come to travel so we headed to Montevideo where we took an overnight bus to Cordoba, Argentina.

The bus itself from Montevideo was an experience. I asked about 5 different companies how much a ticket would cost for the overnight trip, a 15 hour journey. Despite the lonely planet suggesting it should cost US40, the best price I was given was $US80 which was a huge blow to our budget but as we didn´t really enjoy Montevideo, we were keen not to spend any more nights there. Defeated, we paid the money to Flechabus and with our tails between our legs, bought some food supplies for the trip. Well!!!! We obviously had not taken a night bus in that part of the world before! First, we eyed the baggage porter almost falling over under the weight of his tips, then the attendant insisted that we give him our passports so we could sleep across the Argentinian/ Uruguayan border crossing. We boarded and realised that we were taking a first class bus to Argentina. The seats, or ´armchairs´ were extremely plush and reclined back to almost 180 degrees and we even had a leg rest that supported our legs and feet to make us comfy. We ate the dinner we had brought for ourselves, only to be presented with a hot dinner straight afterwards, followed by wine, whisky and dessert as we watched Angelina Jolie´s new movie ´Bewolf´. Breakfast in the morning was equally as impressive. So much for the concept of a struggling backpacker! It was first class all the way.