Uruguay

We left Buenos Aires way way too soon and headed for Colonia on about an hour boat ride. Colonia is a small town in Uruguay. We arrived with our city high from Buenos Aires and were greeted by a sleepy town with not much to do but stroll and climb the faro or lighthouse. So, of course, that is what we did.

However, we did enjoy a delicious lunch, Valentina and I split a delish steak and a salad and some vino. Whilst we were living in ecstacy (due to the yummy food), an older man sparked up a convo after overhearing our English, even noting a certain California accent. We ended up chatting with him for quite some time about his travels and the US, etc etc, and then he generously treated us to some helado. After we left him we headed to the ¨old town¨which consisted of some stones and an old canon. On our way there a very older man, we´ll call him Old Man River for this entry, randomly started conversation. He was heading down to start fishing and offered to take a picture of us with a tiny little island in the background. He then said ¨las chicas italianas tienen cultios bonitos¨. We then continued on....

The next day we headed to Montevideo, the capital. We went down to the main market by the sea and explored the city. The buildings were beautiful and the city was very clean and the people very nice. The next day we went to Punta del Este. A beach town that is very famous during the summer because there are a ton of parties. A local told me it is like spring break (what he saw on TV at least). Right now, it´s not summer yet, so there were no crazy parties, only hot hot sun. We were there for awhile and everyone definitely got a little rosy, some (mainly the Irish guy) got more red than the others!

The following day we arrived in Salto. Apparently Salto is ¨famous¨for it´s day spa. We were all so excited to get massages, maybe a facial, or manicure, etc etc. What we didn´t expect was that the last time the spa was used was maybe 1980...maybe... My massage consisted of a woman rubbing some oil around on my back and legs. Was it nice? Yes. Worth $15? Maybe. A real massage? No. I think one of the highlights for me was the oil smelled like an oil we get from Hong Kong that we simply refer to as ¨the birdie bottle¨. I think it´s a type of eucalyptus oil...

Uruguay was not the most exciting of places, but I´m thinking of it as a type of ¨layover¨before Brasil. I wish it was more Buenos Aires time, but now I´m into Brasil, land of caipirinhas and feijoada (two things I´m already loving...)