If you are looking for a location with a big city, super friendly people, beaches and nice weather, then Uruguay is the place for you! Not entirely sure why, but I have always wanted to visit Uruguay and so this of course had to be my first stop on this month long trip of mine! The whole country just has a really good vibe to it . Montevideo has a NY look but with fewer people and nicer people. The country has beaches, but also these cool forests with oak/maple-like trees and some evergreens. It has been hot during the day, but then this super cool breeze comes in at night and cools everything down. I am really enjoying this country a lot! One plus I would give the FL beaches over the UY beaches though is that the ocean water is MUCH warmer!
So, I took a plane to Montevideo on Thursday (1/7) and spent the night in a local hostel. Here is a view of Montevideo from the plane.
After that I took a 4 hour bus ride to a town called La Paloma. It is a really cute beach town just east of Montevideo. I found the hostel, grabbed a bite to eat and then hit the beach! The ocean reminds me A LOT of the ocean off the coast of California. The waves can be big here and the water is CRAZY cold. It actually took my breath away a bit when I finally jumped all the way in! After trying to body surf a bit and getting tossed by the waves, I decided it was time to just chill on the beach! There were tons of people hanging out on this Friday. I noticed that many people loved to play this kind of paddle ball game on the beach. Two people have tennis raquet-size ping-pong paddles and they hit what looks to be like a racquet ball back and forth to each other. Tons of people were playing this!
It started to get pretty chilly, so after like 4 hours I decided to head back to the hostel to shower and change. Across the street from the hostel was this cool arts and crafts fair going on. Tons of booths with local crafts, even some clowns/jugglers for the kids to watch. I bought a cool necklace and ate some fair food. Once place was putting cubes of ham and cheese on a shish-kabob stick. Then dipping it into some kind of batter and then frying it. Prettty tasty actually!
The next day I took a bus to Punta del Este – another big beach town on a penninsula. I actually ended up staying in a hostel west of the city in a place called Maldonado. Sooo not impressed with directions on these hostel websites b/c I have spent a lot of time walking around asking people where to go!(the directions for this place was “hostel is 800meters from bus terminal” ummm??? ) But I eventually found it. I ended up taking s short nap before heading off to the city. I walked A TON that day. I didn´t necessarily mean to walk most of the pennisula there, but it just sort of happened! I did walk to the very end point of the penninsula and took some photos – if you look close enough, I am sure you can see Antarctica behind me! LOL
After that, I ended up finding another little arts and crafts area where I was able to finally sit down and eat and chill for a bit. Most of the other restaurants I came across weren´t open at 6pm!
I then made my way to a beach on the west side so that I could sit down and watch the sun set! It was so pretty just to sit and watch the sun dip below the horizon. In the final stages of the sun setting, everyone just stopped to watch, take pictures and then they all clapped. It was pretty cool!
It was now 9pm, getting dark and time to head back. But I first decided to go see the finger statues in the sand. I don´t really know the story on them, but they are pretty funny to see up close – big too! Only the thumb is shorter than me. After that it really was dark and time to head back! Fortunately I found some other hostel people on the bus and I followed them back!
The next day I went to another hostel east of Punta del Este in a town called Manatieles. This is a much smaller beach town (only one road with shops and restaurants). But TONS of beach area! I grabbed some lunch and then spent another 4 hours on the beach! (definitely improving my tan down here LOL). The water was SUPER cold here as well so I didn´t spend much time in it. I did however decide to do the bungee-trampoline thing they had set up on the beach. It was super fun, super exhuasting and definitely made me super motion sick! But I am still glad that I did it!
Monday I came back into Montevideo and am currently staying with a young married couple from my church (for those who don´t know, my church has sister churches all over the world). Pablo and Rosa and their one-year old daughter have been nice enough to take me in for a few days.
I have quickly realized that I am not really hostel material. I have stayed in a room with anywhere from 4-6 girls. Most of them are 20-somethings who want to LEAVE for the party at like 3-4am. I´d rather try and sleep so that I can enjoy the sites the next day. Unfortunately, these two ideas haven´t always meshed well...aka I haven´t really slept well since I left PY. So I am VERY grateful to be in an apartment with friends and have my own room. I am going to do my best to limit my hostel staying for the rest of my trip!
Tuesday (1/12) , while Pablo and Rosa worked, I spent the day touring around Montevideo. I hit the old part of the city, which is really cool. It starts with Plaza Independencia, which has a statue of the founder of UY. Behind the statue is this HUGE door. Apparently the city used to be surrounded by this huge wall and this door is the only thing left of it.Behind that is this cool pedestrian area filled with tons of shops and restaurants. It was really nice to walk around here.
This is a photo of Palacio Legislativo (some type of government building).
Here is a picture of the coast
I decided to stay in Montevideo another night. I have done a TON of walking in the last week, and decided I just needed a day to chill, download photos and rest. Tomorrow I will visit Colonia, UY a city north of Montevideo. I will walk around there a bit, then take a boat over to Buenos Aires. My plan is to stay in Buenos Aires until Monday.
I have been making a list of observations about UY – here are the top 5 I thought you all might find interesting.
1) For those of you who know Spanish, the accent here and in Argentina is very different! Y´s and LL´s make a “sh” sound. So for yo, it is “show” or calle is “cay shay”. VERY differnt and rather difficult for me to understand sometimes!
2) When greeting people on Paraguay, you kiss each other on both cheeks. However, guys only greet girls this way. They will usually just shake hands or something with another guy. In Uruguay however, you greet with just one kiss and everyone does it. Girl/girl, girl/guy and even guy/guy.
3) Unlike Paraguay, and even some places in the US (ha!) car drivers will actually stop and let pedestrians cross. In PY, you have to decide if you can cross fast enough before the approaching car will hit you!
4) Smallest bill is a 20 peso bill, after that you have a 10,5,2 and 1 peso coin. Everyone counts back your change to you too.
5) “Normal” pizza here comes without mozzerella cheese. You have to pay more for the mozzerella cheese! (WHAT?)
So, I took a plane to Montevideo on Thursday (1/7) and spent the night in a local hostel. Here is a view of Montevideo from the plane.
After that I took a 4 hour bus ride to a town called La Paloma. It is a really cute beach town just east of Montevideo. I found the hostel, grabbed a bite to eat and then hit the beach! The ocean reminds me A LOT of the ocean off the coast of California. The waves can be big here and the water is CRAZY cold. It actually took my breath away a bit when I finally jumped all the way in! After trying to body surf a bit and getting tossed by the waves, I decided it was time to just chill on the beach! There were tons of people hanging out on this Friday. I noticed that many people loved to play this kind of paddle ball game on the beach. Two people have tennis raquet-size ping-pong paddles and they hit what looks to be like a racquet ball back and forth to each other. Tons of people were playing this!
It started to get pretty chilly, so after like 4 hours I decided to head back to the hostel to shower and change. Across the street from the hostel was this cool arts and crafts fair going on. Tons of booths with local crafts, even some clowns/jugglers for the kids to watch. I bought a cool necklace and ate some fair food. Once place was putting cubes of ham and cheese on a shish-kabob stick. Then dipping it into some kind of batter and then frying it. Prettty tasty actually!
The next day I took a bus to Punta del Este – another big beach town on a penninsula. I actually ended up staying in a hostel west of the city in a place called Maldonado. Sooo not impressed with directions on these hostel websites b/c I have spent a lot of time walking around asking people where to go!(the directions for this place was “hostel is 800meters from bus terminal” ummm??? ) But I eventually found it. I ended up taking s short nap before heading off to the city. I walked A TON that day. I didn´t necessarily mean to walk most of the pennisula there, but it just sort of happened! I did walk to the very end point of the penninsula and took some photos – if you look close enough, I am sure you can see Antarctica behind me! LOL
After that, I ended up finding another little arts and crafts area where I was able to finally sit down and eat and chill for a bit. Most of the other restaurants I came across weren´t open at 6pm!
I then made my way to a beach on the west side so that I could sit down and watch the sun set! It was so pretty just to sit and watch the sun dip below the horizon. In the final stages of the sun setting, everyone just stopped to watch, take pictures and then they all clapped. It was pretty cool!
It was now 9pm, getting dark and time to head back. But I first decided to go see the finger statues in the sand. I don´t really know the story on them, but they are pretty funny to see up close – big too! Only the thumb is shorter than me. After that it really was dark and time to head back! Fortunately I found some other hostel people on the bus and I followed them back!
The next day I went to another hostel east of Punta del Este in a town called Manatieles. This is a much smaller beach town (only one road with shops and restaurants). But TONS of beach area! I grabbed some lunch and then spent another 4 hours on the beach! (definitely improving my tan down here LOL). The water was SUPER cold here as well so I didn´t spend much time in it. I did however decide to do the bungee-trampoline thing they had set up on the beach. It was super fun, super exhuasting and definitely made me super motion sick! But I am still glad that I did it!
Monday I came back into Montevideo and am currently staying with a young married couple from my church (for those who don´t know, my church has sister churches all over the world). Pablo and Rosa and their one-year old daughter have been nice enough to take me in for a few days.
I have quickly realized that I am not really hostel material. I have stayed in a room with anywhere from 4-6 girls. Most of them are 20-somethings who want to LEAVE for the party at like 3-4am. I´d rather try and sleep so that I can enjoy the sites the next day. Unfortunately, these two ideas haven´t always meshed well...aka I haven´t really slept well since I left PY. So I am VERY grateful to be in an apartment with friends and have my own room. I am going to do my best to limit my hostel staying for the rest of my trip!
Tuesday (1/12) , while Pablo and Rosa worked, I spent the day touring around Montevideo. I hit the old part of the city, which is really cool. It starts with Plaza Independencia, which has a statue of the founder of UY. Behind the statue is this HUGE door. Apparently the city used to be surrounded by this huge wall and this door is the only thing left of it.Behind that is this cool pedestrian area filled with tons of shops and restaurants. It was really nice to walk around here.
This is a photo of Palacio Legislativo (some type of government building).
Here is a picture of the coast
I decided to stay in Montevideo another night. I have done a TON of walking in the last week, and decided I just needed a day to chill, download photos and rest. Tomorrow I will visit Colonia, UY a city north of Montevideo. I will walk around there a bit, then take a boat over to Buenos Aires. My plan is to stay in Buenos Aires until Monday.
I have been making a list of observations about UY – here are the top 5 I thought you all might find interesting.
1) For those of you who know Spanish, the accent here and in Argentina is very different! Y´s and LL´s make a “sh” sound. So for yo, it is “show” or calle is “cay shay”. VERY differnt and rather difficult for me to understand sometimes!
2) When greeting people on Paraguay, you kiss each other on both cheeks. However, guys only greet girls this way. They will usually just shake hands or something with another guy. In Uruguay however, you greet with just one kiss and everyone does it. Girl/girl, girl/guy and even guy/guy.
3) Unlike Paraguay, and even some places in the US (ha!) car drivers will actually stop and let pedestrians cross. In PY, you have to decide if you can cross fast enough before the approaching car will hit you!
4) Smallest bill is a 20 peso bill, after that you have a 10,5,2 and 1 peso coin. Everyone counts back your change to you too.
5) “Normal” pizza here comes without mozzerella cheese. You have to pay more for the mozzerella cheese! (WHAT?)
Sorry if this post was a bit lengthy, but with all my beach time it was just hard to get to an internet cafe! LOL ;)
Hope you all are doing well!
hugs
hugs
YEA!! What a great journal of description and photos. You're on a roll now!! It's so interesting to read the differences in social customs and society in general. I loved your comment on the setting sun photo. It's like it was the light show at the end of the day the country arranged just for you! So wonderful you are staying with church friends. What an amazing opporunity to meet people! Great photo of you all. This is great! You look super and are obviously having a fantastic time.
ReplyDeleteHugs and kisses (just one cheek)
Love, Mom and Dad