Uruguay: Grilled Hungarians, Los Santos and Sexy Underwear.

Hola locos!

Yesterday we returned from our little trip to Uruguay. We didn't have much time, because we both work and can only use the 2 free days a week that we have. Either way Niki did a splendid job planning the trip (and moaning about me not helping her :)), an effort worth of the attention of the most advanced logistics companies. We took a ferry from Buenos Aires across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia de Sacramento, then a quick transfer to Montevideo and another bus to Piriapolis, which was our destination. Niki didn't sleep the night before our trip, because we had to leave very early in the morning and she still had to do one late night show for Telemedia, which left her pretty much no options whatsoever. We drank a quick coffee and off we went. The ride to Colonia is only 50 minutes with a ferry, then some 2 hours to Montevideo and a bit more than an hour to Piriapolis. Our dream would have been to go to Punta Del Diablo, but it's too far out north, we didn't have time for that.

Anyway Piriapolis is a cool little town on the southern coast of Uruguay. Niki found a small hostel for us to crash there for one night. It's still very early into the season so it was almost empty (except for one American dude and a Polish chick that we never met). We also had luck with the weather - it was very hot while we were day, it only got a bit worse the next day when we were leaving anyway.  

It was great to get out of Buenos Aires, my first time ever since we arrived here. It felt like just about time to lay around on a beach and scorch our skin in the mid-day sun. And so we did. Uruguay is a bit more expensive than Argentina, but as we found out later the salaries are not necesarily higher. As one old man told us: 'it's always been this way'. I didn't get deeper into that.

Curious thing that day was, that already when we arrived we noticed a huge smoke in the middle of the town, but we thought that it must be under control since no one showed any sign of interest. It was only until some 5 hours later that the Bomberos (firemen) woke up from their siesta and pulled out all their heavy water artillery, driving in a frenzy to the site in question and spilling impressive amounts of water on their way. At that time we were comfortably seated in a nearby bar, sipping on cold beer, watching the spectacle with growing astonishment, as soon helicopters joined in. I guess the pilots must have been a bit excited about their assignment as at times, they descended towards the sea to refill the water tank, but then hurried right away, probably thinking that it's already full. In my humble opinion it was far from it, but then again perhaps that's why I don't reinforce the ranks of Uruguayan Bomberos.

The next day we had a plan to rent some bikes and cycle out of town to some more natural beach. We ate a quick breakfast (how long can you eat bread with butter, eh?) and went to the city to rent the bikes. The bikes, as expected, were of the commonly known 'playera' brand (read: plashera). For some strange reason they enjoy a cult status in both Argentina and Uruguay (I assume it's no different in other countries on South America), and even though the name suggests that they're suitable for riding even in loose sands of a beach, they sink in just as nicely as any other bicycle. Mine hardly had any breaks too, but I enjoy a challenge :). We found a nice beach and continued to scorch our skins from where we abandoned this activity the day before. We fulfilled this task with great success, even today my back and face is completely red...

Around 4 o'clock we got on a bus back to Montevideo to spend our last night there. I must say that the city is quite nice. I would even say that perhaps it's more enjoyable than Buenos Aires, simply because it's smaller but then again, due to lack of time, we didn't explore it too much, especially it's outskirts. We visited the old town though and even went down to check out the sea. It's interesting that walking the streets of the old town you can see the sea in 3 directions. There are plenty of old buildings, and it would be a cool place to open a hostel, some of those buildings are in fact deserted. The hotel where we stayed was also an interesting one, situated in an old house, few blocks away from the old town. It gave me an impression of being in some movie about Cuba or another exotic place - high ceilings, minimum furniture and all of it quite old. Lots of people live in such hotels for months, I imagine... Some workers or bohemian travelers that don't identify themselves with the 'backpackers hostel' accommodation. 

During our walk through the city we saw a couple of eyebrow raising things. First of all we found a small shop that, according to it's information, sold religious stuff. A quick glance at the shopping window allowed us to discover that side by side with little figures of saints, the shop offered a variety of sexy tangas. The second thing we discovered was when we went to eat and in the menu we spotted a familiarly named dish called Hungaras. After an inquiry with the waiter we learned that it's a type of grilled sausage, very popular with Uruguayans. Is it possible that fame of Hungarian sausages reached Uruguay?