Discovering Uruguay on a long weekend trip

We had no longer our two wheels each and now had to learn all over again how to travel, like making arrangements through local public transports to go anywhere. We had decided that we would travel for another couple of weeks without the motorcycles before heading back home mid June. The complicating factor for this weekend is that Argentina was celebrating its bicentennial as it became an independent country on May 25th, 1810. The capital city had been getting ready for the huge 5-day celebrations for which millions of people would travel to Buenos Aires. This was a little tricky for us as it meant that a lot of people would take advantage of the big weekend to travel to other places, like the Iguazu Falls where we wanted to go. We improvised a little and decided to go to Uruguay and only come back for the end of the celebrations in the capital city.

Adding another country to our journey, but without the bikes

From Buenos Aires, you just have to cross the Rio de la Plata river and in an hour, you are in Uruguay. We had found space on one of the boats to do the crossing and decided to explore two places: Montevideo, the capital city and Colonial, a small historic town. After the boat and bus trip, we arrived in Montevideo in the late afternoon. The tourist office booked us a hostel and Chad with the big backpack (a beautiful new one that Lucrecia had lended us) and Caroline with the small day pack walked the 25 minutes to the hostel. Life was requiring much more physical effort without the bikes. We also had to be more organized about accommodation: driving all round town to find the best place that had room was no longer an option. When you have to walk to each place, you definitively focus on the closer ones. But it was good to walk: we were getting a sense for the town and country and so far no big difference with Argentina.

We settled in the hostel, trying to get used to our new routine of sharing a backpack and having to lock our valuables since we were mostly staying in dormitories to save some money. It was not as easy as it seemed and Chad had already forgotten his book somewhere. We made our plans for the next day and headed out for dinner to the Mercado de las Abundencias where little restaurants were all in a huge metal structure. It was loud and animate on a Friday night and as we were enjoying our meal, we noticed that right next to us a Milonga was taking place. This is a place where people go for Tango, a sort of a big dance, where guys invite girls to dance the Tango. The etiquette is that women can't really refuse the invitation to dance since their presence is by itself a sign that they are here for that very reason. Most people did not come in couple but rather with friends and would share with a stranger the passion for Tango during a few songs. We loved watching the couples through the windows, some evolving more gracefully than others, not wanting to enter as neither of us was ready for the dance floor.

The next day we walked through Montevideo. For a capital city, it was relatively small and we enjoyed La Rambla, a nice walk along the water. There are a few nice buildings to see but overall, there was not that much to see in the city center. The highlight of our day was the Mercado del Puerto where the locals go to on the weekend to enjoy a good Parrilla along with some Medio y Medio, a drink invented here, which is a mix of wine and champagne. We ate at the bar, the best spot to see what was available on the grill. The chef, hearing us asking questions to the waitress about the different items available, decided to show us the pieces he had and tell us their names so that it would be easier to order. We could not resist a rolled piece of beef, stuffed with herbs and vegetables, all cooked in aluminum on the grill. With the Medio y Medio and a green salad, it was simply heaven. We took also grilled sweetbreads and that was all we could eat given the portions. We complemented the chef, Andres, and told him he should go with us to France and open a restaurant. He laughed but a minute later, he gave us his business card. He also invited Caroline behind the bar to pose for a picture in front of the grill, like she was cooking it all. This meal had been a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday Argentina, already 200 years!

Before returning to Argentina, we visited Colonia, right across the river from it. We loved this little city so much more: it was charming with its old stone building and narrow streets. We borrowed two bikes at our hostels (the ones you have to pedal on:( and rode across the narrow paved streets. Our first stop was at the small harbor where we just enjoyed the sun for a while. We then rode to the old city gate, a big impressive stone entrance that had been rebuild in 1968 along the original wall of the city. The Barrio Historico was pretty small and each corner was revealing an old Portugese house, a museum, the ruins of a convent. Our favorite street was the Calle de los Suspiros: it was lined up with small houses dating from the Portuguese colonial period, each painted with a different fainting but vivid color. With the old and irregular pavement, we were back in time. A surprising thing was that there were lots of old cars lining up the streets, all amazingly well restored. They were from all over the world, old classic American or even French cars. We finished our discovery by climbing up the 112 steps to the summit of the lighthouse where we had a 360 view of the city. In the distance, we could see Buenos Aires and its lights. In a few hours we would be back there to celebrate the bicentennial.

Our trip to Uruguay had been only been a few days and we really enjoyed getting a taste of this country completely unknown to us before that. Back in the streets of Buenos Aires, walking at night, Caroline felt liquid on her sweater. She turned and saw a guy behind her looking up in the tree she was walking under. Oh no, a bird... or maybe not since it smelled more like vinegar to her. Then another guy approached her to tell her that she had stuff on her back and he had a tissue to help: that's when it jumped at her! She had read the scam in the guide book: someones stains your clothes and another person helps you, stealing your wallet in the process. She refused the help and walked faster, telling Chad to hurry up. At the hostel, we cleaning our clothes as they had sprayed us both with vinaigrette. Caroline explained what had just happened, the scam she had read about and we were both happy we had escaped the robbing part of it.

Now it was time to celebrate. Leaving all our valuables in the hotel, we walked to the Teatro Colon where they were celebrating the end of its renovation after more than three years of intense labor. Tons of people were in the street, watching the light and sound show directly on the facade of the theater as well as the dances performed by the ballet. After an hour of history of the theater and who had performed there, the crowd started moving south on the big central avenue. There was a big concert with local artists that we watched until late at night. The next day was the big event on the 25 de Mayo. The central avenue was the stage for all the celebrations that would take place. We walked down amongst the millions of people that had gathered that day here to celebrate their nation. Each region had a tent set up that you could visit and it reminded us of all the parts of Argentina we had riden through on our motorcycles. The other side of the avenue was a similar concept but focused on food: you could discover the gastronomy of each region and buy their specialty. This part was a lot of fun for us and we could not resist buying quite a few things.

We finished the afternoon by watching race cars driving up the avenue, roaring the engine as loud as they could. Everyone was cheering, excited to see the beasts from so close up. We continued walking up the avenue, one step at a time as it was so crowded, you just had to be very patient. We made it back to the central stage close to the obelisk where a band from Bolivia was performing. We had heard their songs many times before and it reminded us of that part of our journey. We stayed there for quite a while but then our feet got tired and we decided to go back to our hostel. We were about to take a 16-hour night bus to Puerto Iguazu, all the way up northeast close to Brazil, where we would visit the famous waterfalls. Unfortunately, this meant we would miss the big parade that was to be held at 7pm but to be quite honest, we had already been long enough in the crowded streets to celebrate. It was time to continue our journey.