(Street in Montevideo, Uruguay)
The trip started dark and early with a 5:15 AM shuttle to the airport and what turned out to be a very brief (less than 2 hour) flight to Montevideo. The general thought after stepping off the plane was somewhere along the lines of "Who the heck would ever have guessed I would be in URUGUAY?" I honestly didn't even know this country existed until we sang about it in a 10th grade Spanish song where we listed all of the Spanish speaking countries in the world and still couldn't place it on a map probably until very recently, so to be walking off a plane onto Uruguayan land was a pretty insane feeling!
After getting ripped off by a taxi driver into the city of Montevideo (is it bad that I'm kind of used to this sort of thing?), I was shocked at what Montevideo is! I don´t really know what I expected, but it is a really incredible city, at the time definitely my favorite city so far in South America (BA quickly beat it out, but still great). I think I would describe it as a mix between Mazatlan, Waikiki, and a big city, all with a HUGE European influence. The buildings are all gorgeous European high rises and the part we stayed in was called Ciudad Vieja (Old City) and thus was particularly cool and full of old colonial buildings. We spent the day walking ALL around the city, attempting to see all of Montevideo in approximately 12 hours an on about 4 hours of sleep.
We, of course, ate some MEAT (their specialty) in el Mercado del Puerto and drank some Medio Medio (typical Uruguayan drink of half wine and half sparkling wine. The Mercado was really cool, it was like a South American spin on the farmers market at the grove and our waiter, David, was absolutely hilarious as we sat at the counter and chowed down. Then, we walked some more, bought bus/boat tickets (I could go on and on about my feelings of frustration towards this event but I will opt not to) for tomorrow, and prepared to head out a to a great dinner involving the best arroz con leche of my life with our Mexican hostel roommate.
One obstacle I quickly encountered on this trip was that the original reason we came to Montevideo was to avoid the $130 entrance fee to Argentina, but then we ended up purchasing the bus/boat to BA that ended up costing $120 and paying a surprise exit tax at the airport before leaving that actually made this way MORE expensive. Lesson learned. However, we got to see a whole nother city that turned out to be REALLY cool for no more than we would have had to pay to just fly to BA. And I´m sooo glad I came to Uruguay, who would have thought it was such a hidden gem? Also, as it turns out I think it may have been necessary since apparently Argentina is upset with Uruguay for environmental reasons and people are boycotting and blocking the bridges that are used to get into Argentina via Uruguay via bus anyhow. Regardless, money quickly became somewhat of a worry but I sorted it out and opted to just go along with the ride of the trip as much as possible, while maintaining enough of my way of traveling to ensure we didn't miss anything important because of slow movement. Needless to say, I found an entirely new appreciation for the way my family and friends back home travel as well as treat me. In all honesty, I was treated rather poorly at times throughout this trip and, although I wouldn't have though it possible, grew to love and appreciate (and miss) my friends back home even more.
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