3-Jan-2004 - I am finally underway. I am on my flight from Boston to Miami and from there I will be on to Montevideo via Buenos Aires. Despite an irritatingly long line at the security checkpoint, things are going quite smoothly. I managed to get exit rows on both flights. Next to me on the Miami flight was a fellow with a plethora of "interesting" conspiracy theories, on topics ranging from UFOs, crop circles, hollow world theories, and a theory on why so many movies involve aliens recently. I look forward to getting some sleep on the flight down from Miami.

The IYHF Schirrman-Munker

4-Jan-2004 - In spite of having an exit row seat, I did not really get any sleep. The plane landed at Buenos Aires at about 10 AM local time. Unlike the approach to La Paz, which was a very distinct sight, looking out the window on the approach to Buenos Aires seemed quite normal; grid farmlands that would not look out of place in say, Ohio. However as we got closer, the Spanish architecture became a differentiation.

Similar to my flight to Seoul over three years ago, they had everybody disembark including the Montevideo passengers. Eventually it boarded and I got my old seat back. The flight to Montevideo was uneventful; though flying over the estuary of the Rio de la Plata was an ugly sight for the water was an ugly brown, presumably (and hopefully) from silt.

I then arrived in Montevideo and customs was a breeze. As soon as I got out, I met up with Pradip and we got a bus into town. The bus ride into town painted a very different picture than my experiences in other South American countries. Uruguay is a moderately developed country. We drove by several neighborhoods that would not look out of place in the USA, with the exception of signs being in Spanish and the Spanish architecture. At the risk of oversimplifying, one can classify countries in the western hemisphere in three categories: Conquered countries, such as Mexico and Peru, where Europeans (specifically the Spanish) came in and simply looted the place, Plantationized countries, like Brazil, Haiti and actually the American south, where the Europeans sponsored plantation agriculture, and Settled countries, like Argentina, Uruguay and the (northern) USA. Of the three categories, countries in the final category are generally the richest.

Pradip has been staying at the IYHF Schirrman-Munker, which was a typical hostel. I got settled in and adjusted my attire. It was Summer here, and it is like about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. We then took the day easily, strolling around town. It was Sunday, and Montevideo seems to be dead on this day. Nevertheless, we had a good time. We ate a late lunch, at a nice place called Manchester's. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around to the old town and the waterfront. It then started to rain so we ended up crashing early.

Montevideo

5-Jan-2004 - Got up in the morning and did the usual. After a small breakfast (during which we had a nice chat with a Brazilian fellow from Porto Allegre), we set out. We decided to make a day trip to Punta del Este; a resort town a few hours bus ride to the east. To be safe, we got the bus tickets before hand, so the first place that we went was the bus station. We got tickets for 1:45 PM, and in the interim, we saw the Mercado del Puerto.

The Mercado del Puerto is, as the name implies, a market adjacent to the port area down in the Old City. For the most part they were selling tourist related knickknacks but there were also some nice restaurants. We got an early lunch at a restaurant called El Corralon, at which I had a nice salmon ravioli. After the market, we went to an internet café to check up on Hyun and got a taxi to the bus terminal to catch our bus to Punta del Este.

The bus ride reinforced much of my impressions about the differences between Uruguay and the countries in South America that I visited before. In those poorer countries, bus systems were very "ramshackle" affairs (for example, one's luggage would typically be strapped to the top of the bus) and a trip through the countryside would reveal shantytowns and poverty. This bus ride was not very different from riding Greyhound and the shantytowns were absent, or just not visible (granted our trip was along the coast which may be less prone to poverty than the inlands.)

Punta del Este

Arriving in Punta del Este, the place reminded me of a cross between Miami and Atlantic City. Restaurants, bars and hotels were everywhere. Apparently this is a major resort for Argentines because all of the beaches near Buenos Aires are on the (as I saw before) extremely silty Rio de la Plata, and this was reflected by the large amount of cars with Argentina license plates. We stopped to get some pizza and walked the perimeter of the peninsula. Much to our surprise, most of the beaches were covered with rocks. Eventually we found an area on the Playa Brava.

We spent the next couple of hours alternating between swimming and watching our stuff. After that, we went down to the Moby Dick pub to blow a bunch of money on alcohol, and took a taxi back to the bus station. We intended to take the 9:30 bus back to Montevideo, and we arrived on time, but we needed to reserve a place on the bus and the bus left when we got to the front of the line. So, we had to get the 10:30 bus. On board we chatted with an Uruguayan family. They were nice people; the mother lived in Australia for a while and the daughter was born there. The daughter's boyfriend was a lively fellow and we answered inquiries about our opinion on Uruguayan girls and why would we want to go to Uruguay of all places. When we got to Montevideo, we got a taxi back to the hostel and got some sleep.

6-Jan-2004 - We got up, had breakfast downstairs with other travelers and taxied to the bus terminal. Our plan was to take the 10 AM bus to Colonia, but the bus was full so we had to take the 12:30 PM bus. We arrived at Colonia at 3 PM. Given my difficulties getting good night sleeps the last few nights, I insisted that we get a real hotel, and one with air conditioning. We ended up at the Hotel Ciudaduela, a nice pleasant place that met our criteria. After settling in, we set out to explore the town.

Colonia is a pretty town across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires originally built by the Portuguese. It proved to be a thorn in the side of the Spanish and eventually the Spanish conquered it. Now, it is a well preserved sample of old Spanish/Portuguese architecture. We spent the afternoon walking around town and got dinner at the "Colonia Rock", an obvious Hard Rock Café rip-off. After that, I checked my email, we got our ferry tickets to Buenos Aires and went back to the hotel. We goofed off for a while and watched MTV subtitled in Spanish. It was quite amusing to see that stupid show "I bet you will" and see the phrase "You've got balls" translated as "You have valor." Apparently, MTV did not have the cojones to provide a proper translation. Having air conditioning proved to be nice, for I slept better that night than I have in a while.

Colonia