Ola chicos! Hope you have your tissues handy, this could be a sad one.
You may remember that we left off after our arrival in Colonia, Uruguay. Colonia is a fairly sleepy, but beautiful, small town, where we didn{t expect to see much in the way of nightlife or party people. Oh, how wrong we were. After an afternoon wandering around town, we had begun to notice the main street being blocked off with chairs, signs, and police officers, setting up for a parade. We were overjoyed to learn that that night was Colonia Carnivale! We spent the entire night watching an amazing parade of dancers, bands, drummers, and random characters in wild costumes sashay down the street. Since neither of us will make to the infamous Rio Carnivale, this was a fantastic consolation prize.
The next day, we took a bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and eating a great dinner of Chivito, a popular Uruguayan dish. Chivito consists of a massive plate of fries topped with: steak, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg, all in one towering stack. Strange, but also strangely delicious.
For our full day in Montevideo, we started with our own walking tour of the city beaches. The beaches are beautiful, but the heat eventually became unbearable so we joined a city bus tour. We saw the Old City, the government buildings, main plazas, etc. It turns out that Montevideo is really lovely, although probably underappreciated and ignored by most tourists in South America. It{s quite large, but it{s also charming, safe, and very friendly.
On Thursday, we took a bus to La Paloma, which is beach town a little further down the coast from Montevideo. The town has a very cool, relaxed vibe, which is great until you{re sitting a restaurant for hours, watching the waiters chat with one another, before anyone notices you still haven{t been served. I{m not bitter, but there is such a thing as being TOO laid back. Anyway, on our first day in La Paloma, Jess and I had what was, arguably, the best ice cream in the world. The mint chocolate chip was truly minty and the dulce de leche-banana had real banana. Just wonderful. After that excitement, we spent the rest of the day on the beach. A great thing about the beach in this town is that most people flock to one stretch because it appears to have a better swimming area. However, we discovered that the popular spot is actually full of jellyfish, and if you go a bit further down, the ocean is a bit rocky but there are virtually no people. It was incredibly beautiful and a perfect way to wind down the trip. We spent the following day at the beach and then our last morning there as well, before we returned for a final night in Colonia and a morning ferry back to Buenos Aires.
We arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday morning and headed over the apartment of one our friends from Bariloche. She generously offered to lend us her apartment for the night, so we met up with the two girls for an afternoon of eating, shopping, and getting in our last bit of Buenos Aires time. The city is absolutely sweltering hot, but I tried to appreciate it and remember the cold that I{m returning to in a matter of hours. In the evening, we made dinner on our friend{s terrace, went night swimming, then headed out to one of their friend{s birthday parties. We had a great time at the party, trying to understand what everyone around us was chattering about, but eventually calling it a night at a pathetic (by Argentinian standards) 4:30 am.
Right now, I{m mentally preparing myself for the mission back to Toronto. Obviously, this will be my final posting and I hope that someone will miss reading this blog as much as I will miss writing it. Perhaps I{ll pick it up again for my next adventure... It{s been a fantastic, unbelievable trip that has truly surpassed my expectations, but I am, without a doubt, feeling the excitement of returning home.
Ciao, gracias, y hasta luego!
Sarah
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