We drove across country towards Montevideo on an amazing straight road.
Here we saw that people are living a simple life, but the basics are there. Small homes are surrounded by space, with plants and trees. The rickety TV aerials on houses even down side-
streets suggest that electricity is widely available. The road conditions were great and the surroundings very calm and attractive.
Coming out of Colonia, we were in an amazing avenue of Palm Trees – we'd never seen a road like it and reminded ourselves how lucky we are to be able to do this.
We've been bitten like hell in the last days. Bizarrely, one night in Buenos Aires Nicki got around 20 bites overnight while I had got none. But the balance has been re-dressed in Colonia, where the mosquitoes have been rampant. A good strong spray called OFF (and the second word was “off” as we scratched in agony...) was bought a little too late and when on our way to Montevideo, we stopped off at a riverside spot to have lunch – big mistake! Those mossies had been on steroids, they attacked us immediately and each of us got an extra half dozen serious bites in seconds before we scooted back to the car.
The water has been odd in Uruguay so far. It seems that we are by the sea, but the River Del Plate between Argentina and Uruguay doesn't stop until Punta Del Este, 300 km round the coast. It means the water is brown instead of blue. The same was the case in Montevideo, which had miles of carefully pedestrianised walkways all round the coast and beach – so strange to see brown water by a seaside city.
Montevideo itself, Uruguay's capital, was quite uninspiring and our main task there was to get our clothes posted home to lighten the load of rucksacks. Then we drove onto Punta Del Este, which seems to be the Riviera of Uruguay. It is a fantastic peninsula with fancy apartments and high rise blocks without being a mess of shabby tourism. The beaches – sunny, sandy and very windy! – were immaculately kept, and the lack of “beach-business” was a big surprise. No food stands, no café's or hotels overlooking the beach directly, no amusement arcades or shops selling all kinds of beach stuff. Our guess is that it's the place where Uruguayans (and Portenos from Buenos Aires), buy holiday and weekend apartments. It's more like a “home from home” place than a tourist centre.
We were lucky to leave on 19th December – our hotel's prices went from 45 dollars per night to 110 Dollars on the 21st. The peak “summer” season goes on until February and then dies, a waiter told us. In general we have been surprised by the prices in Uruguay
because they've been much higher than Argentina, but we have been only in tourist spots so it's hard to compare accurately.
After a couple of relaxed and happy days in Punta, sunbathing (maybe a little too much...) and enjoying the warm breeze, we're back in Colonia for one night. Our flight schedules changed so we have a night here, Sunday night in Buenos Aires, Monday night in Santiago (Chile) and reach Easter Island for our Christmas stay on Tuesday.
Here we saw that people are living a simple life, but the basics are there. Small homes are surrounded by space, with plants and trees. The rickety TV aerials on houses even down side-
streets suggest that electricity is widely available. The road conditions were great and the surroundings very calm and attractive.Coming out of Colonia, we were in an amazing avenue of Palm Trees – we'd never seen a road like it and reminded ourselves how lucky we are to be able to do this.
We've been bitten like hell in the last days. Bizarrely, one night in Buenos Aires Nicki got around 20 bites overnight while I had got none. But the balance has been re-dressed in Colonia, where the mosquitoes have been rampant. A good strong spray called OFF (and the second word was “off” as we scratched in agony...) was bought a little too late and when on our way to Montevideo, we stopped off at a riverside spot to have lunch – big mistake! Those mossies had been on steroids, they attacked us immediately and each of us got an extra half dozen serious bites in seconds before we scooted back to the car.
The water has been odd in Uruguay so far. It seems that we are by the sea, but the River Del Plate between Argentina and Uruguay doesn't stop until Punta Del Este, 300 km round the coast. It means the water is brown instead of blue. The same was the case in Montevideo, which had miles of carefully pedestrianised walkways all round the coast and beach – so strange to see brown water by a seaside city.
Montevideo itself, Uruguay's capital, was quite uninspiring and our main task there was to get our clothes posted home to lighten the load of rucksacks. Then we drove onto Punta Del Este, which seems to be the Riviera of Uruguay. It is a fantastic peninsula with fancy apartments and high rise blocks without being a mess of shabby tourism. The beaches – sunny, sandy and very windy! – were immaculately kept, and the lack of “beach-business” was a big surprise. No food stands, no café's or hotels overlooking the beach directly, no amusement arcades or shops selling all kinds of beach stuff. Our guess is that it's the place where Uruguayans (and Portenos from Buenos Aires), buy holiday and weekend apartments. It's more like a “home from home” place than a tourist centre.
We were lucky to leave on 19th December – our hotel's prices went from 45 dollars per night to 110 Dollars on the 21st. The peak “summer” season goes on until February and then dies, a waiter told us. In general we have been surprised by the prices in Uruguay
because they've been much higher than Argentina, but we have been only in tourist spots so it's hard to compare accurately.After a couple of relaxed and happy days in Punta, sunbathing (maybe a little too much...) and enjoying the warm breeze, we're back in Colonia for one night. Our flight schedules changed so we have a night here, Sunday night in Buenos Aires, Monday night in Santiago (Chile) and reach Easter Island for our Christmas stay on Tuesday.
