Instead of traveling to Mexico by land I changed my plans entirely (or better said a friend of mine changed them entirely for me, thank you Harry) and took a flight from San Diego to Buenos Aires. My new plan was to travel from Argentina to North America only by land instead of doing it the other way round. The seasons were much better for that and so I arrived in the beautiful spring of Buenos Aires. But more about Argentina later.
Uruguay was only a short ferry ride away from Argentina and I decided to spend 10 days there before heading back to the much bigger neighbor. It's the second smallest country in South America, yet the most expensive one. It's famous for its extensive Mate consumption, beef production and of course fútbol. Those three things are basically following you every time while traveling around Uruguay.
I found people very relaxed & friendly and it was very common to get invited for a Mate and some extensive talks about football. Many people call it the Switzerland of South America (I have heard that term about many countries around the world a lot now, apparently everyone wants to be like Switzerland). That's not because of mountainous landscapes, funny dialects or heavy Fondue but more for their high prices, social benefits & stable democracy. And indeed the prices shocked me and reminded me pretty much about my time in Switzerland this year (5 $ for eggs, 15 $ for a cheap meal or 7 $ for a coffee in a café). Argentina & Uruguay are probably the neighboring countries in the world with the highest price differences.
I started exploring the pretty town of Colonia del Sacramento with a beautiful UNESCO historic district. The old buildings, charming alleys & cobblestone streets really have a special atmosphere and a nice stop between Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
The capital Montevideo is a historic place for football fans (seeing Estadio Centenario was amazing) and a really interesting city to walk through for a couple of days. It's by far the biggest city in the country and therefore holds most of the cultural, historical and political sights. Locals there were so friendly and the entire city had more of a friendly village vibe on a larger scale. Walking along the Rambla is really lovely, especially during sunset with a Mate in your hands. I also made a good friend Ale, who hosted me at his place and showed me most of the birds of Montevideo! :D
From Montevideo on I continued traveling along the coast to Punta del Este and La Paloma. Especially La Paloma is a lovely coastal small town with some fisherman villages around. The water was too cold for swimming at this time of the year but walking around the endless coast was fun. Unfortunately, I lost all my photos of those 4 days due to a stupid mistake.. :D
I have no idea if there's much going on in inland Uruguay, but people told me it's mostly farmland with a million cows (Uruguay has the most cattle per capita in the world) and after my extensive travels of India, my demand for seeing cows was satisfied for the next 50 years.
3 Highlights:
- Colonia del Sacramento, a charming town with a beautiful UNESCO historic center
- Montevideo, the cultural, political & historical center of the country
- La Paloma, wandering along the long coast spotting sea lions
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| Visited places in Uruguay |
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| Entrada a Uruguay! |
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| Crossing Rio de la Plata from Argentina to Uruguay |
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| Friendly street dogs in Colonia del Sacramento |
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| Beaches around Colonia |
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| Watching sunset in Javier's apartment |
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| The pretty center of Colonia del Sacramento |
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| león salvaje |
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| Working with a view |
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| Couchsurfing in Colonia del Sacramento |
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| Mate, everywhere at all times in Uruguay. I saw guys drinking that on the toilet while peeing next to me |
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| Some of the millions of cows in the country |
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| Montevideo! |
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| Playa de los Pocitos |
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| Bird watching with Ale in Parque Rodo |
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| Bird or Pokemon? |
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| Streets of Montevideo |
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| Playing board games at Ale's place |
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| Back to Buenos Aires |
