Last Monday, we crossed the Rio del Plata by ferry and hopped on a bus to Montevideo, Uruguay. Counting on South American time standards, we got to the ferry station with about five or ten minutes to spare. Unfortunately, we completely forgot about having to go through immigrations because we were leaving Argentina. This required checking bags and filling out paperwork which we didn't have time to do. Luckily, the security guards escorted us as we ran to the ferry, which I'm pretty sure was moving as we were getting on. The door shut immediately behind us and we were off! With all these close calls, we're so lucky nothing bad has happened yet. (Knock on wood!)
The ferry looked like an airport with a shopping center and a restaurant inside. Upstairs, there was a first class lounge; however, we happily sat downstairs with the average people. Honestly, I slept the hour trip.
After the ferry docked in Colonia, we boarded a bus to Montevideo. For the entire hour and a half trip, I had a pleasant conversation with Victor, the man sitting next to me. In Spanish!! We talked about everything: politics, actors, food, the Middle East, aliens, music, religion, you name it. It's conversations like these that really make the trip worthwhile. Once you get beyond the basic small talk of, "Where are you from?" "Do you like Argentina?" "What are you studying?" the real Spanish practice begins, and you can really get to know someone. We politely disagreed on a lot of topics, which I loved. It's been so long since I've had an intelligent conversation or debate with someone, let alone one in which we can disagree but still walk away respecting each other. Even more than surprising myself with my capability of holding that long of a Spanish conversation, I was happy to hopefully leave a better impression of Americans with Victor. He seemed to admire our country and was more curious than stereotypical, but he said he appreciated how well-read I was. With such a wide range of topics covered, I am lucky I even knew a little about all of it and assured him it was mostly my personal opinion on the subject. Good thing I'm a journalist who loves to read and keep up with the news!
The bus broke down about 20 minutes from the station, which was apparently too close for another bus to come, so we were told to get off and take taxis. That's all good and dandy, except we had no Uruguayan money and had no idea what kind of taxis were safe. Also, we were conveniently broken down in front of an exchange store. Helpful yes, but it seemed like a scam. We changed as little money as possible and tried to get in a cab as quickly as possible since our blue eyes and luggage screamed, "I'm a tourist; come mug me." 20 or 30 minutes later, we made it safe and sound to the hostel.
The most difficult part about Uruguay was the exchange rate. It's 19.1 Uruguayan pesos to US$1 and who knows what to the Argentine peso. What this amounts to is dinners listed as $200!!! Talk about sticker shock.
One of our main goals of Montevideo was to partake in the annual Carnaval celebrations Monday and Tuesday which were national holidays in both Argentina and Uruguay. While everyone back home was bragging about St. Louis or New Orleans Mardi Gras, I was ecstatic to see the parades, drum lines, and traditional African dancing in the streets of South America. We knew it was no Brazil, but we still had high expectations. When we checked into the hostel, we were informed that the biggest Carnaval festivities were during February and that absolutely NOTHING was going on that week. In fact, the city was a ghost town. No one was there, and hardly anything was open. So much for crazy parties!
Overall, the feel of Montevideo was very similar to Buenos Aires, except the buildings were more run down. The bus drivers were much nicer, even waiting for us to run after them instead of leaving us behind. The best part of the busses was that they took bills instead of coins and even made change. It was a good place to stay for a couple days, but like most everyone had warned us, it's much better to travel to the surrounding towns.
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