Thursday, July 3, 2008

Uruguay!



Today we went to Uruguay. I had to wake up at 6am to be at the boat station by 7am. Julie & I made it throughcustoms within 10 minutes. Then we boarded the boat. Do realize we crossed a river and not another body of water. The river at this point is the widdest in the world. The river is called Río de la Plata, which is Spanish for Silver River. The seat oin the boat were not all that fun... They were really just airplane seats, but at least the ferry was not full that day, so we had one seat inbetween us. Sleeping on the "water bus" was not exaclyt easy, the lights were very brigh, so I guess having a sleeping blindfold you have helped greatly.
We disembarked after a 3 hour ride (about 11am now) and went throughcustoms and immagration fairly quickly. In the process we also met a guy that was from Illonois.


After immigration and all, we hopped on a bus for our city tour...first stop - Plaza Independencia.

Julia & I in Uruguay


(Their mainstreetis 18 de Julio, which is when they signed their Constitution.) We then stopped at a giftshop which everything was in U$S dollars, which was quite annoying, as there wasn´t anyone on our tour with US money, it was however very expensive to buy anything there unless you were from Europe. So nothanks, didn´t buy anything there...) We then all hopped back on the bus and headed back to the boat port. At the resturant our meal was included, but drinks were not, by the time we got done, our bill was at $270 pesos....Uruguayan pesos that is... The conversion from Argentina Pesos to Uruguayan pesos was $1 Arg. to $5.8 Urug. Pesos. Everythin was jutified though because, ice cream ranged from $26 - 86 Urag. Pesos. For our actual Lunch, we bothe had Potato Salad and Turkey Breast slices for an appertizer. This turkey breast was the first turkey I have tasted since being abroad! It tasted wonderful to me! We also had Media o Media, a typical uruguayan drink, which is like half Champagne and half white Wine. It had a very buttery taste to it, with a very strong Dulce de Leche after taste, overall very different and worth it to try. For our main plate, we bothe had Spinach Ravioli with "Alfred Sauce" at least that was what the English translation said... For dessert I had Misini? not sure of the spelling. It was very good, it had a thick light tasting whipped cream layer with that thin cake bread on top and bottom (I talked about this in an earlier blog). Then on the very top was some tye of very sweet marlamade. Overall, very good. After Lunch we boarded the bus again and continued our tour. At one point I fell asleep and Julie took over taking the pictures. We at point stopped at the highest point in Uruguay which is 516 meters and has a maritime museum on top of it (we didn´t have time to go in it) There were also cannons that we took pictures with.



After we left the hill, we headed to a shopping area. I exchanged 50 Argentia Pesos for Uruguyan money. We got some ice cream and I bought a beanie (the hat that keeps your head warm). After about and hour there, we got back on the bus to take us to the port to catch our boat. During the day Julie took at least half (really more than half) of the pictures, so there are A LOT of good pictures!
Our "water bus" left at 7:15pm, and we arrived in Bs. As. at about 11:15pm, everything went smoothly until we needed a taxi. All the taxis were charging $30 pesos from the terminal, it should have only cost $10 pesos...



Uruguayan Sunset


Pardon my spelling errors...






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