Countries Visited

Svalbard Spain United States of America Antarctica South Georgia Falkland Islands Bolivia Peru Ecuador Colombia Venezuela Guyana Suriname French Guiana Brazil Paraguay Uruguay Argentina Chile Greenland Canada United States of America United States of America Israel Jordan Cyprus Qatar United Arab Emirates Oman Yemen Saudia Arabia Iraq Afghanistan Turkmenistan Iran Syria Singapore China Mongolia Papua New Guinea Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Malaysia Tiawan Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Myanmar Bangladesh Sri Lanka India Bhutan Nepal Pakistan Afghanistan Turkmenistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Japan North Korea South Korea Russia Kazakhstan Russia Montenegro Portugal Azerbaijan Armenia Georgia Ukraine Moldova Belarus Romania Bulgaria Macedonia Serbia Bosonia & Herzegovina Turkey Greece Albania Croatia Hungary Slovakia Slovenia Malta Spain Portugal Spain France Italy Italy Austria Switzerland Belgium France Ireland United Kingdom Norway Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Russia Poland Czech Republic Germany Denmark The Netherlands Iceland El Salvador Guatemala Panama Costa Rica Nicaragua Honduras Belize Mexico Trinidad & Tobago Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Haiti Jamaica The Bahamas Cuba Vanuatu Australia Solomon Islands Fiji New Caledonia New Zealand Eritrea Ethiopia Djibouti Somalia Kenya Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Madagascar Namibia Botswana South Africa Lesotho Swaziland Zimbabwe Mozambique Malawi Zambia Angola Democratic Repbulic of Congo Republic of Congo Gabon Equatorial Guinea Central African Republic Cameroon Nigeria Togo Ghana Burkina Fasso Cote d'Ivoire Liberia Sierra Leone Guinea Guinea Bissau The Gambia Senegal Mali Mauritania Niger Western Sahara Sudan Chad Egypt Libya Tunisia Morocco Algeria
Map Legend: 28%, 75 of 263 Territories

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Guay #2: Uru

On to Montevideo, Uruguay. I translate the name of the city as "high place where they show movies", yet we didn't actually see any movies there and it wasn't really high. It was very cold while we were there dipping down to almost freezing and raining in the mornings, and one of us (you can guess which) suggested renaming the entire country Brrruguay...

Now some pictures. This building was the tallest in South America when it was built at the end of the 1800s. In the fog, it really does look tall. With no fog, it doesn't seem so high.
Here is Tara in the gate to the old city. Montevideo is a very pleasant city, though it doesn't have much that makes it notable.
A view from the balcony of our room. Room prices have apparently shot up dramatically in recent years, but we found this very nice hotel for $27 per night after much searching.

Tara, our official Spanish translator for the trip, informs me that this sign translates as "please excuse us while we molest you". Or something like that. We saw a lot of them, but only in Uruguay. Not sure what that says about Uruguay.
While in Uruguay, we were lucky enough to catch a performance of their philharmonic which was performing all music by Uruguayans. They had a guy who wrote works for accordion and symphony, and he was very good. Doubt he'll be performing in New York anytime soon, though.
Another shot of the theater, which has been restored to what it looked like when built a couple hundred years ago. Feels very European, which seems to be the general vibe Uruguay is going for.
We left most of our luggage in Buenos Aires while in Uruguay, and we hadn't been rained on for the entire two months of our trip, so I left my raincoat. That meant I was forced to use my stylish backup poncho. Incidentally, the word pancho here means a hot dog, so if you ask a store keeper for a poncho, you are likely to receive a hot dog.
On our way back to Argentina, we stopped in a small town called Colonia. Despite it being about 40 degrees outside, they had small parrots living in the town square. Hard to tell, but these are little green parrots (or parakeets).
Tara did her best to stay warm on the ferry back to Argentina. It was heated, but she was still cold. If she doubted that we needed sleeping bags before, she changed her mind here.
The seas weren't that rough, but it wasn't exactly crystal clear water. Not the place you would want to swim.
That's it for Uruguay. These pictures are sort of boring, but Uruguay is sort of a boring place. Seems like it would be a very nice place to live, but it doesn't have much for tourism. Worth the easy trip from Buenos Aires, though.

6 comments:

  1. what do you use as a guid

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad for the update on Uruguay... I was supposed to take a day drip there when I was in Buenos Aires earlier this year, but Baby Morris made me too nauseous so I decided taking a ferry to Colonia wasn't a good idea. Glad to hear I didn't miss much :-)

    "Molestar" means "to bother", by the way :-)

    - Merrie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shyana, we use the Footprint South America Handbook, 2009. It's a HUGE purple book, and its binding has already fallen off. The authors are British, so it's got some phrases we wouldn't normally use...

    Merrie, thanks for the comments...and yeah, we know what molestar means, but it would be funnier the other way, no? Hope all is well with the impending little one. =)

    ReplyDelete
  4. have you seen any cats

    ReplyDelete
  5. were u scared when u seen the whale

    ReplyDelete
  6. About how tall were the glaciers in feet.

    ReplyDelete