Uruguay "el paisito"

From Sao Paulo we took a flight to Montevideo, Uruguay. When we planned our itinerary we included the stop in Uruguay thinking that our friends Joaquin and Leticia, who are from Montevideo would be there, but they recently moved to Santiago de Chile and we couldn't meet them there. However, Leticia's parents, Gonzalo and Graciela, met us at the airport. They took care of us so nicely that we felt like being at our parents home. Thank you!

After Gonzalo and Graciela picked us up from the airport, they invited us to have lunch and we tried the famous "chivito", which is a sandwich with meat, bacon, lettuce, egg and many other ingredients.

Chivito

After finishing the huge sandwich, they drove us to Montevideo's center. We first took the coastal road which runs next to the "Rio de la Plata" river.

We saw all the main monuments from the car and Gonzalo explained us the history about the city and the main buildings. It was great that we did the tour by car with them, because the following day we walked through the center and we already knew a little bit of the history.. Thank you for the tour!

At night we had a delicious urugayan "asado" cooked by Gonzalo. We learnt that the uruguayan BBQ is different from the Argentinian in the fact that it is cooked with wood instead of coal.

Our walking tour on the following day included the plaza independencia, teatro Solis, plaza matriz and the market next to the harbor. On the way back home we missed our bus because they told us to wait in the wrong bus stop.

From Montevideo we took a bus to Punta del Este, which is the vacational area two hours from Montevideo. It is full of apartments in front of the beach but, as we went in low season, all the apartments were empty and most of the restaurants were closed. But it was perfect for us, very quite place to rest from our trip.

In Punta del Este we stayed at Leticia's family apartment and we loved it! Thank you!

We also went to the supermarket and we bought Spanish ham and cheese for dinner. It was like being at home again!

Having dinner with spanish ham

In Punta del Este we rent a car to visit the area. We drove all the coastal road and we visited the fishermen town of Jose Ignacio, we tried to see the sunset in Punta Ballena but it was rainy and we also saw the project "Casa Pueblo", which is the house of the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, which is now a museum and art gallery.

We also tried to go to eat waffles with "dulce de leche" in the cow farm Lapataia. We were late and they were closed so we couldn't try them. Next time!

Casa Pueblo

The next day we went to Cabo Polonio, which is a remote town that you can only access by a 4WD vehicle or walking through the dunes. The area has no electricity and neither running water and it has very few houses all of them built by local people. It is a very peculiar place and perfect to be away from the crowds of the city.

To get to Cabo Polonio we had to cross a small lagoon on top of a platform with the car.

We said good bye to Punta del Este and we took a bus to Colonia del Sacramento, where we took the "buquebus" which is a big slow boat that crosses in 3 hours from Uruguay to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the boat

And finally, after the whole day travelling, we arrived to Buenos Aires! where my birthday present was waiting for me!!! 4 days in a nice hotel!

NEXT STOP: Buenos Aires!