Oorooguay Otra Vez

Hola chicos,

We just returned from Oorooguay for the second time. In need of another 90 day tourist stamp we jumped on the new, high speed Buquebus ferry 'Francisco' to Montevideo (the capital city of Uruguay) on early Friday morning with nearly 1,000 other people - all wearing our protective booties to protect the carpet (!?). The ferry was super fast, just over 2 hours. It had been storming all night, so as we reached the centre of the Rio de la Plata the ride got fairly rough, but lucky neither of us got sea sick.

Protective 'booties'

So freshly off the boat we went to the Thrifty desk to grab our recently reserved car, a Chevrolet Spark... but of course the Thrifty guy wasn't there. After 10 minutes standing around contemplating taking a cab into town and he finally shows up. Being Uruguayan he was super friendly, so we forgave him pretty quickly, since he gave us plenty of sound advice for our stay.

After about 8 seconds I drove onto the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, so we took a break from driving and, leaving the car in the car park at the port, we went for a walk across the road to the Mercardo del Puerto, known for serving a lot of very good meat. After wandering around for 20 minutes marvelling at all the amazing asados with their bar style service we settled on one which looked like it was getting the most business, must be good right? We sat directly in front of the Parilla so we could watch the Asador work his magic. I ordered Asado de Tira, its cheap and bound to be tasty. I was promptly served up a piece of meat nearly as long as my arm. Heather, predicable as she is, ordered a not-so-petite 'Petite Bife de Lomo'. The food was delicious, Heather's Lomo was juicy and tender and my Asado was tasty and full of beefy flavour. There was a notable difference in flavour from Argentine beef, I suspect it was genuine organic grass feed beef, something which has apparently disappeared from Argentine markets over the last few years, kudos Uruguay. Alongside the meal came papas fritas of course, and a couple of cups of Medio y Medio, half white wine and half champagne, an apparently a classic Uruguayan drink.

I think we ate too much meat

Then we got in our little coche and cruised along La Rambla (the coast road) all the way to a small town called Piriapolis where we would be staying for the weekend. We checked into a little hotel and went for a wander to find an ATM which would dispense dollars, sadly nothing of help around the place.

First 'swim' in the Atlantic Ocean

So we went for a spin up the mountain to check out the views of the coast, something we have been missing and totally take for granted having spent the last 20 odd years living on the coast of Western Australia (donde las playas estan los mejores del mundo). Great view all the way round, but getting sleepy so back to the hotel for brief siesta before seeking dinner.

After much deliberation, we settled on a restaurant called Picasso. After meandering through some crazy 6-way intersections we eventually arrived at the 'restaurant' i.e. a yellow house with a fish painted on the wall. We entered and found a number of plastic tables with all with 'Reserved' plaques on them, we slunk our heads and asked if there was a table for two available, lucky night, there was one small table available. The menu was mostly comprised of fish, we didn't really know what to get, the waitress kindly suggested we order one serving of grilled fish with some salsa to share. Since neither of us were hungry we agreed and lucky we did, it was rather huge, especially after having eating so much only a few hours earlier. Beautiful fresh fish arrived from the chef who was on the other side of the room happily slapping fish fillets on the grill. Our meal arrived, delicious flaky sweet fish flesh accompanied by a beautiful tartare sauce, and of course, papas fritas. We happily chowed down welcoming the change to seafood after 5 months of daily beef.

When we rose in the morning to cafe con leche, mediulunas, pepas and various other cakes and bits and pieces, no bacon and eggs for brekky in this continent. Then we jumped in the coche and rocketed off up the coast towards our first stop, Punta Ballena (Whale Point). We took in the incredible view from right out at the point then headed to Casa Pueblo - the house/artists retreat, and hotel of Carlos Páez Vilaró, a famous artist known for his paintings depicting the need for racial equality and for his son being one of the 16 who survived for 3 months after a plane crash in the Andes in 1972. The truly awe inspiring piece of architecture that was built by Carlos himself and 30 close friends and relatives houses a hotel, a restaurant and an art museum/gallery where you can learn about the life of Carlos and view and even buy his original works.

Afterwards, we headed to Punta del Este, or the 'Monaco of South America' - the choice holiday location for various celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Naomi Campbell, Leonardo Dicaprio and Robert de Niro etc. We took a bunch of photos with the famous landmark 'La Mano' (the Hand), went for a walk along the beach (too cold to swim) and found our first ever Uruguayan Geocache. It was nice to be at the coast again after feeling a bit landlocked living in Buenos Aires but, as expected, the beaches had nothing on West Australian beaches - not even comparable.

My first 'swim' in the Atlantic

We kept driving to check out a beautiful open air art museum and then further up the coast to the cute beachside towns of La Barra and Jose Ignacio.

We had dinner back in Piriapolis at restaurant called Draker overlooking the beach. Vino blanco and Paella was on the menu so we dived in. Delicious, but insanely huge, there is no way anybody could eat that much food, then it was time for helado and bed.

Needed to be up early to drive all the way back to Montevideo to get more US dollars and fuel up the car (US$2 per litre!!). We got to the port with an hour and a bit to spare. But of course the Thrifty guy wasn't there so we had to wait for a good half hour before he finally rocked up and could take the keys. Francisco left the port about 45 minutes late (it takes a long time to process 1000 people through migrations with only 5 people stamping passports) and were finally on our way back home to Buenos Aires.

So that was our weekend, muchas gracias por leer!

Chau,

Oscar

An Unexpected Journey

Hola,

Wow so many blog posts recently. We have had a delightful, very spontaneous weekend.

So the plan was to spend Saturday in Lujan (a city about 70km out of BA) for a workshop that Oscar's friends from UBA (University of Buenos Aires) were hosting. So we rolled out of bed slightly late, caught the bus to Plaza Italia and waited for the bus to Lujan. And waited, and waited. After waiting way too long, Oscar got grumpy we decided to abandon the trip to Lujan and to trudge home. Walking to the bus stop we passed the Botanical Gardens and decided to pay them a visit. So it ended in a lovely walk, some serious medialuna eating on Oscar's part, some photo taking on my part and some geocache hunting.

So we jumped on a random bus that we thought would take us in the general direction of our apartment. While it inevitably didn't take us in the right direction, it did take us almost right to the door of Rapa Nui - the ice-cream/chocolate shop that we had been hanging out to try for ages. Amazing. There can't be anything better in life than a big scoop of dulce de leche helado.

Sunday morning started with some delicious fresh bread and croissants from our favourite French bakery around the corner (L'epi). We then headed out to centro to watch the Red Bull soapbox derby. Apparently the rest of BA also had the same idea. So we struggled to find a good viewing point and bailed - unfortunately all of the bus stop roofs, scaffolding, portable toilet roofs and shoulders were already occupied.

Again, we jumped on a random bus that this time actually did take us in the direction of our apartment. Walking towards our apartment we passed through an Indian Festival (there was no food so Oscar decided it was not worth our time), stopped for drinks in Starbucks, had a quick look at our local weekend 'hippy markets' and visited the Recoleta Cultural Centre. There really is always something happening in BA. Despite living a few hundred meters from the Cultural Centre we had never really had a good look before - the exhibitions were crazy, confusing, very interesting and slightly weird.

So summer is on it's way - it's getting warmer, the Jacarandas are flowering and there are more half-naked people in the parks. We're heading off for Uruguay (Part II) next weekend. This time we will ferry to Montevideo and drive up the coast a bit to the beaches. Hopefully the warm weather holds out for us!

Besos y abrazos,

H