Hey-O Montevideo!

13:20 22/2 /09
Che Largarto Hostel, Montevideo, Uruguay

Well, I meant to sleep on the bus to Montevideo but was unsuccessful - partly because I talked with my friend Ashley as we sat in the front seat - with an unobstructed view through the huge dashboard - and partly because we were too frightened to sleep as we observed the bus driver’s maneuvering habits from said view. A couple times we gasped out loud as we came within inches of cars on the highway, basically running them off the road; the cars would literally pull off to the side to avoid an untimely death. I mean, I wanted to get to the capital of Uruguay as soon as possible, but it wasn’t necessary to play bumper cars in order to make the schedule.

Although Amanda and I had a hostel booked this time, we had no idea where to go once again. After asking around, we found a bus stop near the station and it was as easy as jumping on the first bus that happened to pass by (with the assistance of several Uruguayans; they are so helpful here). We are staying directly on the main Plaza Independencia at the Che Lagarto Hostel for $9 USD a night. Although we accidently booked a different hostel than the rest of the group, it ended up being a great mistake. Our hostel is huge, with a gorgeous historic structure yet a very colorful and modern decor. Clean bathrooms too! Amanda and I shared a room with a guy from Israel and one from BA - apparently you have to leave the country to make friends with porteños. When we first arrived, the party was in full swing with a large group dancing and having a jam session in the common room. I really like the hostel atmosphere, everyone is really friendly and welcoming.

We eventually headed out to meet up with the rest of our group, but when we couldn’t find them, we ended up walking through the old town of Montevideo (conveniently right off Plaza Independencia) looking for a dinner spot. We were miffed to find out a lot of places were already closed at 2 am on a Saturday night, so we continued to wander, eventually coming across a pizza place that we deemed satisfactory. Amazingly enough, I heard my name being called while walking in and looked up to discover our entire group sitting at a big table. Amanda and I split a pizza de atún (tuna) without cheese, and while everyone said it looked gross, we enjoyed our filling meal for $1 USD each.

Our group then migrated back to the old town since the first cross street contained a lot of boliches and pubs. We were drawn to a boliche with reggaton (Woo hoo! Something besides electronic music!) and to top off perfection, there was no cover charge – I seriously love Uruguay! Although I didn’t think I listened to that much reggaton, I was surprised to discover that I knew just about every song. They then started playing carnival music and it was great fun dancing to the upbeat rhythms of the drums.

We left around 4:30 because we were going crazy with heat and headed a couple blocks down to the water, where we sat on the edge of the holding wall and looked out at the spectacular view of the dark sky contrasting with the choppy waves that crashed against the rocks below us. As we sat enjoying the cold temperature, we played a couple games of Castellano telephone (where you whisper a sentence down a line of people to see how much the sentence changes by the end) and we are either really creative, or really bad at listening in Castellano.

We headed back to our hostels around five to get a few winks of sleep, but sadly haven’t been able to go out yet today since it’s been raining. Amanda and I passed the time hanging out with some porteños and practicing our Castellano, but hopefully we will head out soon.

Chau! Coli