Oh my goodness…today was probably the longest day I’ve had here in the Southern Hemisphere, other than the first day that is. I woke up at 6:40AM!!! Yeah, that’s 4:40am to those of you in the central time zone! I got ready relatively fast (in about 15 minutes). My host mom woke up and made me coffee and then by 7:15 I was off in a taxi to “Colonia Express”, a ferry that takes you to Colonia, Uruguay just across the Rio de la Plata. (Which I heard was one of the widest rivers in the world…and it is really really wide. You can barely see the sides of it when in the middle).
We arrived in Colonia around 10:00. (Our ferry didn’t leave until 9:00). It was…cold. Well, colder than it has been this entire time, I would say in the upper 40s, maybe a bit lower. I’m no meteorologist, but it was cold enough to make me shiver, even though I had a long sleeve shirt and a hoody on over it. We first took a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide told us a little about the history and kept telling us to come back and stay the night, and tell our friends about it, and to come back and get married in this little town of Colonia. They apparently really want to thrive with tourism, and it really is the perfect little tourist spot. The travel agencies need to pick this place up because it is…Beautiful! I mean it when I say that it is the most beautiful town I have ever seen. Well, at least the Old City is. The newer parts of town just look like a cute little town, but the Old City…that’s where all the magic is. The neighborhood was built by the Portuguese and the Spanish, so the architecture and the cobblestone roads mimic those in old Portugal and Spain, naturally. The buildings are painted beautiful colors and there are all sorts of different types of flowers on the ground, growing on the sides of buildings, planted on roof tops.
There are also quite a lot of dogs just running around the place. Some of them obviously had owners, some probably didn’t, but they were all happy and friendly. And also, you cannot walk down the street without seeing someone carrying a thermos and mate. It is so funny. I saw more mate in Uruguay than I’ve seen my entire time in B.A. They love love love it in Uruguay. I think I noticed that the way to tell a tourist from a local is that tourists aren’t carrying around mate.
After our short city tour, we went to lunch at a random restaurant. I had raviolis which were…eh, okay I suppose. Then we were free to do as we pleased. We followed our Expanish leader for awhile. He took us to a boardwalk where we took pictures of more buildings and of the river. Then he took us to a “beach” area where we were able to take even more pictures. Then we went back to the Old City center where we split up and went our different ways. Oh, before I forget, there were also orange trees, and of course I couldn’t help but think of my mom who definitely would have picked a few oranges. =) Some of my classmates did and they said that they were the most sour oranges they’ve ever tasted. Sorry mom, I didn’t pick any… I wouldn’t be able to bring them home anyway! =)
Then we split up. We went to some little tourist shops and bought tourist-y things. Then we just…walked…and took photos. I took about 200 photos while I was there…(coming to a facebook album near you soon!) Bridget and I finally got tired of just walking, and since we were pretty chilly we decided to find some café con leche and just sit around the town for awhile. In the midst of our search, we found stairs leading to the roof of a building…so we went up there and found a cute little roof with tables and chairs and what not. Well, we sat… and talked. I know I know, you have a day in Uruguay and you just sit on a roof and talk?! Why weren’t you out doing stuff? I know…however, the sun was in the perfect spot (meaning it was a bit warmer than in the shade) and it was over looking the water and various other rooftops that had flowers and other stuff…it was a pretty sight. Plus, we had about 5 hours in this little town to spend… so why not?
After awhile we went down and started walking again. We finally found a cute little café where we got our drinks and a little bit of food. It was a really cute restaurant with heaters (!) and there was a cute little dog in there as well. And then we took off walking again. We tried to go up to a lighthouse, but it was closed by the time we got there…however, I did take quite a few pictures of it. I also took a few pictures of what was almost sunset. I didn’t get any good photos of it because the clouds overtook the sun and so it made it more difficult.
I don’t know how the time went by so fast, but before we knew it, it was dark outside and so we walked around and took photos of Colonia in the evening. We ended up at a park where we sat down and just people watched. And wow…the people here are just so interesting. They are all so different and quite wonderful it seems. The mullet and the rat tail seem to be hair styles that are in here as well, although not as common. Many a people had their mate (even younger kids…maybe 10 or 11 carried them around). While we were there, a dog found us and decided to make us his new friend. It was so sweet and just let us pet him (no worries, we had hand sanitizer!). As we were sitting on this park bench, just hanging out, a couple of guys walked by and one said, “Hola!”… well, we are not rude, we do not just ignore semi attractive Uruguayan boys when they talk to us… so we said, “Hola” back… but they kept walking, so no big deal, right? =) Well, then Bridget just started feeling sorry for the poor dog and got up to go to the kiosko that was right by us to see if they had any kind of food that she could give the dog (yup, she has a soft spot when it comes to homeless dogs)… and she wasn’t even gone but thirty seconds, when those two Uruguayan guys are back in the park and saying hello to me again, and then sitting down on the bench next to me… But strangely enough, they weren’t…creepy. They were nice and said hello. One’s name was Juan (I can’t remember the other). Then of course they start speaking in really fast Spanish with a Uruguayan accent so I was LOST. Bridget came back and tried to translate some for me. However, when they said, “Donde esta sus novios?,” (Where are your boyfriends?) I laughed and Bridget said, “Tengo un novio” (I have a boyfriend). And then she started getting her southern (she’s from Georgia) attitude on and I guess they got the hint because they, somewhat politely, said okay and said goodbye. Ha ha. It was quite fun and no harm was done! So no worries mom and dad!
Well, after awhile longer, Bridget and I decided to start heading back to the port, mainly because we weren’t certain where the port was from where we were, so we had to back track back through the Old City to try and find it. On our way there, we started hearing music…drumming in particular. So we followed it (I mean, we had an hour before we had to be back). And after a block or two (more normal sized blocks in Uruguay), we found the source. There was a band in the middle of the street playing the drums. There were a few girls dancing and then we found Alex and Leo. Alex has taken a few milonga and tango dancing lessons, so she was out there dancing with them too. We just listened and somewhat moved to the music (no, I did not let my crazy dance moves out…people just have to be patient for that!). After about two or three minutes or so of following this moving drum band down the street, I turned and noticed two very familiar looking figures on the other side of the road. Sure enough, it was Juan and his friend. Sigh. I had followers! (And no, I can’t say whether or not I was excited by that fact. Ha ha). While we followed this band down the street, (for about twenty minutes), Juan and friend followed us…but then, they finally left. I don’t know if they were waiting on me to acknowledge them (which I never did), or if they were waiting on us to turn back and be alone, or what the deal was. But Leo was with us, so I had some form of a guy around in case things got crazy…but NO worries! Nothing happened. They left and we four went back to the ferry unharmed and un-followed (as far as I know I suppose…ha).
Well, then we took the ferry home and that’s the end of my fun day in Uruguay. (Pronounced: oo-roo-why for those of you who want to know the correct pronunciation). =)
More class tomorrow! And hopefully a drum show tomorrow night. One of my classmates said he had the most fun he’s ever had there when he went last Monday, so we shall see.
Miss you all and love you!
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