Hola amigos,

Due to the lack of internet in my home in Córdoba and the fact that I’ve been travelling the past two weeks, it’s been awhile since the last post on here. Currently, I’m writing this blog from Mendoza, Argentina, which is a city just on the Argentinian side of the Andes mountains in what the locals call wine country. Stories from this adventure will come in the next blog because I have too many stories to tell from my Uruguayan adventure that took place all of last week.

We left Friday night for Buenos Aires by bus with two of our friends that we met through our program. From Buenos Aires, we took an hour ferry ride across Río de la Plata to arrive in Uruguay. Buying the tickets for the ferry was quite some process and we got the port a good 15 minutes before the ferry was scheduled to embark. Luckily, neither planes, buses, nor ferries leave at the scheduled time down here and we were able to go to the counter to buy our tickets, receive a piece of paper to go to a different counter to pay for the ticket, go to a different counter to check the bags, take the stairs up to security, go through security, and get our passports stamped before the boat left. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very organized nor efficient system, but we made it, which is all that matters. Here’s a pic of the ferry that we took: We spent the day walking around Colonia, which is a little colonial town in Uruguay on the coast. After dropping off our luggage in our hostel, we walked down to the pier and to the harbor on the other side of the peninsula. There’s an old lighthouse in the city that we were able to climb, and here’s a pic of the lighthouse: While on top of the lighthouse, we ran into three Americans who work for the US Embassy in Buenos Aires! It was nice to hear a familiar accent

The next day, we took a bus to Punta del Este, a town on the coast a little north of Colonia known for its beaches. Punta del Este is literally a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and is one giant beach with lots of condos and hotels. Because it’s so well known, everything was super expensive, so we only stayed for two nights. Here’s a pic of the beaches that stretch throughout the entire peninsula: One side of the peninsula faces West, so took advantage of every opportunity we got to watch the sunset over the ocean. It was so beautiful and incredibly relaxing to sit on the beach and watch the sunset every night. I’m not quite sure why, but one side of the island, there’s a giant hand monument that sticks out of the beach. Here’s a photo of the hand: If you find out its significance, please let me know because I’d be curious to know!

After spending a couple days in Punta del Este, Sarah and I said goodbye to the girls from our group and made our way to Piriapolis, a smaller town an hour South of Punta del Este. Sarah and I easily won the award for youngest tourists visiting, as everyone else seemed to be 65 and older. Piriapolis was an absolutely beautiful town and we were fortunate enough to visit during the down season, which meant we were able to stay in an old Tudor mansion directly across the street from the beach for the half the price. I still can’t get over that we stayed in this hotel for $35: The name is Hotel Colon, and it’s an old mansion that was turned into a hotel by the owners who still run the hotel. Sarah and I made the most of the beach every single day and we now have the tan to prove it Piriapolis also faces the West, so we were able to see the sunset every single night over the ocean. The last night we were in Uruguay, I saw the green flash for the first time in my life! Ever since the third Pirates of the Caribbean, I had been wondering if such a thing really exists, and it does! Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean somebody has come back from the dead; it’s just an optical illusion. Here’s a beautiful photo of Sarah looking into an Uruguayan sunset!

I couldn’t believe how fast our little week in paradise flew by! We made the long trip home via two buses in Uruguay, the ferry, and then another bus from Buenos Aires to the Córdoba. I was completely exhausted when I got home at 8:00 in the morning and slept until 12:30 or so. That evening, Sarah took me out to a tango show in Córdoba. We were originally planning on taking lessons before dinner and the show, but unfortunately lessons weren’t offered that night. The food was absolutely delicious and the show was a lot of fun!

This brings us to Saturday of last week, the day we left for Mendoza to start our next adventure. Before leaving that night, we made a trip to Mar Chiquita with a couple of our Argentinian friends. Mar Chiquita is a sea in the province of Córdoba that is saltier than the ocean. You couldn’t swim for very long because the water burned your eyes  and dried out your mouth. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to float though! It’s not quite as salty as the Dead Sea, but it’s salty enough where you can float without much effort. We left that night for Mendoza and are currently travelling through Mendoza and on to Chile the rest of this week. I’ll be writing a blog early next week with all of our adventures from our latest excursion. Travelling is starting to take its toll on us, and living out of a suitcase is getting pretty tiring. I can’t believe we’ve only got 10 days left in Argentina though! It seems like just yesterday that I started writing this blog. I hope all is well back home and everyone is enjoying the snow and the start of winter

Chau Suerte!

Danny

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