Uruguay

Well I arrived in Uruguay with no problems whatsoever. I caught the boat from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento. It took 3 hours and was pretty uneventful. Although at the customs (which is on the Argentina side, there appears to be nothing on the Uruguay side!) I got stamped into Uruguay before I got my exit stamp for Argentina - that was about as exciting as it got! But it has to be the easiest boarder crossing I have ever done - certainly beats going from Vietnam to Cambodia!!

I made my way to the hostel and then had a walk around the town. It turned out that Colonia is a very nice little town, which the Portuguese and Spanish fought about for years. It also houses the oldest church in Uruguay (thats your new fact for the day!). I went up the lighthouse and got a good view of the town. I later found out at night that it is in fact still a functioning lighthouse. They apparently earn a little bit of money during the day when it isn´t in use - so I think that has to be the first functioning lighthouse I have ever been in - yeah!!!

I also happened to walk across a small festival the town was having. Lots and lots of children were dressed up and parading through the streets, some on 'floats' (a car with all its doors open and blaring music!), others dancing down the street. I have no idea what the festival was in aid of though, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves!! I then passed by the local school, which appeared to be where everyone from the festival had ended up and they were now doing a sort of dancing competition. It was obviously of a high standard as they were dancing to such tunes as ´hey mickey your so fine´and ´i'm a barbie girl´!!! (the latter was repeated at least 3 times in 10 minutes!). I quickly moved on as it was doing my head in!

The next day I spent the morning seeing the rest of the town I had missed, which included the museums, which were really random. One had a very small room of tiles (?), another housed a bunch of rocks, all looked the same (I think they were some sort of weapon used in ancient times - this is pure guess work as I couldn´t read any of the Spanish!!). And another had a bunch of maps which made no sense whatsoever! Either way the whole thing cost me about 30p so I wasn´t complaining!

In the afternoon I caught a bus to Montevideo which is the capital of Uruguay. I had a walk down the main street there and came another festival/parade (is there something in the air?). This was on a much larger scale and people were dressed up in very fancy costumes with their faces painted. Again it involved quite a few cars blaring different kinds of music or people banging drums very loudly. I watched this for a while as it was quite intriguing. In the evening I went out to dinner with some people I had met at the hostel. We had a good time and ate some local cuisine - hotdogs in a bun covered with melted cheese and golf sauce (tomato ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together!)

The following day I wandered around Montevideo and visited the flea market where they were selling dogs, cats, birds, fish and a lot of cr*p. I managed to get away without buying anything, although to be honest that wasn´t hard! I also didn´t come across anymore parades - it appears that literally nothing is done on a Sunday!

On the Monday I made my way back to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This time the crossing wasn't as easy on the way in. It turned out I was missing a piece of paper which I should have recieved when I came into Uruguay and that immigration required so that I could leave the country. I had no recollection of ever getting this piece of paper, and after being passed around the immigration officers and me going through my bags to prove I didn't have it, they eventually let me through without it - obviously it wasn't that important after all!!

I have to say I do love being a 'Gringo' in this place. When arriving in Buenos Aires, we had to go through customs. But there was this guy who was standing inbetween two corridors and most people were going down the left corridor, but he waved me into the right one. I was a bit worried as I thought that me not having this piece of paper was now going to be a problem. But actually the corridor led straight outside, avoiding customs entirely!! All other foreign looking people came out the same way. Clearly us 'gringoes' are of no trouble whatsoever and won't be carrying anything dangerous!! I wasn't complaining!!

So I have now been in Buenos Aires for the last couple of days and I have been trying to see the sights that I have yet to see! Yesterday I visited dead people!! There are a couple of cemetries in the city which apparently are not to be missed, so I thought why not. The first one had Eva Peron's grave and the other one had the creator of the Tango. Personally, it wasn't that exciting, but at one of the graveyards, they have roads passing inbetween the graves, so you can literally fling the flowers out from the window of your car onto the grave!! (At least that was what I was imagining!!).

The Argentinians have been very interesting the last couple of days. There have been quite a few protests happening (their history is amazing, what these people have been through is shocking - their own army bombed their parliament building!!). So at the moment the umeployed are protesting around the city and there are tons of police with riot gear and the biggest police vehicles ever - with guns on top!! There are also barracades everywhere - especially around the HSBC building which I found out today was because 6 years ago during their economic recession the HSBC let armed police into its building and they went up to the 2nd floor where they shot dead a protestor on the street. Since then whenever there is a protest they have to put huge metal barracades around the building as it is a target for angry protestors! Its the only bank in Buenos Aires that has constant police protection. So this has all been very exciting. So far no violence has happened, but a lot of the protestors are carrying long pieces of wood with them - kind of like walking sticks but more nasty looking!

Anyway, there is no need for you guys to worry, I am off to Ecuador tomorrow. Thats if the flight manages to leave. Apparently the flights have been seriously delayed recently as the baggage handlers are protesting as well (it seems everyone protests around here!!). So hopefully I will leave on time, but my bag may not be joining me!!