Three in one: Colonia, Montevideo and Piriapolis!

It's been over a week since my last post and I'm now on my third destination in Uruguay. I started in Colonia last Tuesday having taken the ferry from Buenos Aires, then went to Montevideo on Thursday and arrived in Piriapolis yesterday (Monday). The ferry over from Buenos Aires was cool. 
One thing that I did find odd was the queuing to get on it, and I'm British so that must say something. We boarded at 12:00 and people started queuing from 11:15. There were plenty of seats for everyone to sit down in the terminal and I could only assume that there were limited seats on the ferry. Not being one to stand up when I can sit down, I waited until nearly everyone had boarded before I joined the end of the queue and no, there were enough seats for everyone to have one on the ferry - maybe they wanted to get window seats? Not sure, don't feel I missed anything by not having one.
Anyway, we arrived in Colonia, bang on time and I collected my luggage and made my way to my hostel. I was staying in a place called Bit Hostel which was lovely but had the most terrible mattresses! There had been a review left by a 'Haden' (who I think was the Haden I met in Pucon!) who had said this but it scored highly everywhere else so I risked it (much to my back's annoyance!).
Anyway, after checking in I went to the bank to get my fourth currency type since I arrived (having used some USD, I'm currently on $40 UYU - Uruguayan pesos to the £, having been on $25 Argentinian and $80 Chilean previously!) then for lunch where as I'd sat outside it was a fight between me and the birds for my bread! I had this delicious cheese and tomato casserole and as it was two friend's birthdays that day, I had a large glass of vino tinto to help them celebrate! 
After lunch, with it being a beautiful day, I started my exploration of Colonia. Everyone I've met who's been there said how lovely the place is and how much I'd like it and they weren't wrong. It's not very big and to be honest, if I'd pulled my finger out I could have done it all in that one afternoon, but I like to meander and so having two nights there was perfect. You see so many places that are familiar because I guess they're the really picturesque bits, although to be fair, it's probably one of the most photogenic places you could visit. Even the coffee is pretty!
The next day, I did a serious meander around the place and here are a selection of my photos from the day. 
Even the street signs are really pretty here too!
I'd planned on eating out that night, having failed to do so the day before, not being hungry after all that cheese, but I'd ordered a roasted vegetable sandwich for lunch that day which was huge and I ended up not being hungry again! So I stayed in and binged on NetFlix instead!
The next morning I made my way over to Montevideo. It was really hot and humid when I arrived and knowing my hostel was a good 2-3km away from the bus station I'd checked out which local bus I needed and how to take it. Sadly I was still scuppered as there were roadworks that closed the stop I needed and not knowing the route, I had no idea and insufficient Spanish to ask where I needed to go instead, so that was a hot and sweaty walk! 
That afternoon I went for a walk round as the weather forecast had said it was going to rain the next day and I wanted to make sure I got a few photos. I headed to Plaza Independencia where I found Montevideo's building that depicts Dante's Divine Comedy albeit in a smaller version, 
the City Gate,
Montevideo's Suns of Fame (my name for them) 
and other beautiful buildings. Montevideo has some stunning architecture and I liked it a lot.
On my first full day I decided to do the walking tour which turned out to be the right day to do it as it was beautifully hot and sunny again (around 27 degrees), despite the forecast; it was just the 80% humidity that was a killer! Anyway, we started in Plaza Independencia and went to a museum that charted the key dates in Uruguay's path to independence. 
It was really cool, I liked the construction of it a lot. We then continued around much of the area I'd wandered around the day before, but of course it's much more interesting when you get the history and information about it all!
Afterwards, Waldo, a guy I'd met on the tour and I went for lunch before I headed back to the hostel to speak with my sister as it was her birthday.
So, I've been pretty poor with the the blog updates this week and it's partly because I didn't think I did enough in Colonia to warrant a post to itself and then on Friday evening I received some bad news from home and I lost all enthusiasm for writing it. Whilst I've been away, there has been a lot of stuff going on at home that I wish I had been there for to support my friends and family with. When I did my trip 10 years ago there was no bad news to deal with. On this one there's been multiple bereavements, illnesses and relationship breakdowns for which I've really felt I've let my friends and family down by not being there for them. I've obviously not shared these with you, but this news knocked me for six and I've been questioning ever since if I should quit now and return home early. I keep weighing up if I want to see the places I'm going to more than I want to be back with my friends and family or if I'm just quitting early, and if I do so, I fear I'm going to feel like I've failed in some way. Unlike 10 years ago when I saw people I knew on many occasions, I've not seen anyone I know during this trip and the lack of a support network out here makes it hard. I don't think I will come home early but I can't promise that if anything else happens...
Anyway, on Saturday, we had thunderstorms in Montevideo, of biblical proportions! Marisa, who I'd met in the hostel in Santiago and I were planning to meet up and go for a walk during the day but the weather was so bad we changed our plans and went for dinner instead. I thought I ought to at least try to do something during the day though so I walked to the bus stop to go to Pocitos, and then I walked straight back to my hostel as whilst standing at the (covered) bus stop, the rain came down so heavily I got absolutely saturated! My shoes and trousers were drenched and so I just stayed in the hostel that day trying to dry out! 
In the evening I met up with Marisa which was really lovely and we went for chivitos which is basically steak, bacon, cheese, tomato, lettuce and a fried egg on a sandwich.
It was delicious!
On the Sunday, it was raining again and so I unzipped the bottom of my travel trousers and wore flip flops as my shoes were still wet and headed to the shopping mall to see if I could get some cheap trainers as the rain has started to make these shoes smell too, but I wasn't successful and so I'm using my Febreze like it's going out of fashion on them at the moment! 
And so ends my time in Montevideo, which was most unsatisfactory given the weather! I guess it goes back on the list of places to visit in the future.
Since yesterday I've been in Piriapolis. I'd booked a hostel here but the wifi had been down in my hostel all the last day I was there and so it wasn't until my phone finally hooked up to a free service, just as my bus was leaving Montevideo, that I discovered it was closed (not entirely sure why booking.com let me make a reservation...) so I arrived here not knowing where I was going to stay. But I found a hostel with an available bed and all continued as planned. Piriapolis is kind of the Eastbourne of Uruguay as lots of retired people come here, but it's a very gentle kind of place and I like it a lot. The sun was glorious yesterday and fearing its disappearance today, I made the most of it, and did just about everything there is to do the afternoon I arrived which involved walking along the promenade and taking the chairlift up to the top of Cerro San Antonio where there was a shrine, I'm guessing to San Antonio, 
and really amazing views.
From there I walked around the harbour (picture taken on the way down on the chairlift!) 
And decided this boat had travelled a very long way to get there!
Although this beauty was also flying a Union Jack.
On the walk back, the sky was beautiful, 
I love this picture, there is no filter, cropping or special effects used, it really was light one side and you could almost draw a line and it was dark on the other!
Last night, for one of the first times, I actually cooked in the hostel. I made a huge vegetable casserole which will last me tonight as well. I had reached my limit on meat and cheese and decided I needed some veggies and oh my, they were amazing!
Today, I wandered in the opposite direction along the beach. It's labour day, so a public holiday, and pretty much everything is shut (even MacDonalds!). Fishing seemed to be the way that most people were filling their time. It's something I've always fancied trying so it's been fun watching them reeling in their catches!
On my way back I'm sure I saw a turtle in the sea, but it dived down before I could get a picture. There have also been some amazing jelly fish 
and beautiful birds. 
I particularly liked this one with its yellow feet!
And since then, I've been back at the hostel doing life admin and writing the blog, the delay to which has meant this is really long, so my apologies. I promise to try to do better next time with my update from Punta del Este where I venture to tomorrow.

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