Uruguay..¿¿what can I say??

Uruguay was kind of lame. Well maybe that´s not fair to say. Montevideo was kind of lame. Very laid back. The whole freaking town was empty as it is summer vacation and seemingly everyone had made it to the ocean beaches to the east (such as world famous Punta del Este). Punta del Este did not seem like my kind of place upon research. Punta del Diablo sounded good as it is less crowded and overblown but it is way out to the northeast near the Brasilian border. My itin. has me re-entering Brasil at Foz de Iguaçu so going out to Diablo was not an option. This is the part of my itin. where I do not have any flexibility and I must admit that I think I have stayed in Buenos Aires/Montevideo a bit too long. Oh well travellings a tough life sometimes :) Anyhoo I made the most of it. Montevideo is kind of like BA only a little less lustrious and not as well planned. My first full day I rented a bike from my hostel and rode around downtown and then out to a beach closer to the city. The water is protected by a harbor which amounted to little waves and brownish water. People still swim though. Maté is huge in Uruguay. All through the day you see men and women with their little maté bongs in one hand and a thermos of hot water in the other. You can even take them on the bus...¡¡¡amazing!!! The coolest thing about Montevideo was the barwomen at my hostel. She was really nice and fun and easy to talk with. That pretty much sums it up...oh yeah..I had a hellish period of about 40 minutes on my first night in Montevideo when I thought I had lost my wallet...Turned out it was hidden in my bed covers but it made me realize that I have been carrying too many valuables on me. Needless to say I will be planning ahead from here on out. I am back in BA now and thank goodness. Today I splurged and decided to get a much needed massage. I had the hostel receptionist refer me somewhere and made sure that he mentioned that I needed my feet worked on. I get there for my 1 pm appt. and there are 2 therapists waiting for me!! 1 hour of complete bliss where it felt like I was either an aritists canvass or underwater only cost me about$32 usd. Not too bad. Oh yeah and to top off my most hedonistic day ever....I went out with some hostel people from PDX to have some Kobe steak at about 11pm last night. Complete bliss..good thing I´m doing a lot of walking!

I fly to the waterfalls on Thursday before taking a 14 hour bus ride to Floripa on Saturday night. Vejo-te de la!!

Tchau