La Paloma, Uruguay

Hola from La Paloma, Uruguay.

So H and I left Brazil on Sunday via a 7 hour bus ride from Florianópolis to Porto Algre, then then another 9 hour bus ride through the night to Punta del Este in Uruguay. As far as the bus rides are concenerned they were two of the best. Well the first one was the best bus we have been on by far but the family in front of us pissed us off with their reclining antics. Now fully reclining seats are great on an night trip when you want to try and get some kip yourself, but on a day trip when you just want to sit up and read, you have zero room when the git in front of you goes all the way back. And it is even worse when he fully reclines the seat next to him for his daughter who spends most of the time sitting on her Mums lap on the seat in front of him anyway. Bar steward.

Anyway the journey through the night was sweet as I had reserved the two seats at the front, so we had no-one in front of us, and the bus drivers sorted out all the border formalities with our passports.

We arrived in Punta del Este at about 8am to find the streets were deserted. It was like something out of the movie ¨28 Days Later¨. H managed to fall over with her backpack on (she tripped over the kerb and the weight of the bags took her over). We spent some time looking for the only hostels in town, only to find the double rooms were full or nasty, so we ended up checking into quite a nice hotel. After a couple of hours sorting ourselves out we had a look around town (where we bumped into Tom and Ellie, who were on the epic bus trip with us to Foz). This involved walking the entire way around Punta del Este. It immediately reminded me of some English seaside town (lots of hotels and white washed houses on the sea front).















Art! (in Punta del Este)

When we got to the harbour we saw a load of seals and sea lions being fed by some fishermen. Now these creatures were enormous and we were no more than a few feet away from some of them. H was in her element as she loves all things wildlife. And I have to admit to being pretty impressed as well.















Wildlife!

After beers on the hotel balcony we ventured back into town to sample some Uruguayan nightlife. Except there was noone around. Punta del Este is THE place to come to in Uruguay but it turns out that it is THE place to come to in January and February. Mind you, we did eat in a qulaity fish restaurant and meet a nice family from Argentina. How very twee.

So yesterday morning we got up and decided to make a break for it and leave Punta. Not only was it quiet there but it was very expensive and we need to save some cash. So we checked out and made the mission to La Paloma, which is an hour and half away. It took us four hours via 3 local buses. There is always something a little disconcerting when you look around the bus and find out that you are the only ones on it. La Paloma is a surf town which, according to the crap ¨South America on a shoestring¨ book, has got a ¨good vibe¨. Well maybe in January or February because there is literally no-one here. We should have known something was up when we arrived as the tourist information booth was shut. And there were no taxis. But the good thing is that accommodation is very cheap, although the place we are staying in is very strange. The guy running the place couldn´t have been more pleased to see us. I think we were first human interaction he had all day. Maybe he had spent all day chasing the tumbleweed around town. Or killing backpackers.

This is the hotel we have been staying in. Quality. Our room is the nearest one on the top floor.















We could have left La Paloma today and got on another bus mission to Montevideo but neither of us fancied it, especially as it took some effort getting here. I got up before H and sat on the balcony for a while to people watch, except there was no-one to watch, as you can see from the picture below (we have been emailing and blogging from the yello building).















and here.....















After finding somewhere to eat (luckily there was somewhere open) we went for a walk along the beach which was really nice. Check out the ugly tower block in the picture below. This place would look alright if that wasn´t there. God knows what the local people must´ve thought when it was built. Maybe it houses most of the 5k people who are supposed to live here.















There was no-one in the water who required my services. David Hasselhoff, eat your heart out!!















We are leaving La Paloma for Montevideo tomorrow where there should be some signs of life given the fact it is the capital of Uruguay, and we will probably stay there for the weekend before heading into Argentina and Buenos Aires.

Some of you will be glad to read that it isn´t as hot here as it was in Brazil. The sun in Brazil makes you sweat a lot which is pleasant, most probably because it is so humid there. But here it is a bit like the heat you get in England. The one thing I don´t miss about Brazil though is the food. It is RUBBISH. I haven´t seen a vegetable for weeks and a lot of you know how much I need brocolli. Also, they don´t add any spice to the food, and it was a joyous moment seeing pepper on the table in Uruguay. Brazilian food contains so much salt it is unbelievable. I had always wondered how Brazilians could like the food like that but then the Spanish guy in the bus queue told us that they have so much salt because they sweat a lot. The penny dropped. As a Science teacher in a former life I guess I should have known that. It makes perfect sense, even though it tastes awful.

As for shithead, H leads 33 games to 20.