Montevideo to Brazil

When we last left you Amelia gave a recap of Buenos Aires from Montevideo, and now that we’re in Florianopolis, it’s only appropriate that I give an account of our time in Montevideo (and maybe of Florianopolis as well, if you’re lucky).

We left Buenos Aires via Buquebus, which is the ferry which crosses between Buenos Aires and Colonia in Uruguay. The boat ride was more than comfortable, sporting two bars, an arcade, a cafeteria and a duty free store as well as live entertainment in the form of an opera singer (which all the older ladies went weak at the knees for). This was followed by a 2.5 hour bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo, and a 30 minute bus ride with all our luggage on the public transport to our hostel, which was at one stage completely packed with people, making escape impossible. Uruguay seemed to be a pretty nice country (apparently one of the wealthiest in South America???), and it was popular with Argentinians on summer vacation. We spent a couple of days exploring Montevideo from our base in Plaza de Independencia (there seems to be one of these in every South American city!) which is right in the centre of the old city centre. photos follow…

 

Plaza de Independencia

                

We weren’t sure if it was inflation or if it was just the way the Uruguayan dollar was, but everything appeared expensive in Uruguay. This ice cream had better be eternal happiness flavour to justify this price. (of course the exchange rate of approx. 1 $AU to 16 $UR meant this definitely wasn’t an issue for us)

         

This is the beach at Pocitos, Montevideo, which is apparently full of theives according to the locals. Amelia and I think they do bikes better in South America.

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t know what this building was but it was really cool.

 

 

 

 

After our two nights in Montevideo, we jumped on the bus at about 4:00 in the afternoon last Friday. Destination: Florianopolis, BR!. The 20 hour bus ride was surprisingly comfortable and the border crossing uneventful. This brings our tally up to three border crossings, one by plane, one by boat and one by bus. It was surprising just how much the landscape seemed to change between Uruguay and Brazil. Uruguay featured landscapes analogous to Australia (ie plenty of plains, lots of which were dry) whereas when we woke up on the bus to Brazil, we were shocked to see these jungle covered hills everywhere. Once in the city we once again made the brilliant decision to  take our luggage on the public busses to our hostel, which was made all the more difficult by these stupid little turnstiles they have ON THE BUS! (We had to pay the ticket guy and then try to haul ourselves and our backpacks through these turnstiles to get to our seats (of which there were none (because they were all taken (of course)))).

Amelia and I both swear this tree is a Eucalypt!

Some extremely flattering photos of us on the bus to Brazil.

Our hostels (we spent our first night in a separate hostel to our current one because we were ready for a private room) are located in Barra da Lagoa, which we think means lake neighborhood(?). It’s about 15 minutes to the beach by foot and here are some nice walks around the area. The beaches are pretty stunning here, featuring backdrops of ridiculously sloped tree covered hills, and the water is really warm, which made our first dip in Atlantic waters a pleasant experience. It is also packed with brown Latin American bodies, most of which are wearing g-string bikinis, and many of which shouldn’t be allowed to! You can also buy pretty much anything on the beach here, including sarongs, hammocks, mystery-meat and cocktails (below is me with a caprihinhnyhnhna (I have no idea how to spell it but it is delicious)).

The beach at Barra Da Lagoa on a Monday morning is still pretty lively

 

The area where the lake meeets the sea is full of fishing boats and pousadas (guest houses)

This is the only girl wearing a t=shirt on the entire beach.

 

Hiking through the jungle on my sexy chicken legs.

For those of you that are interested, yes that IS a granite outcrop next to the boring beach!

Apart from the beach, Amelia and I have gone for walks around the lakes and beaches and through the town. Today we were sick of cooking for ourselves so we went out to the town for dinner. They have this brilliant concept here called pay by weight. basically you serve yourself and bring your serving up to a set of scales to work out how much you have to pay. We went to a pay by weight ice cream store and got 2/3rds of a kilo of ice cream between us of about 15 different varieties for 14 reals! that’s like 8 or 9 AU$. We’ve also noticed there is a huge population of what appear to be ownerless dogs roaming the streets and beaches here. They all appear pretty healthy, so they must get fed, and people play with them on the beach. What with Amelia’s (probably justified) rabies paranoia we steer well clear of them, (which didn’t stop a labrador-cross approaching us on the beach and trying to steal our sunscreen!).

 

That pretty much covers everything up until now. Tomorrow we plan to walk up one of these ridiculous hills, but it  might fall through since it’s been pretty wet today. we’ll be taking a bus up to Cuitiba n two days and spending Carnivale there (assuming they have one).

Bye for now.

-Sam-