Holy Hottness!

It is hot here in Montevideo, not just kinda hot, but hot hot and muggy too.  We spent the day walking to ciudad vieja and to the water.  We at lunch at a cafe in ciudad vieja and asked about getting to the Pocitos neighborhood on the water.  We ended up taking a bus to a large mall that was in the general direction of Pocitos.  I know, I know!  I didn't really want to be spending much time in the mall, but it has A/C and we were dying of heat stroke.  We left the wonderfully air conditioned mall and walked to the beach in the Pocitos area.  The beach is really big and it wasn't too crowded.   From the beach, we headed back to ciudad vieja and bought tickets to a jazz show that was playing at Teatro Solis.  The band playing was the Sergio Fernandez Cabrera trio.  Sergio himself was an extremely talented guitarist and a quiet kind of guy.  He reminded me of an extremely talented genius that wasn't comfortable in the spotlight but loved playing and composing music.  We bought tickets in the upper balcony and ended up sitting in the front row - how that happened, I have no idea.  The show was good, but long and toward the end both Patty and I were dying to use the ladies room.  We snuck out early (it was kind of hard to sneak being in the front row, but nature called!).  

After the show we went to dinner at Bar Hispano where we proceeded to order and eat the world's largest banana split.  I am so going to pay for all this food I am eating -- will pay later!  It was delicious!  Later we went to a bar called "bar fun fun" and guess what, it was fun.  There was a live band and the band and their groupies were entertained by the two girls from the U.S.A.  Patty was hit on by a singing midget (or was it a dwarf...Lewis???) and danced with an overly hyper Uruguayan.  We talked to a couple of guys from Brasil which was interesting and then it was back to the hotel.  Walking back to the hotel was the one and only time on my trip that I felt a little scared.  Some crazy guy followed us for a while...we beelined it for a corner where there were other people hanging out and ditched the crazy guy...eeeoowww!     

Next County...Uruguay!

Patty and I decided that we were going to take a 2 day trip across the Rio de la Plata for a visit to neighboring Uruguay.  The nice thing was that Michaela and Lewis kept our luggage and we packed very light for our trek across the river.  Unfortunately, we missed the early ferry and had to wait for the later one.  We had a couple of hours to kill so we walked the Puerto Madero area of the city.  Puerto Madero reminds me of the SOMA neighborhood in San Francisco.  Yachts, coffee shops restaurants and cafes were abundant.  We did some cafe dwelling and saw the famed Buenos Aires dog walkers.  These dog walkers walk with about 10 dogs on a leash.  We saw one group of big dogs and another with little dogs...enough to put a smile our faces.  

We caught the 11:30 a.m. ferry, complete with a large duty free shop and arrived in Uruguay at 12:30 p.m., just in time for lunch!  When we first arrived, I was having a real issue with the cost of a bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo.  I just couldn't grasp that it would be so expensive...well duh, we are in a different county!  There is different money here, thus a different exchange rate!  Once it dawned on me, I could relax!  We had one of the better meals so far at a place called the Drugstore.  There was live music and it was a great escape from the hot, muggy weather outside.  

Colonia was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese and was a main city for smuggling goods across Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires.  The Spanish captured and held the city until 1777.  We toured several small museums including the Museo Municipal and Museo de los Azulejos (tiles).  Colonia is definitely a 1/2 day trip, especially in the heat!  We hopped on the bus to Montevideo, the capital city, where we arrived 2 hours later.  

After trudging around, we found a passable hotel with a cost that was within my budget.  Patty has been great about helping me stay in my budget (real meaning - she is tolerating less than fancy places while hanging out with me!).  We decided to go out for a real steak dinner and chose to dine at Los Lenas restaurant, where Patty befriended the waiter, Oscar.  We were having a few glasses of wine (I tried Pinet wine for the first time -- not bad!), enjoying our meal and then asked ourselves..."what are we doing tomorrow"?  and then wait..."why are we here"?  It was a funny revelation that we didn't really have an answer.  We did come up with things to do, but sometimes you just go with the flow!

After dinner, Oscar the waiter, gave us a night tour of the main plaza with some interesting facts about the city.  He was quite a character, not a fan of Buenos Aires.  He has 6 children and 5 baby mamas  - yowza!  Fun and entertaining day!