The Mad Cab Dash

So today we left Buenos Aires. Yesterday, the breakfast looked so good with ham, eggs, potatoes, etc., that I decided I would get up in time to go. I packed all my stuff last night in preparation for the 5:00 a.m. wake up call. I got up and went down for my hearty breakfast. Today's breakfast: we each got two plain croissants and coffee. I picked the wrong day to sleep in.

This is where today's saga begins. We take the bus over to the ferry to Colonia. I was standing in line waiting to check in my luggage, and I see this beautiful waterfall cascading down the wall. I wanted a picture, but my camera wouldn't come on. I LEFT THE CAMERA BATTERY ON THE CHARGER IN THE HOTEL ROOM!!!! NOT AA BATTERIES; THE SPECIAL FOR MY CAMERA BATTERY. I thought I was going to be sick. One brother said I looked like I was going to throw up. I couldn't imagine going through this trip without my camera. I couldn't go back because the ferry was going to leave in about 30 minutes. I talked to one of the local guides that we were using, and she rallied the troupes. The hotel went up to my room and found it, but they wouldn't bring it over; even though I offered to pay. So one of the guides got in a cab and dashed back over to the hotel to get it for me. He got back with about 10 minutes to spare. Needless to say, I gave him a great tip. Today, Diego was the man!

Despite that stressful moment, I slept through the ferry ride to Colonia, Uruguay. It seems like I'm sleeping a lot, but I want to enjoy everything so much when we do something, so I have been trying to take some of these down times to recharge my batteries (get it…)(I can laugh now).

Colonia is absolutely gorgeous. I would have really been sick there without a camera. It is an old port town where they have laws that prevent them from changing the facades of the buildings. So they still have all of these old Spanish buildings that are new on the inside. It would have been a great place to just get a bike and ride around the town. They still have the granite brick streets. We ate at a wonderful little cafe. I stepped out of the box again, and ordered the local fish. It didn't smell or taste fishy at all. Very fresh. Their desert was the best thing I have had on the trip. The took a crepe and filled it with dulce de leche (mild creamy caramel). Then they put sugar on the top of it and burned it like creme brule. Then they topped it with a light coconut vanilla ice cream. The burnt sugar reminded me of a roasted marshmallow.

We walked around there for a while, and took the two hour and half bus ride to Montevideo, Uruguay. I slept the whole way again. We are staying at the Radisson in Montevideo. It is in the town square between the old and new section. I can't tell you much about it because our tour isn't until tomorrow after we visit the branch in the morning.

We walked a few blocks over tonight where we had another wonderful steak dinner. They had an ice cream cake for desert that had ice cream inside with the consistency of cake. My bill was $650. It hurt to pay that much even though I knew it was only about $30 American. Just something about those big numbers freak me out. We get 20 of their dollars/pesos for one of our dollars. It was well worth it. I love going out to eat down here because no one is in a hurry. They don't rush you through your meal. You really get to enjoy each course. Its not unusual for it to take a couple of hours to eat out.

Well that's all about today. It may seem kind of like we didn't do much, but today is hard to describe without the pictures. I also used a lot of today trying to get to know the friends in my group. I loved going to Australia, but I really have bonded a lot more with this group. There are more my age in this group too. For all of you travelers, I definitely will have connections for us to travel just about anywhere in the U.S., and stay for free :-) Caio for now.