Piriápolis, Uruguay

Piriápolis is a beautiful beach town in eastern Uruguay in the province of Maldonado. It is a great place to go to relax on the beach a catch a few rays of the hot Uruguayan sun without all the hustle and bustle of its more famous neighboring city, Punta del Este.


There's a great cable car (ski lift-like thing) you can ride on to the top of Cerro del Inglés where you can see a majestic vista of the whole coastal city. From the hill you can also see a glimpse of Montevideo on one side and Punta del Este on the other. There's also a the other cerros to climb including Cerro del Toro which features a statue of bull and natural spring water flowing out of his mouth. The cool water is all the more refreshing after the trek there.


There are also beautiful sunsets in Piriápolis. But that is nothing new. I'm firmly convinced Uruguay has the most beautiful sunsets in the whole world.

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a beach resort in Eastern Uruguay known for its glitz and glam. Wealthy Brazilians and Argentinos flock to Punta del Este during the hot summer months to live it up.


The beaches are beautiful. The houses are beautiful. The people are beautiful. Everything is freakin' beautiful in Punta del Este.

Among the fancy restaurants, shops, cabanas, yachts, clubs, and casino is the famous hand sculpture on La Brava beach by Mario Irrazábal. It is supposed to look like fingers sweeping the sand, and it would--if it weren't for traces of the concrete base peeking up through the sand. Nonetheless, the sculpture is still cool. Imagine those fingers being very very tall. And just to let you know. I climbed the thumb.

Lobos Marinos

This weekend I visited Punta del Este in eastern Uruguay and got to see Uruguay's infamous sea lions or "sea wolves" as they call them in Spanish (lobos marinos).


Swimming about in the port of Punta del Este are a group of 8 or so enormous sea lions. They hang around the port alongside a flock of albatrosses where all the fishermen dump their leftover fish pieces.


You can get uber-close to these fascinating sea creatures and watch them swim around, playing, eating, and fighting with one another. This little boy in the picture enjoyed walking up and down the dock with a fish carcass while the lobos marinos greedily followed his every move.


"Feed me." You can almost hear the sea lions calling out to you. "Feed me. I'm going to sit on this rock here, and you throw me some tasty fish guts."

Colonia, Uruguay

Colonia is a beautiful town in western Uruguay, just across the river from Buenos Aires, so there are a lot of tourists who visit this slice of history. My aunt and I hopped on a bus from Tres Cruces right to the terminal in Colonia without any problem whatsoever. When we arrived at our destination, found the tourist office, grabbed a map, and started touring around.


Colonia del Sacramento, as it is officially called, was a Portuguese settlement as evidence by the old houses and cobblestone streets in the historic district. The streets are well preserved and very peaceful. Colonia was declared UNESCO heritage site in 1995 to keep it that way.


As with almost all Uruguayan towns (in general) I recommend you climb up the lighthouse to get a nice view of the whole city. Beside roaming the streets and checking out the museums there are also an abundance of great places to eat and shop for crafts. Colonia is great place to visit.

An Escape from the City: Villa Serrana

The small little town of Villa Serrana is about as far from the hustle and bustle of the city as you can possibly get. Located 145 Km away from Montevideo in the Lavalleja Deparment--it's a great place to get back in touch with nature.


For Columbus day or "Dia de la Raza" we took a trip to itty bitty Villa Serrana. This was another one of those towns where the bus driver calls out the name of the town and you hop off on the side of the highway. Fortunately this time there were signs pointing to the village. It was about a 4 kilometer walk to even see any sign of civilization, and even then, we saw more animals than humans (Including ants, haha, but this time they weren't crawling on me but rather carrying blades of grass 3 times their body weight to who-knows-where).


We stopped by the Baño de la India, the observatory, and a few other points of interest, but mostly we just hiked around and breathed in the fresh air. Other than waiting forever for a bus to take us back to Montevideo and not having a seat for the 2.5 hour bus ride, the trip was great success.


One this is for sure: the Uruguayan countryside is breathtaking. cattle, horses, and sheep graze in open free-range pastures, gurgling springs trickle down green fields, rolling hills sweep along the horizon, and white clouds dot the brilliant blue skies. Villa Serrana is all nature.

Pan de Azucar

I took a day trip to Pan de Azucar which in English translates to "Sugar Loaf," a quaint town in Eastern Uruguay. I intended to climb the large hill or cerro in Pan de Azucar that you see below. There's a 35 meter cross resting on the top of this third largest hill in Uruguay, but let's just say that I never made it to the top of the hill.


I hop off the bus in downtown Pan de Azucar only to ask for directions to a tourist center or somewhere to buy a map. Oh wait, there isn't anywhere like that in this sleepy little town. That's ok. I'll just walk in the direction of the giant hill with the cross on top. I walk and walk and walk.


I walk alongside major highways, through farmer's fields, and unbounded natural brush. Other humanity is not to be found, but that's ok, as long as I keep the hill in front of me and head toward it, all will be fine.

Unfortunately the terrain is swampish from the rains of the past two weeks. My sneakers get soaked in squishy black mud. I climb over fences where cattle and horses graze and walk alongside large animals that begin to make terrible snorting noises. The brush gets thick in front of me, but the cerro is ahead so I push onward.

I climb through sharp thorns and thistles that get tangled in my hair, poke through my clothes, and cut my skin. But I know the hill is up ahead. A burning sensation creeps up my right leg. I look down and panic. My jeans are coated in a thick layer of big fat red fire ants. It is at this point I start half screaming-half crying while swatting the ants away. They crawled up my jeans, in my socks, and down my shoe; and I am still in the middle of the thistley brush. There is nothing I can do but slog back through the mud and nasty underbrush behind me.


I trek back out of the mess I got myself into and about 4 hours later I get back to where the bus dropped me off. Turns out there are no more seats left on any bus back to Montevideo until the very last one departing that evening. Fine. I'll take that one. I am covered in mud and it's getting cold, so where is the closest restaurant or cafe I can wait in until the bus comes? Oh there are none, the man at the counter says. No really, there has to be something. Nope not really. And there wasn't. I walked in every food service looking place asking for a cup of coffee but nobody could help me. Finally a kilometer out of town, I found a pizzeria that let me sit inside and watch the news while I drank a tall glass of cafe con leche. The best part of my day.


Overall, I'd have to say Pan de Azucar is a pretty agricultural town with spectacular sunsets, but I didn't have much luck the day I visited. However, at least it wasn't as bad as my trip to Concordia--no hitchhiking was involved this time.

Carmelo, Uruguay

These past couple of days, I've been in Carmelo, Uruguay helping with a camp for high school students from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Carmelo is a cozy little town in the Eastern Uruguay nestled along the Rio de la Plata. The pace of life is much slower in Carmelo than in Montevideo. People ride through the streets on bicycles and pedestrians stroll casually alongside the river.


It is a beautiful little town in Uruguay, worth a visit if you are in search of a some rest and relaxation. I will post more about the camp to follow.

I'm a-leavin', on a jet plane....

Special post by guest blogger, Emily

So here I am, on my last night in Montevideo, and I was thinking, "Have I gotten enough from my week in South America?" Obviously, the answer to that is a resounding 'no'. But I don't think a person should have to see every single thing in order to feel fulfilled.


Every time I travel, my goal is to leave with a sense that I'm going back home not only with souvenirs (I swear, I don't spend the whole time shopping), but also with the sense that I've experienced things the majority of people back home will never encounter. With that said, I realize it is my responsibility to encourage traveling, especially internationally and especially with the young. You are never too old to love traveling, but it is when you are young that you can fully appreciate taking advantage of what the world has to offer.

I find that it is especially imperative for younger generations to travel and experience different cultures. There are so many reasons why! It broadens your view of people, expands on your range of knowledge, makes you thankful for what you have, makes you thankful for what you don't have (ahem, Dengue and swine flu), it connects you to the world!

Knowledge may have condemned Adam and Eve and curiosity shamed Pandora, but it now promotes tolerance and acceptance of others. I've come away feeling that I've learned more in a week than a semester at a desk. I cannot even fathom the number of connections my neurons have made between each other because of everything that I've taken in.

What I have seen had been beautiful and enlightening.

The world is your cup! It is up to you whether or not to drink from it.

p.s. I had a great time! Don't touch the wild dogs, be careful feeding the birds, and see the beach at sunset!

Concordia, Argentina

The bus pulls over on the side of the highway. I scramble down to the driver's booth to ask him where we are, and he responds, Concordia. Oh yes, this is where I need to be. But where is the bus terminal, I ask? Oh, it's right down the road, just walk that way a little. He gets out of the bus, takes my suitcase out of the cargo-hold, climbs back on the bus, and drives away. I look around me. Nothing. 6:30 AM. Thick fog obscuring the view any more than 5 meters away. So I start walking; he said the bus station was nearby.


40 minutes later. Still foggy. Still cold. Still walking along highway with my heavy backpack and pink suitcase with wheels, only the wheels don't work because the ground beside the highway is sand. Hence I am dragging my suitcase and small mountain of sand behind me. I haven't showered in over 24 hours. Trucks honk their horns as they speed by. A lone girl in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing in sight but an industrial park. I have no idea where I am. There is no bus terminal nearby. What was that driver talking about? There are no taxis to hail. My cellphone is not functional, my minutes expired almost a week ago and I didn't plan on getting a new card until returning to Uruguay.

I feel rather exasperated, so I flag down a motorcyclist on the highway. When he stops I asked him how to get to the bus station and he said, oh yes, just walk along this road and turn at the white cross...yaddah, yaddah. Then he gives me the kicker, the bus station is only 10K away. 10K? That's 6.2 miles! There is no way on earth I can walk that far with my all my luggage at 7 something in the morning in the fog along a busy highway. I break down. I start crying hysterically. I just want to be back in Salto, somewhere familiar.

Despite the frantic tears streaming down my face, I continue to walk forward. Standing alongside the road is not going to get me any closer to the bus station. Eventually I come to a guard station for the industrial park and I ask at the security desk how to get to the bus station again. He basically tells me the same thing as the motorcyclist. I continue onward.

Soon a white truck stops. The man inside pops open the door and motions for me to get in. I look at him. I look at his truck. I look at the tan carpet seats. He doesn't look creepy. He looks like he works in the industrial park--wearing a blue flannel shirt, jeans with dirt stains on them. I don't know what else to do. I throw my suitcase in and I climb in afterward. I hope I don't regret this later.


The man tells me that he saw me when he made a delivery and and then when he was on his way back he saw me again. He has three daughters and he felt bad for me, because I had been walking for a long time and then I stopped at the security gate, so he knew something was wrong. He asks where I am headed, and drives me to the bus station. I learn about his entire family and about a boy who drowned in a lake nearby in the past week. How sad.

This man is a good man. I am so thankful. My first hitch-hiking experience (if you can call it that) turned out well in the end, and once again I am reassured that there are more good people in the world than bad.

I am just happy I am still alive. Traveling success. On a more positive note...the first time I went to Concordia with a professor from the CERP I enjoyed the town much more than the second time when I was all alone and lost. People say things are cheaper in Argentina and cross the boarder to buy stuff.

Puerto Iguazu

The Iguazu falls were all I could have imagined them to be. Spectacular. I ended up spending more time there than I expected because I really enjoyed myself in the Puerto Iguazu.


The entrance fee to the park is a bit steep for foreigners, 60 pesos or about $20, but it was worth every penny. There are many trails you take to explore the falls, local wildlife, and nature.


On the Argentine side of the falls there are trails, the upper and lower circuits, the Macuco trail, a boat ride to San Martin Island, and a train ride to the "Devil's Throat." You really have to see it all and you can't really fit that all into one day. You need at least two at a minimum just at the falls, just on the Argentine side.


If I had to pick my favorite part, it would probably have to be the Garganta del Diablo (picture above) which was a train ride followed by a trek on catwalks over the river to see the largest part of the falls up close. Word of advice? Bring a rain coat and plastic bag for your camera whether it is raining or not. You'll thank me later.

San Ignacio Jesuit Ruins

A beautiful little town in the middle of nowhere really, San Ignacio is.

San Ignacio Miní was one of the many missions founded in 1632 by the Jesuits in the Americas during the Spanish colonial period near present-day San Ignacio valley, some 60km south of Posadas, Misiones Province, Argentina.

The bus pulled up to a church smooshed between a few houses and a casino accross the street. The bus driver yelled out “San Ignacio” and I disembarked from the coach. The bus pulled away and I remained standing alongside the red dirt road with my suitcase in tow. Ok. So this is an adventure, right? Fortunately, someone pointed me in the direction of the ruins I was in search of.


The town is mostly a sleepy little village except for maybe four blocks around the entrance to the ruins where it turns into a big tourist trap. Every sign in addressed to Senior Tourist. Stop here. Eat dinner for 35 pesos. Buy these precious stones. Etc.


The ruins were intriguing. The remaining architecture was impressive. Definitely worth the visit. I would go back and spend more time there if I could. Horacio Quiroga's house is also in San Ignacio on the other side of town from the ruins.

Posadas

Posadas is a small town in northeastern Argentina, capital of the Misiones province.


I arrived in there after a 10 hours bus ride from Concordia. I asked at the bus terminal information center what the city had to offer me, but the woman inside didn't seem too enthused. She did fortunately pointed me in the direction of a hostel, or the general area of one at least. I left the bus terminal to catch a city bus, but unfortunately caught the wrong one. I asked the bus driver when I should get off and he said, oh no, this bus doesn’t go there as he proceeded to pull over to the side of the road to let me off. So I took my wheely suitcase and wheeled it right back where I came from. Then I found the right bus, found the hostel, and left to explore the city of Posadas.


The downtown is very cute. There are many shops and plazas for people to enjoy. The siesta however closes everything down for 3 hours in the middle of the day so I could not find a supermarket to buy food. After wandering everywhere over the city I found a bustling market place where I bought some much needed fruit. Then I spent the day walking up at down the coast where everybody seems to come to jog, walk, play drums, makeout, dance, and spend their time. I ate the best empanadas I have ever had in my life at a little hole in the wall, which is really saying a lot since empanadas are a major staple of South American quisine. The city of Posadas has a great view of the Paraná River.