Yesterday I had another fabulous day. We were all in pain from the super-long horback ride the day before, but it did not stop us from driving all over the plains of Uruguay.
Jo had rented a car (thank goodness she knows how to drive a stick shift. Apparently that's all they have in S. America.) I didn't decide that I was going with her and Jasmine until about 11 the night before. Jasmine told me that Jo wanted to leave at 7 a.m.
I was incredibly tired, of course, when we left on the trip. I haven't been up that early since my 8 o'clocks this last semester. It was worth it when we got to watch the sun rise over la rambla e la playa (beach) en Montevideo. We were in the car literally all day. We drove through about 4 departments (kind of like states) and had to pay tolls at each border.
Uruguay has everything as far as nature goes: thermal pools in Salto (in the North,) sand dunes (saw it,) beaches (everywhere and beautiful,) marshes (saw it,) palm trees (the cows graze surrounded by them-that was strange,) hills, waterfalls (saw it,) and more. Gauchos are one of the main past-times and symbols of Uruguay. The meat here is amazing, especially when they cook it asado (barbecue) style. I am from Texas, but the meat here just can't be beat. I can understand how for some locals, all they seem to ever eat is meat.
On our journey we followed the rambla (road along the beach) to Punta del Este and then onto Rocha. Once you leave Montevideo Uruguay is just a bunch of land and cows, with a few gauchos thrown in here and there. Most of the cities along the coast are fishing villages that live without electricity, running water, etc. My favorite place during the trip was Punta del Diablo. It was a small beach village with all sorts of wildly colored houses on the beach. It was small and quaint, but still amazing since the beach was right there and beautiful.
We went and ate at some random hotel restaurant we passed by since we were in the middle of nowhere. After that we decided to go to a waterfall. We had to drive 10 km on the worst roads I've ever seen on steep inclines (and I've been to Africa where the roads are terrible.) It was getting dark so we feared about getting back from the waterfalls, but seeing the sunset from the top of the hills made the journey worth it.
The waterfall was pretty at the end, but it was also pretty small. After that it was really dark so we started to head back. They don't believe in signs that help with directions so we got lost in a couple towns, but we got back at about 9.
Most people back home would have been bored with such a road trip, but it was nice to get out of the city (again, since I did horseback riding too.) The countryside actually looked a lot like the Texas countryside with all the cows (except for the palm trees, that was just weird.) I miss my car and driving to the lake house. Yeah, I'm a hick.
Today is a national holiday. It's the anniversary of a past president's death (Artigas.) The president came out to make a speech at 11 in Plaza Independencia. I'm not sure if I have work today since I didn't go yesterday, but I would guess that I don't due to the holiday. The high schoolers are here now. There is also a guy my age who has an internship doing campaign work in Buenos Aires after he goes to the school here for awhile. He's from Houston and is fluent in Russian and wanted to work on his Spanish since he's from Texas. Sounds familiar. The high schoolers are from Virginia. The people you meet when you are abroad never cease to amaze me. I'm going to go enjoy my holiday. Hasta luego!
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