Uruguay .......

Paula and I decided to make a get away from bustling Buenos Aires, and took the Buquebus (a fancy hydrofoil ferry) across the huge La Plata river to Colonia, Uruguay, then a local bus to the small town of Colonia Suisa.  The owner of Hostel El Galope took us to his spread in the countryside. Note the traditional reed roof on his house, and the surrounding fields with a few sheep, horses, and LOTS of birds....I was disappointed that the horses at the place were only for "expert" riders  (I had taken classes in riding in anticipation of this trip...still no way was I an expert)... but the hike to the little town, all the variety of birds we tried to identify, and the appearance of 100's of fireflies at night made up for no riding....

We read books, cooked simple meals....

The owner's dog and cats kept us company as we watched good sunsets...but after two nights we were ready  for city life again and took a couple hours bus ride to Montevideo, the biggest city in little ole Uruguay squished between giants Brazil and Argentina....Uruguayians seem to be very proud of the fact that they broke away from Argentina, seem to see Argentina as chaotic, crime ridden, and full of themselves....

I have seen some amazing churches in my day, but seldom venture inside, feeling like I am intruding with my pagan beliefs... but Paula was raised Catholic, and has dragged me into some amazing churches during her visit..... 

Tango is alive and well in Uruguay.  We made the mistake of asking if Tango originated in Argentina....the answer we got was that the deep water port at Montevideo with its first  immigrant worker population was the TRUE start of the tango..........

We found a basement Jazz club....the music by Las Cabas was a great mix of blues, celtic, tango, jazz...with sit in artists playing everything from pan pipes to bag pipes.....

The taxi driver didn't want to take us to Palermo Art Hostel, in the "bad,black" part of town....but we had no trouble there....had a great time with all the young kids....

And the art throughout the place was great!  Here is a Mardi Gras kid that greets you....

Street art is alive and well in Montevideo...lots of the sidewalks all over South America have missing tiles (home owners own the sidewalks in front of their place, not the city)...I found lots of this artist's work of filling in missing tiles with mosaic...what a grand idea! .....

some building graffiti that caught my eye....

Some good graffitti....

And here is our best dinner in Montevideo found down at the Montevideo port market....great tenderloin about 3 inches high with 4 cheese sauce, or wild mushroom sauce...Paula's served on a bed of onion rings, mine on a bed of grilled potatoes......