20 June 2006 - Urubye

catchy title eh?

Last day in this magnificent country in which we ve spent ten days. really feel like ive experienced it now...know the ins and outs, ups and downs, nooks and crannies...

Forgot to mention that I won the card championship. Just wanted that out there.

I was wrong about Piriapolis. No one was around because the entire population of the town, tourists and all, are over 65 and live in hotel Argentina a massive all inclusive building that no one need ever leave. We dropped in one night to take a look and found about 200 people having dinner. Like a luxury prison for older people. A moment from 'The shining' as Meho said.

During our visit to the hotel we stopped into the casino, decided to try our luck. Cashed in 10 pesos which is about 30 cent. Felt the blood rushing to my ears and started half walking half hopping to the poker machine. Won 16 peosos and thought i might explode with excitement. Lights got brighter, poker started to seem like a game of skill... i can never, ever gamble with big money. I can see how I might lose everything I own.

Luckily we left Piriapolis and headed to Colonia, another coastal town. This place is very cool and full of lovely non gambly things to do.

First day we arrived got a lovely lovely hostal with TV and kitchen and towels and soap. Next day went on a walking tour of the town. Its quite touristy here so between the hostal and two tourist offices we ended up with about 47 maps of colonia. Anyway, most sites are pretty close together including a really picturesque old lighthouse, the oldest church in Uruguay, the old city wall with cool big gate, and the very mysterious 'street of sighs'.

So we climbed the lightouse, skipped the tile museum, (big mistake im sure) and watched sunset on the dock. lovely. Then got nice and drunk in a rock bar with karaoke. Micheal did me proud and sang 'stayin alive' by the Beegees. He had bought flares in Buenos Aires which came in handy.

For any of my family/friends yet to meet micheal thats not true and he was the essence of cool.

Anyway... next day up at the crack of 2 pm and managed to be so hungover as to see the days end without having done anything worth mentioning whatsoever.

Sunday we took some of the free bikes from our great hostal and headed out to the old bull ring further down the coast. It was a really great thing to see, though we werent able to go inside because its falling apart. Such a huge building, wierd trying to imagine thousands of people there, its pretty quiet now. Cycled back over to the Basilica (not as big as I thought it would be, meaning it was crap) then home for din dins.

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Caramelo. The town is about an hour from here and is recommended by lonley planet. Since that book has become our bible we decided to check it out. Well we werent disappointed! As we got off the bus two designated town welcomers took our bags from us and offered us a lift in the town welcome buggy. We drove a little slowly as a parade of free food and dancing was ahead of us. When we reached the main square the sun came out from behind a cloud and there was some sort of cymbal clash in the distance. Everyone started clapping and cheering and we were lifted onto our shoulders by the townspeople, some of whom were even a little teary eyed with joy. They had prepared a really large barbecue for us so we ate for a while and swopped stories of our different cultures. Then strolled down to the beach where they had set up free bar, volleyball, hula dancers. Best day ever.

(Caramelo is pretty boring. we played pool, looked at a bridge and visited a smelly cold museum of old tables and see through plastic holders you used to use in school.)

Today we re heading back to Buenos Aires cause we miss it and also to see more of Argentina.

Happy world Cup everybody x

(Argentina will win)