Uruguay - the tiny and pretty country between the giants

Muchas gracias Elizabeth y Alvaro por las dias inolvidables y muy lindas en Uruguay. Nosotros gustamos muchos las puntas, especialmente Cabo de Polonia! Vuestro acompaniemento fue muy valioso por nuestros y Alvaro to eres un conductor muy bien! Disculpe, mio castellan no es bueno, pero esperamos, que nosotros mantenemos en contacto y vosotros visitais Austria per una vez en el futuro. Vosotros sois calurosa bienvenida!!!

Now - as I promised you - I try to write the blog in English, that you can read it!
We arrived in Uruguay by boat from Buenos Aires on the 18th of May. First we stayed on night in Colonia del Sacramento. Colonia is a small town in the west of Uruguay at the Rio de la plata. We liked Colonia very much, becaus it was very calm there, in comparison to Buenos Aires. Although it was expensive there, we enjoyed the day by walking around, meeting one more our Canadian friends and all without feeling unsecure.

From Colonia we took the bus to Montevideo. Montevideo has about 1,3 millions of habitants and is a small capital city. In Montevideo you find many colonial buildings especially with an Italian touch. One special thing there we have seen are the "buddy bears". The idea is, that every country in the world designs and paints one buddy bear by a local artist. The buddy bears go aroundt the world (the have been in Austria in 2002 and 2003 in Kitzbühel and Vienna) and they stand for tolerance, love and peace. I like the idea very much and the bears really look great - look at the pictures!












In Montevideo we also visited the port. The port from Montevideo is huge and very important for the country and for South America. The advantage of Uruguay in this area is, that the organisation and the security standards are highter than in the huges neighbours. They country and the people seem to be in between European and South American habits and culture.

Montevideo was also the place to say good bye to our Canadian friends Eric, Lani and Melia, who joined us on the last steps of our trip. We hope to see again in Austria or Montreal!!








The second evening in Montevideo we met with Alvaro and Elizabeth for dinner. We were a little bit nervous becaus for us - European people - it is not very common when you met somebody just for a few days that you by guided through the country. But we were surprised - Alvaro and Elizabeth had already a fantastic plan including car and house to live for the weekend and they took their Friday off to go on holiday with us!!1

We started Friday morning going to Piriapolis. Piriapolis is famous for a luxury hotel, that was build by an Italian immigrant in the 1930 to get the rich tourists, especially from Argentina, into the country. After Piriapolis we went on to Punta del Este.









Punta del Este is an unbelievable expensive place and you think about Miami beach, when you are there. The apartement buildings are modern and huge and designed from famous architects from all over the world. The really rich people from South America, USA and Europe go there, because the beach is beautiful and much more secure than for example Rio de Janeiro. In the summer (January and February) you find Ferraris and all those expensive cars driving around there.








After the rich place we went on to La Paloma, a city famous for surfing in Uruguay. In La Paloma we lived in a small and beautiful (muy lindo) house from the aunt of Elizabeth. After good and silent sleep with the sound of the wind and waves in behind we started the next day.

In the morning we visited La Pedrera, a white sand beach with several rock formations. It was great there and the weather was fantastic.

The next place and the place I liked best was Cabo de Polonia. You have to leave your car at a parking and you go in by truck, becaus there is no street and you go in the sand dunes. It was an adventure sitting on the truck and enjoying the great landscape. Arrived there I was enthusiastic. There was a small village (a hippie village) with nice and little houses and many dogs and horses around. A great place to relax.

After enjoying the sun Alvaro drove us to the fort Santa Teresa, a fort from the colonial time. We were a little bit to late and the fort was already closed, but we had to go on to our last stop - Punta del diablo.

Punta del diablo is a small fisher village on a great beach. We enjoyed the last sun there and watched the sun going down on the rocks. It was one more great place to remember.




























The next day we had to go back to Montevideo to take the bus to Colonia and the boat to Buenos Aires. We had great days in Uruguay especially because of the accompaniment of our friends, who cared for us very well and we will remember those great two days together a long time! We hope they will visit us once and we can show them the great parts of Austria and Europe!

Today we are waiting for our night flight to Dallas to head on to the next adventure - ALASKA!