Next we got a bus and stopped in Salto for one night to break the journey on the way to Montevideo. Salto is a little town in the middle of nowhere and only has one real attraction - some hot springs.
It cost like £4 for entrance and then like £20 for a full body massage - so decided the price was right and it would be good to work out some of the kinks from the bus rides. It wasn’t bad and she managed to work loose my left shoulder.
The odd thing about Salto is that because of the hot springs, everyone walks around the town in their bathrobes!
The other memorable thing about Salto was that none of our cards would work in the one ATM they had, and we couldn’t change money when coming over the border.
Thankfully the hot springs accepted US dollars, so we managed to get a bit of change from them in Uruguayian pesos. This meant that we had about £10 between us to buy dinner that night. The football cup final was on that day, so we found a local pub with a TV ad watched Uruguay play with the locals. The kids faces were all painted with uruguayian flags and one guy was even blowing a vuvuzela when they scored. Well Uruguay put up a good fight, just a shame that they didn’t win in the end, as it would have made for a good party in salto. Managed to get a couple of bowls of chips and some pepsi with our remaining cash, and then borrowed some more to buy a pizza for dinner so it all worked out okay in the end. Fortunately the breakfast hotel took cards, so we could get some snacks for the next bus ride.
From Salto we got a bus to Montevideo at the crack of dawn. Picture 12 people with all their backpacks waiting by the side of the road at 06h30 in the morning for a bus to arrive. Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay, so glad to get back to civilisation and working ATMs! Forgot to mention that drawing money in Brazil was pretty eventful too (the fourth ATM finally accepted our cards there, also interesting when the ATM prompts are all in Portuguese and you don’t know the word for Cash!).
So in Montevideo, we hired a couple of bicycles and went for a ride along the seafront promenade to a shopping centre, to have a look around and get some lunch. I should mention that we have now left the warmth and beaches of Brazil, and are heading further South, and we noticed when we hit Uruguay that it is now starting to get pretty cold. We are layered up in fleeces, jackets hats and gloves and considering hiring some ski gear when we get in to Chile later on. On the upside wearing all the heavy gear makes the pack slightly lighter.
Anyway Montevideo … we were surprised to find that the prices in the shopping centre were pretty much the same as back in London (ie not cheap), which was a surprise after Salto where food / drink / springs were very cheap. Was great fun cycling around the city (despite the cold wind) and also cycled around the old historical part of town while we were there. A couple of kids on the streets saw us and started saying ‘one pound’, one pound, so we must look English! We managed to find a bookshop that had 2 shelves of English books, so I got a stephen king book for the bus rides - its good to have reading material when you’ve got hours to kill on a bus!
I should also mention the hotel that we stayed in in Montevideo, as it closely resembled Falty Towers, without the Manuel. We got off pretty lightly - just a very small room that you pretty much had to reverse in and out of, but others in the group had a leaking toilet, a noisy fridge and a room that smelled like petrol - yuck. On the upside they had a lounge upstairs that the group took over, with a big telly in it and we managed to find an English movie on the tv. Also anywhere with free breakfasts and free Wifi is a winner. Its also worth mentioning that the Brazilians and the Uruguayians love their cheese and ham. When offered by the hotels breakfast always seems to consist of cheese, ham and bread/cakes. I dont want to see another piece of ham for a very very long time.
Then a bus to Colonia, which is another small town on our way to Buenes Aires. We just had one night…more cobbled streets and had a walk around town. Found a small craft market that was selling knitted jumpers, and these sipping cups with metal straws that everyone has in Uruguay. Don’t know what they are called, but you see everyone walking around with them and a flask, so they can make up the bitter tea. - so easy to spot the locals in Uruguay. We did have a nice dinner in a local restaurant / bar and managed to get drunk on the free drinks (I think it was the biggest party the barman had seen in a long time and they wanted to keep us there), and dance to Rod Stewardt and Madonna videos on their tellies lol.
We are now on an express ferry to Buenes Aires and there is talk of a big night out while we are here - woohoo. The only question is whether they’ll let us in in jeans and hiking trainers!? There wasnt exactly room in backpack for high heels and going out clothes lol.
Kirst x
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