Montevideo madness!...

Algae, blisters and mate
OK, so I've been a touch slack with the blogging of late, but can you blame me??? I've been out enjoying the sunshine in Montevideo and taking lots of photos- until my camera died yesterday, that is! So the next thing on my agenda is to buy a new camera. (Not something I'm looking forward to, as electronics in this part of the world are pretty expensive!) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I arrived in Uruguay having taken an overnight bus from Buenos Aires- the bus was pretty plush, with an onboard bar (no, not THAT kind of bar, non-alcoholic drinks only), and BIG reclining seats. The only thing to stop me from having slept the whole 9 hours was being shaken at 3am by an angry bus driver to hand over my passport for crossing the border. Once that was all dealt with, it was plain sailing (so to speak). The hostel I have been staying at was in Pocitos (as is the new one I'm staying in tonight). It's the area of Montevideo where the wealthy live (or have their summer houses), and it's right near the beach...

Beach??....
Speaking of beaches, I was super pumped having read that Montevideo has "pristine beaches" as per the old Lonely Planet... But I had also found a blog where a sooky American tourist was having a whinge about the water at the beach being brown and sticky.. I figured that was just a sooky Yank's point of view.... But Ol' LP let me down! Yes, indeed the water IS brown and sticky! And having walked the 8.5km of La Rambla from Pocitos to Ciudad Vieja, I can tell you that it gets worse closer to town with (what I'm sure must be) blue-green algae everywhere. Not that the locals were put off by it- they and their dogs were swimming in the algae with no issues! It has made me think that maybe we in Oz are OTT with closing beaches/rivers with algae??.. Or is it that the locals have built up a Salmonella resistance?? PS- the walk into town along La Rambla was great! But after walking around the city, deciding to walk back to the hostel along La Rambla again, was NOT the best decision I've ever made! Hence the blisters!

Monte itself
The city itself is GREAT! Kinda like a cross between Melbourne/Geelong and Coimbra in Portugal. (Although without the drug trafficking footy players... actually scratch that, there may well be drug trafficking soccer players here). The Ciudad Vieja is the old part of town (hence its name), and is full of tiny winding streets, lovely old buildings and small plazas. Microcentro (the city centre- funny that) is a bustling place with museums and theatres. Today I'm off to Museo Torres García (art gallery for Uruguayan abstract and cubist painter) (once I've bought a new camera). Yesterday I went to the old summer house of Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, whose poetry and politicism (according to an older woman who was staying in my hostel dorm and giving me the lowdown on MV) is very important in the history of Uruguay. The house was full of all sorts of amazing stuff, and a beautiful place itself!

Next up!
Next on the agenda is a couple of days in Colonia Del Sacramento.. Then a ferry ride back to Buenos Aires, followed by a bus trip to Rosario, where I'll spend a few days.