June 23--Uruguay

I got up at 5:20 so I would have enough time to get ready and eat breakfast. I had gotten almost everything ready the night before, so I didn’t have much to do. I heated up my hot chocolate (two cups) and ate two media lunas and some tostadas with dulce de leche. I made sure I had my passport and tickets and money and left at 6:10. I didn’t like walking down the dark street at this time, but I didn’t really have a choice. Will and I had planned to meet on the corner of La Pampa and Cabildo at 6:15, so I was right on time. As I was walking, I saw that the window of the toy store had been smashed and there was glass everywhere. Men were out cleaning the sidewalks and I was happy to see that they use soap! As I was waiting on the corner, a man stopped at the stoplight and leaned over and opened the passenger side of the door and made a motion like he wanted me to get in! No thank you! I saw some girls who had obviously been out all night drinking walking back. Will made it about 6:20 and we decided to take the train instead of the bus because there are more trains and they are faster. We walked back, past my house, to the train station. As we were approaching, a train was coming, but we couldn’t buy our tickets fast enough to get on. We sat on a bench and waited for the next train. It came about 10 minutes later and we hopped on. We got to sit down, which was nice for a change. We made it to Retiro very early (7am). We didn’t have to be at the Buquebus (ferry) place until 8. We weren’t sure what time the Buquebus place opened and we didn’t want to get there before they did, so we waited in the train station until 7:15 or so. I thought we were going to take a taxi, but Will thought we were going to walk and it was not far and there was a main street we could take with lots of lights, so I said it was fine to walk. We walked there without an incident and went into the station. They were not even starting “check-in” (which, again, is one of those funny Spanish words obviously stolen from English) for our ferry, so we sat at a table and read our Spanish books. Will is reading the sixth Harry Potter book and I am reading Eva Peron’s book. We sat there for about a half hour before they started check-in for our ferry and we joined the long line of people. We got checked-in and had to wait in a very disorganized line to get through customs. We were a little worried that we were not going to make it through in time, but (like most things in Latin America) the ferry didn’t end up leaving until 9:20 instead of 9:00. We got through customs and walked onboard. We took pictures from the deck and then went inside and found some seats. I had never been on a boat like this before. It was funny because there was a store and two restaurants and regular chairs and tables, but then there were two large sections with rows of seats like an airplane (only bigger and more comfortable). We sat by the window. The trip was about 3 hours and we spent a lot of the time looking at the window. I had brought some fruit, so we ate that before we got there because I didn’t think we would be allowed to bring it into Uruguay. The trip went pretty quickly. We went back up on deck a little later and took some more pictures. It was cool because we could see a reflection of the people on the deck in the windows of the ferry. We took pictures of ourselves in the reflection which was fun. We got to Uruguay about 12:15 and had to wait in another long, chaotic line before finding out that we were supposed to fill out a form about what we were bringing into the country. We stood there with a million other people doing the same thing and tried to fill out the form the best we could in Spanish. We got done and handed our forms to the man and were free to go. We talked to some people in a tour office and asked where the ruins of the bullfighting arena are. Will’s family had told him that the old stadium is really cool and that we needed to see it. They gave us a map, but weren’t exceedingly helpful, so we walked up the road to a tourism office and they gave us another map and showed us where the bullfighting place and other cool things to see were. La Plaza de Toros was 5K from where we were, so we decided to rent bicycles to save time. There were tons of people renting out golf carts, motorcycles, and bicycles. We found a bike place and asked how much it cost. It was only 10 Argentine pesos (which was good because we didn’t have any Uruguayan pesos) for the whole afternoon! We accepted and picked out which bikes we wanted. I requested one with a basket so I could put my purse in it. We headed out to see the Plaza. It didn’t take that long to get there, even though we stopped several times for photos. We were riding on a road along the beach and it was very pretty and there was fresh air and sunshine. We both liked Uruguay much better than Buenos Aires! We got to La Plaza de Toros and took pictures. There was a fence around it with signs that said not to enter. We were really disappointed, but then we saw a family inside the arena as we rode our bikes around. We saw that the fence was knocked down on the other side, so we broke the rules and went in. It was amazing! I wonder what year it was built! We took pictures and then left. As we were leaving, a whole van-full of people and several boys from the neighborhood ran in, so I don’t feel too bad about sneaking in. We looked at an old train that was across the road and then we rode to the Hippodrome that is nearby. It looked really old compared to the one in Buenos Aires. We also saw another building that was marked as a tourist attraction on our map, but we don’t know what it was. We rode back along the beach rode making several more picture stops. Will’s family had told him that we had to try chivitas which are similar to hamburgers and are an authentic Uruguayan food. We were going to stop at a little restaurant, but a tour bus pulled up in front of us and we changed our minds. We rode back toward the main part of town and visited a feria. I bought a magnet with a picture of La Plaza de Toros and asked the woman for some Uruguayan coins in exchange for a 2-peso (Argentine) bill. Because everyone accepted Argentine money or U.S. dollars, we didn’t even have to (nor could we find a place to) exchange money. She gave me a nice assortment of coins. I also bought a really cute miniature mate decoration. We continued riding into the historic district of Colonia. We went on a dock and saw an old church and other old buildings. We had to go up a big hill on a cobblestone road and ended up walking. We were running out of time to find a restaurant because we wanted to be back at the ferry at 6 and it was almost 5. We went back and returned our bikes and asked where a chivita restaurant was. The man told us and we went and found the place. It was funny because the prices were listed in Uruguayan pesos and so I was really confused. One chivita cost about 65 Uruguayan pesos. The exchange rate was 7 to 1 (into Argentine pesos) and so I thought one chivita was almost 10 dollars because I forgot to then convert into US dollars! It was kind of confusing! Our food ended up being really cheap. The service was really fast and the waiter was nice. We got done and still had time to spare, so, of course, we had to find an helederia. We had trouble finding one that was open. We went to a place that said “helados” on a big sign outside, but when we went in, the woman said they didn’t have any. She told us where we could find one, but when we went there, we still couldn’t find it! We went back to the tourism office and asked and the woman marked it on the map for us. We went there and it was really cheap and good. We each got a huge bowl of ice cream for 2 US dollars each. We got to choose three flavors. I had dulce de leche, chocolate, and mint chocolate chip. The mint was a bit disappointing, but the other two were delicious! We walked back to the ferry eating it. We were getting cold because it was getting dark and we were eating ice cream in the winter, but it was definitely worth it! We got back and waited in line to go through customs. We made it through and went onto the ferry. We took pictures of the sunset from the deck and then went inside. We were sad to see the room we sat in before was closed (probably because not as many people were traveling), so we found seats by a window toward the front of the boat. We had to wait a while before we even started moving, but when we did, we both felt kind of strange. I wouldn’t exactly say I was seasick, but it was not a very enjoyable feeling. Will felt the same way. We think it was because we could not see anything out the window. We read our books and then when we were in the middle of the Rio de la Plata, we went upstairs to the deck to look at the stars since we can’t see them in Buenos Aires. It was very cold, but very pretty up there. There were tons of stars and we felt a lot better because we could see lights in the distance of both Buenos Aires and Colonia, as well as the stars and the water. We stayed up there until we were freezing and then we went back. It was amusing to see everyone sleeping. We sat in the middle of the boat this time since it was pointless to sit by the window and we would have more room in the middle. We wished we had brought cards. The trip back seemed a lot longer. We messed around with my translator and looked through our Guia-T’s (little books that tell you about the bus system in Buenos Aires) and talked about what we still need to see before we leave. At last, it was finally time to leave and we made it off quickly and didn’t have to do anything to get through customs. We walked out of the buquebus station with a bunch of other people and headed to Retiro (train station). We made it there and when we were right outside the train station, there were several men asking for money. This is not uncommon, so I did what I always do: look straight ahead and keep walking and act like I know what I am doing. When I had gotten about 15 feet ahead, I could tell that Will was no longer with me. I looked back and saw that a man had his arm around Will’s neck and was asking him for me. I was freaked out and slowed down, but stayed far enough ahead of them that the man couldn’t reach out and grab me, too. Will was pretending that he didn’t speak Spanish hardly at all and kept saying, “No entiendo.” The man was asking for monedas (coins), so it was likely that Will might not have known what he was asking for. We were almost to the train station and they were still walking, so I waited to see what would happen as we got closer. I kept glaring at the man with my meanest look and I think I scared him because he turned to me and said something about not hurting us, just that he was very hungry and needed money for food. I followed Will’s lead and pretended not to understand. We were walking into the train station by this time and the man started asking for “dolares” probably hoping we would understand. Finally, he let go of Will and ran off. Praise God for his safe-keeping! We were both shook-up and went and bought our tickets. We decided that we should have taken a taxi! We got on the train and sat and waited for about 10 minutes. Finally, a man came in and told us that that train was not going and that we needed to hop on the next one. We did and sat down. We were the only ones in the whole car. We spoke in English all the way back. We made it to the train station and Will offered to walk me home because it was late and dark and scary. We walked to my apartment and then after thanking him, I went in to the safety of my apartment and Will went to call his sister at a locutorio. It was about 11: 40 by this time. I had an email from Tammy that said she really wanted to see me and to call her if I was home by midnight. I didn’t have her number, so I emailed her back and went to bed. Other than the scary ending, it was a very good day.