On Sunday we headed to Montevideo, Uruguay by ferry. It was a little confusing at the office, because you tell one person when and where you want to go, then to another person to pay for the ticket, then to another person to pick up the ticket (and these people are zig-zag across the waiting room, not in a line one after the other!). We eventually got everything taken care of. It was to be a 3 hour trip. As usual, my anticipation of movement got me a little upset in the stomach, but I held on throughout the trip. The motion sick bracelets that I purchased before I left have been worth the money. There was a movie playing called The Sixth Day, which was in English that I watched.

We then arrived in Montevideo and found that everything was closed since it was Sunday. I mean everything. Even most of the restaurants. We did eventually find one that was open and I had chicken with lemon sauce and Travis had grilled chicken. It was probably the best meal we have had so far. It was delicious, and even cheaper than we expected.

After that we found our hotel and got situated. I took a nap while Travis went to figure out what was available for us to do in the evening. It seems that the places open back up in the late afternoon. We went to a comedy show for $4 each in a small theater. It was called, “No seré feliz, pero tengo marido” (I won´t be happy, but at least I have a husband). It was done by one lady and was very funny on relationships and marriage. I even understood most of it and Travis got a lot of it, too. It was good practice for $4! After that we went to a restaurant to get some ice cream. It had started raining by that time and we talked about going to see a movie after the ice cream, but decided against it. We didn´t want to do everything possible in one night!

The next afternoon we took a bus to Colonia, a quaint little town that had a wall built around it to fortify the city on the ocean side. There were some cobbled streets that were almost impossible to walk on. Also, there was a huge lighthouse that you could go all the way up in and check out the view. It was very neat. We did go down to the pier and watched the sunset. It was beautiful as you can see from the picture. There doesn´t seem to be too many people here, or even tourists. Most of the kids we saw had moto-scooters that they used to get around. The town has a Mediterranean feel, very laid back--quite a change from the pace of Buenos Aires (the loudest noise when we woke up was a few birds in the courtyard).

We got a recommendation from the hotel where to eat (El Asador) and had their specialty, which was grilled steak and sausage. There were four large steaks and a piece of sausage, plus bread, and drinks for $5 for all of it. It was very good, but a little too well done for my liking.

In the morning, we returned to the ferry to go back to Buenos Aires to retrieve our other backpack and then find out what was the best way to get to Puerto Madryn, on our way to Patagonia. We tried the train station first, but decided to check our bus options. Finally we determined a schedule that would fit our needs, although it takes 19 hours. We leave for Puerto Madryn tonight at 9:00 p.m.