Latina America

Coming from Asunción, Montevideo is bliss, bearable temperatures and people in the streets. Hospedaje Che Lagarto is right on Plaza Independencia, a cool square with very interesting buildings and close to Avenida 18 de Julio, the main street, as well as close to Sarandí, the pedestrian street and close to the Ciudad Vieja where all the sight-seeing is to be done.

Interesting city, Montevideo as thought Bryan Adams who was supposed to do a concert there but canceled it and went to a bar. Luckily, I did not go out with the people from the hostel because I was to tired. They bumped into him! Maybe next picture has got something to do with it.

Pireápolis is a little beach resort at about two hours to the east of Montevideo, nice and quiet as the tourist season was just finished. We stayed in a hostel that looked a bit like a prison but we had good fun anyway. Unfortunately, the second day was quite rainy so we could not really go out to the beach or for a swim.

Punta del Este is crowded with old people during the day and quite dead at night but our lovely hostel was at about twenty minutes from Punta, in Manantiales, only a 15-minute walk from the famous surfingbeach Playa Bikini. I thought I would give it a go and try some surfing for the second time in my life, but did not get further than some paddling and got washed away several times by the powerful waves.

I only had one day in Colonia de Sacramento, a little Portuguese settlement, back in time used for smuggling goods into Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily all day which made me spend hours in a cyber cafe. But by the time the sun set, it stopped raining, so I could still enjoy the old, quiet streets, squares and the sunset over the sea, all this under a very special light.