Willy, a liberen Willy
A Good Time for All
03/04/2010 - 03/04/2010
View
South America
on RyRyGoByBy's travel map.
Well I tried to update my blog last night. I stayed up late, typing it up. I went to save it as a draft, and the internet cut out momentarily erasing the whole thing. I'll be using word from now on, sorry for the delay.
I woke up late, and it was pouring rain outside. I was no longer interested in Punta del Este. Maria and new companions Valmor from Brazil, and Paula, who I think was from Spain, and I hung out for a bit, then booked a city tour for later in the day. We then went out to explore the city after the rain cleared up, and the sky turned bright and blue once more. They all laughed as I slathered on sun screen. 
Eventually we ended up back at the Mercado del Puerto. They ordered a big platter of assorted meats to share. I ordered rice, potatoes and mixed vegetables. They were curious to know why I was a vegetarian, and the explanation was completely lost in translation. I tried a few small bites to appease their peer pressure, staying clear of the blood sausage. Eh. I'm just not into meat, it really wasn't much of a sacrifice when I gave it up. I will probably be eating more of it throughout this trip though. Not being fluent in the language in a region with limited vegetarian options makes it a hard thing to avoid all together.
Pot o' carne
As we ate, M noticed it was 2:45, the time we had to be back at the hostel for the city tour. We ate as fast as we could and then dashed across the city. We managed to make it back in time to catch the tour. It was in a van, and it took us on a large circuit around the whole city.
A little over half way through the tour, my stomach began to rumble. OH MY GOD! I can hold it... I can totally hold it. No this is not happening. We were driving through a park, with a small amusement park/large play ground. I caught a glimpse of the banos. We stopped at a statue nearby, and they let us out for pictures. I ran to the bathroom, praying to every deity I could think of. I got to the banos, to discover there was no toilet seat and no toilet paper! Incidentals at that point. Nothing takes you down a peg or two like that kind of situation.
I'll spare the gory details, suffice to say I did what needed to be done. I learned a lot about myself in that bathroom. I then headed back to the bus, and had to act like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, which I had pulled off with suprising ease. I took a shower as soon as I got back. I would have prefered scalding water under the circumstances, but it was to be my first cold shower of the trip. *For the record, rightly or wrongly I blame the meat!
Valmor wanted to go out for coffee or drinks so we did. Maria and I split a bottle of medio y medio, or half and half and then we switched to beers. Oh how the mighty have fallen. We discussed politics. It was interesting to hear an Argentinian, and Brazillian perspective on Estados Unidos, and the world. It was an interesting conversation between a native spanish speaker, a native portuguese speaker and a native english speaker, aided of course by alcohol.
Valmor has a lot of faith in Obama, and thinks he has good intentions and more respect for the United Nations and the rest of the world than previous presidents. They both said it was impossible to seperate the United States from how they view their countries place in the world. 
Maria y mi
Maria y Valmor
I just love that it looks like I'm drinking fire
Maria and I wanted to dance, so we headed back to the hostel to find out where to go. Everyone at the hostel was planning to go out, so we went with them. They ended up going to the same street lined with bars that we'd just come from. There weren't really any dance venues, but all the bars were playing music. We ended up hanging out, and dancing in the street. Later people began to actually dance at one of the bars there so we went there for some proper dancing. We stayed out until four in the morning, it was a great night.
Devil Mouse
Post-drinks Desert, Yummy!
- One of the groups in Carnival did a rendition of the theme from "Free Willy" (They take songs and rewrite the lyrics, sorta like Weird Al Yankovic), and it was subsequently stuck in Maria's head from that point on. It turned into somewhat of a theme song for us.
Posted by RyRyGoByBy 03/03/2010 16:00 Archived in Uruguay Tagged backpacking
Ryannn!!! Your blog is wonderful! I am very happy to you explain my points and show my pictures!! hehe I will see your blog all time! You have a good language and you are a very good photographer!
Oh... and now I can see that you can show that every things are normal. hahahahha
03/21/2010 by Valmor