Leo's Travels

I´ve struggled to find time to get on a computer and get this thing off the ground but have a bit to kill waiting for a plane to Rio de Janeiro. I´ll start from the beginning, with my first few days in Buenos Aires before we headed along the coast of Uruguay to Brazil. We is myself, Rayan and Jimmy, mates from Uni, and we´re travelling together until the start of January in Bolivia where I´ll stay when they head north to Colombia and then home.

I left Melbourne on the 1st of December with a night in Sydney and did the touristy thing the next morning, checking out the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Photos to come!

The flight over was long, hot and boring but I did learn some Spanish. Although the first 5 lessons were about how to say you don´t speak Spanish which wasn´t ideal.

Once in Buenos Aires (BA) excitement kicked in and despite the lack of sleep I was pretty pumped to be cruising along the highway into Centro. The size of BA is astounding, it probably has a similar urban sprawl to Melbourne but instead of big blocks of land it´s all 5 or 6 story flats as far as you can see. I split the cab with an Aussie couple, Hugh and Jess, who we kept seeing all through Uruguay and will probably see again in Bolivia. I wasn´t sure of where Rayan and Jimmy would be as it was hard to contact them so when they were in the room at the hostel I was stoked. Keen to try the famous Argentinean steaks I´d heard about, we set out to find some. BA is pretty confronting when you´re tired, hungry and can´t understand anything. The traffic barrels past and comes from the other side, and buses fly along little streets often overlapping the footpath. It´s noisy, dusty and smelly with a lot of rubbish in the street as well. It took ages to find a good place for dinner and I was surprised how much everything cost, with prices about the same as at home. But after a litre of the local beer, Quillmes (delicious) I felt alive again and we hit the town. I got another surprise when we left the club in broad daylight and my body clock was not happy. The locals do it all the time, but they also have a siesta from about 4 til 8pm every day so are a bit better prepared.

As nice as a 15 hour sleep would have been we had to check out of the hostel, move to a terrible place down the road and sort out our Visas for Brazil. After 1 day in BA I wanted to leave it was that full on, but things would improve!

We started seeing some of the sights on a wander down to the docks and saw some great old architecture and interesting graffiti. The docks are in a wealthy part of town with a very European feel, much different to just 2kms to the West. Tickets were booked for Uruguay on the 5th so we spent the next few days exploring BAs markets and had another big night at a club called Pacho, way out near the airport. The club was massive, reportedly able to hold 4000 people, but I felt more like a tourist than a clubber there because it was so different and we didn't have enough Spanish under our belts to communicate with people. Another interesting thing about South America is how few people speak English. I had heard plenty of people have some basic English but so far it's not the case. Even in Brazil, where I am now, they speak Portuguese but hardly any Spanish or English, surprising considering every other country on the continent speaks Spanish.

After a busy, exciting and interesting 4 nights in BA it was time to leave. I will be back early next year and will spend a week or two here really exploring the city, it's too big and full of things to do to see properly in less than a week. We got on a ferry which was very classy and left for our first stop, a small town called Colonia del Sacramento. After just finishing exams, moving house and getting ready to go, BA was a bit hectic for me but I know I'll love it when I get there again.

Cabo Polonio

I had planned to blog all of Uruguay before Christmas but didn't have time so here is my highlight so far, a few days in a great place called Cabo Polonio.

Jimmy heard about this hidden away little town from his friend who travelled through Uruguay too. Apparently it is still not even officially a town and has no internet and limited electricity with most houses using generators. It is located in the middle of a National Park and about 500 people live there, although it looks like it is becoming more and more of a tourist attraction with several expensive but small (done up shacks really) hotels popping up. To get there we got a bus from La Padrera with just 3 services a day and weren't too confident it would even show up. But eventually it did and once near Cabo we had to pile into a modified truck/4WD with benches in the back for a rocky ride over the sand dunes to the township.

The town is more of a clump of shacks and small houses, with no paved roads at all. It is spread out over a big area and horses graze between houses and are the main form of transport apart from the fleet of 4WD trucks. With no internet there were no places to reserve but people made offers of accommodation as we wandered through the town. The first hostel we settled for was 400 Uruguayan pesos a night each (20 AUD) and had a tiny, tiny room. I looked around for ten minutes and we snagged the last beds in a cheaper hostel right on the beach.

We settled in then went for a wander to check out the seal colonies we could see in the distance. Thousands of seals live here and with good luck it's a great spot for whale watching too. The seals are very noisy and smelly but it's amazing how close you can get. The view over Cabo from the lighthouse was also spectacular, it's just a beautiful place and I can see the attraction for all these people who live much simpler lives.

After a good meal we sat around the fire on the beach drinking and swapping stories, perfect. The next day Jimmy and Rayan left for Punta del Diablo, but I stayed on to get the later bus and take advantage of the amazing weather unsure if they would be able to get through with bushfires near Diablo. They couldn't and headed further north to try again tomorrow so I had another night in Cabo. Again we all enjoyed a great asado (barbequed meat over hot coals) and timed it well, as it started raining the next day when I left for Diablo.

Cabo is an incredible place, with a great community and some interesting travellers passing through. For anyone who ever gets to Uruguay, take the time to see it!