Freedom is a scooter in Colonia

On Tuesday morning the fabulous six hit the water for Uruguay. A quick one hour ferry ride later (on a very comfortably hydrofoil boat), we found ourselves in the charming town of Colonia del Sacramento.

There we walked around, had a lunch by the water, and then got to business of taking about a trillion photos. It is really gorgeous, old buildings, cobblestone streets, very peaceful, green, and somehow very Greece-like. Not that I´ve been, but it was my impression and strangely enough, those who know agreed. It was a beatiful sunny day and it was just so nice to walk around and explore. Of course, we stopped at a cute terrasse in the middle of a small street for some sangria... just to keep it real.

We then returned to the bus-ferry area to pruchase our bus tickets for Montevideo. There was a very sutffy and hot small internet cafe where some of the girls did the email thing, but three of us were restless and decided to go for a little walk. WELL! That was the best thing we could have done, for not 3 minutes into our walk, I spotted a little booth with some scooters in front of it. Instincts took over and I suggested we go check out the rental situation... and if you need to know how to drive manual to operate one (as some of the girls cannot).

Conversing with a Uruguayan is challenging. Our young scooter-rental-guy had as much trouble understanding us as we had him. It would be me, trying to explain or ask a question ... and then him looking at me, not understanding. And then he would talk a bunch...and I would look at him, not understanding. Then the others would try, and eventually he managed to get some kind of headache and needed a cigarette. Eventually we sorted it all out and finally went back to surprize our friends on three scooters!

I have since figured out that in Uruguay, they seem to drop the letters g, most S´s, all ¨ll¨s are a hard J but not like the argentine way ( more like a soft J). It´s seriously complicated. Uruguay as a word sounds something along the lines of üru- eye but with a very rolled R.

You might not think that scootering for the first time, with a passenger, in a new town, among seriously cobblestone-cobblerock streets, sometimes in the dark, is a good idea - but I am here to say, it is FREEDOM. Lots of mad giggling, lots of going up and down the same streets, but almost more fun than one should probably have. Highly, highly recommended. Definitely, definitely wear helmets.

We had spotted an incredible little restaurant after lunch, with a lovely garden, an outdoor grill, overlooking the water. Something out of a movie - small, stunning, but not perfect or pretentious. On one of our scoots by, Punky and I stopped to inquire as to what time they were open for dinner and such, and with much difficultly, managed to make a reservation for later. Communicating was very difficult in Colonia.

When we arrived back for dinner, it was already dark out. The garden area was lit with lanterns and candles on the tables. Along the whitewashed wall on the other side of the restaurant, overlooking the water, there were candles as well. We had a view of the harbour area and a sky full of stars on top of us. We had the most amazing dinner you can imagine, I think it was the best and most memorable I´ve had ever. (I never thought the infamous feast-spontaneous dinner party at Joe Beef would be surpassed, but....) Inclusive of a great local wine, Don Pascual. The most amazing dessert, some sort of indescribable thing that, as we always do, was shared by the six (now seven) of us. And impossibly delicious. And was perhaps 25-30$.

Sadly, the next morning when we woke up extra early to go scooting, our scooter did not start. Our scooter guy was a bit alarmed to see Punky and I walking towards him, luggage in tow, helmets in hand... without the scooter. In the end, he had not showed me a special pedal that is sometimes needed to start it and it was not broken but we were very sad about not having seen the town on wheels once more.

Yesterday, we spent the day walking around Montevideo. It is a much larger city although not terribly exciting or expecially interesting, particularly coming from Buenos Aires which is really so exceptional in architecture. Bollywood arrived in from London and met up with us so at last we were all present the seven of us. Lots of laughs at lunch with Almira bumbling up speculation of the mission impossible style ops and whatnot. We went to an area quite a ways out of town for dinner, 20 minutes by taxi, I feared it the west island of montevideo actually, to a highly recommended restaurant called Cafe Mysterio. We got a superb VIP section and had a great view of the place which was really quite cool. La Vida Chivas I believe was their tagline, which I think is essentially saying Pass the Courvosier in Uruguayan. Nice meal and stupendous ceviche, and great desserts although I think the malbec mousse at Asia de Cuba remains the one to be beat.

Today we have arrived in Punta del Este and are reasonably well-behaved.... so far. We walked around getting a feel for the place and you can definitely see that this is certainly the playground for superstars. No problems with the paparazzi just yet... It is a bit calmer of course now since the peak season has really died down but really, with the seven of us, peak might have really just been a touch too insane.

Quick shoutout to Erika & Brandon, now traveling in South Africa, on their engagement - in front of Victoria Falls - congratulations!!!

Bueno! That´s all for now, hope to hear of your news and I promise to enjoy the sun on behalf of all of you who have been requesting it - apprently it´s terribly cold right now. Ole!