Argentina and Uruguay

Since I skipped a day, I'll give an update on what we did yesterday and then catch up on today's events in a later post. Yesterday we left the hotel about 11:00 AM and headed to the port for a ferry. It was a hovercraft, which was pretty cool, but it put me to sleep almost immediately. When we arrived in Colonia, Uruguay, we hopped on a bus and headed for a little estancia (kind of like a mini ranch). The lunch was ok, but I'm not really sure what all the meat was. Clearly I didn't ask, because if it was anything less traditional than beef, I wasn't all that interested in knowing about it. However, there was a dessert buffet with meringue and spiced peaches -- YUM! I had two helpings to make up for my lack of enthusiasm for the beef (or whatever it was).

After lunch, some folks gave horseback riding a try, but I mainly watched and took pictures since Brucio and I had shared our moment riding up and down the mountain in Chile. That was enough horseback riding for me for the month of July. Right before we left, we discovered there were several quite odd collections in a little museum across from the dining hall. Upon walking in, we found a collection of what looked like thousands of keychains, ash trays, and wooden pencils, among all sorts of other strange things. Clearly, this guy was an organized hoarder, which is kind of interesting but strange nonetheless. He held a Guiness World record for the most wooden pencils in a collection. So, again, you can thank me later for this interesting tidbit to share at a party. I can just hear myself, "Oh, would you like another hot dog? By the way, did you know a guy outside of Colonia, Uruguay holds the world record for the biggest collection of wooden pencils?" Clearly, people will find that so incredibly fascinating, they'll probably immediately ask for a six pack to endure any other interesting tidbits that may follow. In one of the pictures I've posted, you can see me highlighting some of the many keychains that covered the entire wall behind me.

After our lunch at the hoarder's estancia, we headed back into Colonia for a city tour. Apparently, a lot of people like to vacation there because of the beach. I thought the water was brown and the beaches were a little littered for my taste. However, the downtown area was absolutely beautiful -- a city of 26,000 and not a single stoplight. The streets are cobblestone, and little cafes and shops line the street. At the end of the evening, we stopped in for some hot chocolate (picture attached). On one hand, I wish I knew how to make hot chocolate that delicious...on the other, I'm glad I don't because I'd probably literally weigh 800 pounds.

The ferry ride back from Colonia to Buenos Aires felt long, because today is the soccer finals here with Uruguay versus Paraguay. It was a rowdy crowd on their way to Buenos Aires last night, who sang and sang the national anthem of Uruguay. We're not talking a little, 50 person ferry either...there were probably 2000 people on the boat. Meanwhile, my nook ran out of battery halfway through the trip back, so I was forced to people watch. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back, and had no trouble going to sleep after such a fun, but tiring day!