After a few busy days in Buenos Aires we headed off to Uruguay on the ferry, arriving in a town called Colonia. Colonia is an old fort which has been fought over for centuries by the Portguese and the Spanish (I think the Brits nicked it for a couple of those days as well.) The streets are all cobbled with fantastic architecture everywhere. There is also the remains of the fort which looks over the beautiful bay between Argentina and Uruguay.
The two days in Colonia were spent walking the streets, visiting the fantastic beaches and generally exploring this very relaxed town. (Oh, and spending a small fortune in what could possibly be the best ice-cream shop ever!) But with Christmas looming we wanted to be somwhere much more isolated so we headed for the fishing village of Punta Del Diablo. With nowhere booked (paying for our cabana had caused some issues, to put it lightly) it was a nervous bus ride, but like all things South American it turned out to be quite easy. We arrived and met up with a local cabana owner who took us to our little cabin near the beach. Money was the next issue as Punta Del Diablo has no atm and we only had 100 dollars worth of pesos (which we spent on our Christmas food before this issue came to light.) Fortunately we were able (at great expense) to get some cash from a hotel. Too bad I hadn´t opened my very generous christmas presents from my family earlier as it would have resolved the situation much more quickly!
Christmas Eve is the highlight of the Christmas period in Latin America and we were lucky enough to have a birdseye view from our balcony of the whole village as midnight struck and a thousand illegal fireworks shot into the air all around us! We then proceeded into town to party the night away in many of the beachside bars.
Christmas day was a delight, stockings made from Maura´s dirty hiking socks, a breakfast of egg, sausage and black pudding (left over from a Colonia parilla) and a Christmas "tree" Maura had cut from a neighbour´s prize pine tree! I´m afraid religion wasn´t high on the agenda as what we thought was the church was actually an building agent. (We did watch Angels and Demons on the Ipod - does that count?) We then invited our new Dutch friends Frank and Maria over for a Christmas barbecue. I was very alpha male and managed to produce a fantastic barbecue although you wouldn´t have believed it with all the whinging about smoke inhalation that I received....
The next couple of days were spent enjoying long walks on the beach, some sun bathing and a couple more fiestas before we headed to Montevideo for a day of seeing the city. I must admit I´m glad we only spent a day as it was really a bit rubbish, not much to see except McDonalds, Pizza Huts and tacky clothes stores. We then headed back to Colonia and the ferry where someone might have beated someone else 17 times in a row at cards, but we don´t want to talk about that as I´m gripping the table in rage just typing about it.
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