Another City Another Carnaval

Montevideo turned out not to be just another city afterall. I was roaming the streets and losing patience, looking for somewhere not tooexpensive to stay about to give up and book into one of th hotels on the main drag when a woman yelled out to me and pointed me in the direction of Hostel Montevideo which is a clean and spacious place close to the city centre that provides breakfast free and beer for a few pesos. I got talking to a Sweede and a Yank who convinced me to have a beer. Soon we were joined by a Frenchman an Aregentine and four Brasileros and I noticed at some stage during the night we gained an Italian too. We sat outside on the street dringking Patricia Lager until it wa late enough for someone to suggest that we go into town. I was quite happy where I was but understood the guys wanting to go seeeming as I was the only girl and I wasn´t going round.So We head a few blocks seaward to B. Mitre where bars buddy up next to each other for the pubgoers convenience and drink and dance and eat pizza.

The next day, believe it or not, I didn´t quite feel up to rising early and making transport arrangements to get myself to Punta del Diablo, a beach town 4 hours Nth so it was just aswell that there was a Cranaval taking place on 18 de Julio Montevideo that night and I had best hang around.

It was a pretty much repeat of the night before which is a good thing. The Carnaval was a bit moe grass roots than Gualeguaychu, not as flash but much fun.

Got up and on a bus the next day heading for Punta del Diablo but on arrival I asked if there was an ATM in town which no one understood. So I gave my Spanish a whirl and was informed that there was not. Hadn´t bought much cash, only 1000 Ur. Pesos, that will last you a couple of days tops. So got back on the bus and headed to the boarder town of Chuy or Chui if you are on the Brazilian side.

One side of the main street is Uruguay and the other is Brazil. We (another girl on the bus was in the same predicament as me) didn´t notice at first and actually just crossed the road to Brazil and booked into a hotel. This is entirely acceptable. There are immigration formalities on respective outskirts of town. Got a little bit excited when I worked it out.
Chuy.
Chui.
Uruguay.
Brazil.
Had to explain to the girl from the united states that we didn´t have boarders in NZ.

Decided that while here I would arrange my onward travel to Brazil and did so for tonight at 11, giving me toay to head back and enjoy the beach at Punta del Diablo. Diablo means shark, luckily my lack of espanol meant I remained ignorant to this little piece of information until after I had taken my first swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Actually my espanol has made a lot of progress in the last week. Bummer that as of tomorrow everybody is going to be speaking Portuguese. Damn it.

So am killing time and Uruguay pesos until my bus arrives for the 7 hr journey to Porto Alegre.