The ferry ride across the river to Uruguay was unique because the river was almost totally flat and brown, which made it seem peaceful in an erie way. It was a night boat so when I got there I tried to get a place in Colonia but it was too expensive so I just walked around and checked out the ruins and looked across the river. Colonia is a nice little town with a similar feel to Argentina except more laid back.

Then I took the bus to Montevideo, which is a pretty big city with an old broken in feel to it because there wasn't a real modern skyline. However it did contain the an old building that used to be the highest in South America. The historic center of the city which is right next to the commercial center, is totally decapitated. Almost all of the buildings are big and sturdy looking stone structures, but are totally boarded up and abandoned. It gave me the impression something went terribly wrong with the place.

The most hilarious thing about Uruguay is how all of the people are totally addicted to Maté, which is an herb that was first introduced to me in Argentina that is put into a wood cup with a small opening, mixed with hot water, and drunken with a special filtered straw. I thought the Argentineans were fanatical about this stuff because they have to have a couple times a day, but almost all of the Uruguan´s carry their thermostats and mugs around with them every where they go. It seemed like some kind of national addiction.

The hostel I got in Montevideo was cool because there were some cool travelers there who I hung out with in the TV room and kitchen. There was an American guy who had met an Argentinean girl and was thinking about going back, and a German couple who had sent their VW van to Uruguay and were going to drive it around South America, but it was late coming in.

The Uruguayan people looked just like the Argentineans, who are a large part just as white as me because of the Spanish, Italian, and Jewish ancestry, as well as a few people from north western Europe. They are more laid back and less stressed and depressed and more excited to be talking to me though. When I asked them who they were more similar to between the Brazilians and the Argentineans, they always said the Brazilians.

The next place I went to was Maldonado near Punta del Este. I went there because it had a map on the Lonely Planet book and I wanted to see a small Uruguayan town. It was peaceful, but too peaceful. It didn't seem like anything went on there. I stayed in a little hotel run by an old Irish guy who was telling me about all of the problems that Argentina was having. He said the people who run Argentina and Uruguay are all crooks. He said that the politicians of Argentina were filling up eighteen wheeler trucks with cash and shipping it out of the country in anticipation of the impending devaluation. He said that Uruguay had a scam that all of the rich people in power kept their friends wealthy and powerful by inventing new political offices for them. He said that because of this Uruguay had like a hundred Generals in their army. He was pretty typical of an old ex-patriot running a business, or living for a long time in a third world country. They always jump at the chance to say negative things about the country they live in to the tourists they meet. It makes you wonder why they are there in the first place. The next morning I did the tour of an old military compound and walked up an old tower that they used to spot invaders. It offered a nice view of the quaint little town that was obviously suffering some sort of economic depression. Maybe it was just out of tourist season for them.

Then I took the bus to Punta del Este. This is a popular vacation spot for Argentineans in the summer. It is a peninsula geared towards tourism and has some nice beaches. I spent a night there in a large tourist hotel. That night I walked down to the famous huge hotel that was a casino. The building was beautiful with high ceilings and large rooms, and there were a lot of tourists there. The next morning I went to the huge crowded beach and jumped into the freezing water and did some body surfing with about fifty other people.

I tried to get a bus to Brazil and the people in the station told me I needed a visa to go to Brazil and I had to go back to Montevideo to do that, whoops. So I went back to Montevideo and luckily it only took a couple days to get the visa which was only good for two months and costed me 60 bucks. The next day I was off to Brazil.