Passport stamps, beaches, and a place to call "home"

The coming of March brought only slightly noticeable temperature drops (that the Argentines have met with entirely unnecessary winter coats and scarves for 70 degree weather), the halfway mark and, of course, "spring" (technically late summer/fall here, but that isn't really the point) break! For our vacation, we headed out to the coast in Montevideo, Uruguay.

So, third country on my repertoire! Argentina is definitely different from the US and Uruguay is almost as different from Argentina.

Here are some of my highlights from Uruguay:
-The bus system: (I know, buses again- let me know when buses are no longer interesting) In Buenos Aires, the buses are very much in a hurry, so you have to be there when the bus stops and on the bus within 30 seconds of it stopping tops in order to grant yourself a ride. In Montevideo, buses waited for us a few seconds longer if they saw us running. Also, in Buenos Aires you have to pay your fee in monedas (change). Which doesn't sound like a pain but it totally is. Because the coins used in Argentina are worth more melted as metal than they are as currency, monedas are scarce. Keeping monedas stocked is constantly a problem. In Uruguay, you can pay with bills- up to fifty pesos! That point might not have been as exciting as it sounds...
-Being serenaded: On the first bus we took in Uruguay, a young man and a guitar player followed us on. They entertained the bus with two Beatles songs, including one of my favorites "All My Loving" (which seemed all too appropriate, being so far away from all my loved ones). The singer probably didn't know English at all, but sang it almost perfectly. Enamored, I parted with 10 pesos in appreciation (an equivalent of 50 cents, oops probably should have given more - but more on money later). The second instance I had in mind was not technically a serenade but my favorite cat call ever. We were walking back to our hostel after a hot day on the beach, definitely not looking our best (but maybe our best version of beet red and in need of showers). We are used to cat calls now, I rarely take notice of them and am good at ignoring. But this particular man decided to show off his english for us, yelling in a sing-song voice from his spot on the park bench, "Oh my god! Look at these bee-yoo-tiful girls - walking down this bee-yoo-tiful street - with such grace!" I know we're supposed to ignore, but I couldn't stifle laughter this time. The men who kiss at us back in Buenos Aires could learn something from this guy.

-Beaches: We saw the ocean! The same one I saw off the coast of Florida- just way south. Nothing terribly different from beaches in the US (besides Brazilian cuts everywhere) just a couple days of relaxing, chatting, wading in the waves, and burning (mostly successful)
-Fútbol: will have its own post to come...

The group plus CJ and Alana from Australia

-New friends: We spent the week with Anna's boyfriend CJ, and some new hostel friends from around the world. So cool to share stories and exchange cultures and travel experiences.
-Calling Buenos Aires "home" for the first time: While Uruguay was fun, and experiencing yet another country was amazing, I definitely missed my good old Buenos Aires for several reasons. The currency in Uruguay was so difficult to manage. In Argentina, it is 1 dollar to 4 pesos (imagine paying for everything in quarters). In Uruguay, it is 1 dollar to 19 pesos. There is just no way to make that math easy. A reasonably priced dinner was listed at 200+ pesos - such a headache. But more than that, I missed knowing my way around, being able to navigate by myself, having my own space and my own agenda. Something felt so nice about the familiarity of stepping off that bus into the middle of Puerto Madero - knowing exactly where I was and how I needed to get home (and that my nice bed was waiting for me :) ) I was definitely glad to be back (which I'm sure had nothing to do with the fact that I was now anticipating the arrival of a certain boy in just 2 days - to be continued)

Beautiful sky outside my window upon returning.. ahhh hogar dulce hogar (home sweet home)