Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 1

The weather can be rather fickle here. Up to this point in the trip it has been around 85 degrees and extremely hot, sunny. So the next morning I have an 8 am boat to catch to Montevideo and I step outside and it feels like about 60 and extremely windy. By the time I get to Montevideo which is a 3 hour boat ride away – I’m in long pants, short and long sleeve shirts, and winter jacket. The weather remains cool and windy for the rest of the week in the 70’s but the sun is soo hot that people are still laying on the beach. I got two shades darker in about 15 minutes after laying out.

So I got to the ferry station an hour ahead of time and had some breakfast while waiting. The boat was supposed to leave at 8 am and get to Montevideo at 11am but for some reason the departure time got pushed back 2 hours. Shouldn’t boats leaving at 8 am already be there? It’s not like our boat was coming in from another port at 7 am. Well perhaps the delay was weather related. The boat was a large one; and it had space for cars and about 300-400 passengers, but as we started our journey the wind and waves were rocking the boat rather viscously. I decided to pick an aisle seat on a corner so that there were no seats in front of me or on the side for some extra leg room. Boy was that a mistake. Old people were falling all over the place, and one lady thought it would be a good idea to use my laptop screen as a rail.

I managed to fall asleep and when I woke up people were getting off the boat. Sweet we’re here! So I’m waiting for my bag at the carousel and noticed that there is an English tour guide. I know that the ferry is close to Plaza Independencia which is close to where I’m staying.

ME: “So how far away are we from the Plaza Independencia”?

HER: “Ummmm the Plaza Independencia is in Montevideo we’re in Colonia”.

ME: “WHAT?!? Did I get on the wrong boat in the chaos back in Buenos Aires? How am I going to get my bag in Montevideo? How do I get to Montevideo from here”?

HER: “Just get your bag and then you can catch the bus outside…just show them your ticket and they’ll put you on the right bus”.

So another 2.5 hour bus ride later, I finally make it to Montevideo and didn’t get settled down until about 4pm. That’s a long 3 hour boat ride.

Montevideo, Uraguay - Day 1