To top up on dollars for the black market money swapping we spent a couple of days in neighbouring Uruguay. Possibly the dullest country in the world.
We got a boat from BA to the town of Colonia - very pretty - and visited the banks, ate lunch and saw all the sights in 3 hours. People come on holiday to this town. Christ knows what they're doing for entertainment but by 10pm everything bar the casino was shut. In Argentina people don't go out for dinner before 10pm. Uruguayans are a very different breed,
The next day we took the bus to Montevideo. 'See the countryside as you travel' the bus company said. Flat brown fields in drizzly rain for 3 bloody hours is what we saw. Pathetic fallacy in action.
24 hours in Montevideo was plenty of time to see all of it's districts, or streets as they should more truthfully be called. The finance district is 2 streets of offices, and if you cross the road you're in the marina district. Montevideo is surrounded by sea on 3 sides so you're in the minority if you're not in the marina district. Or you've walked to a different city without realising.
After we'd exhausted the old town (2 roads and a plaza), been for a seafront run, and splurged dollar in the retail district ($15 - 3 tops) we went back bewildered to our hotel -is this really a city, let alone a capital city?!
As we waited for our boat back to BA the next day we met a tour group from the UK who were there for 4 days. Poor misguided things. From the city that only sleeps, we returned to the city that laughs in the face of sleep.
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