So I had a fully packed few days in Buenos Aires. Not only did I do the skydive but I also went to see a tango show (it had to be done in BA), a city tour and the markets in San Telmo. Miriam and I also went and stuffed our faces at La Cabrera, a well known restaurant with tourists and Argentinians. It is without a doubt the best steak I have ever tried - kobe beef at a fraction of the price it would cost in England. My mouth is watering just thinking of the huge steaks we had and all the accompaniments that came with it. I also decided during my stay to do a graffiti tour. I thought it would be a bit different to the usual tourist trap tours and I was right. We started on the other side of town and were taken to see lots of examples of street art, which in BA is not illegal. We were told all about the aritists and the crews who paint all the work so it was quite an interesting and unique trip in the end.
Although I hadn´t originally intended to go to Uruguay, a good friend who I used to work with in Madrid has just moved back there so I just couldn´t miss the opportunity for free accomodation and a native showing me round. I started off in Montevideo which was a slightly dissapointing city after BA. It didn´t really have a lot to offer as a city but I was mainly there to see Pati so it didn´t really matter.
After a few days chilling out in Montevideo we went to Punta del Este. That is clearly where the money is at! Lots of high rise, expensive flats with posh restaurants and designer shops all over - not really the kind of place a backpacker like myself can afford but luckily Pati had a flat there. The best thing there was the lovely sandy beaches. The beach part of the trip has definitly begun now! One day we rented bikes and rode all along the coast stopping for a picnic and a sunbathe on the beach and a trip to the port where the fishermen were feeding the humongous sealions.
From Punta del Este I left Pati and went to meet Miriam in Punta del Diablo. This place is a world away from the ritzy Punta del Este. It was a lovely little town full of beach huts and fishing boats. So relaxing and chilled out with huge sandy beaches that were practically desserted. I am also glad that I got to see it in low season as apparently in a few more weeks it will be packed for the summer holidays. I think lots of people there will spoil the place because its charm is the fact that it was so chilled out and quiet. Definitly one of my favourite stops of the journey even if it was only for a few days.
After our few days relaxing there we started the long journey to Florianopolis, Brazil. To get there however, involves crossing the border at a town called Chuy. As our bus wasn´t going to be till the evening we decided to spend a few hours in this place because we heard there was really cheap shopping to be done. Unfortunately when we got there and actually started the shopping it wasn´t quite as cheap as we thought - electrical items and perfume are all the same prices at home. What was cheap though was alcohol so I thought I would give a helping hand to the economy and invested in a bottle of bombay gin which was a bargainous 6 dollars. Not bad eh?
The strange thing about this town, apart from the fact that other than these duty free shops for tourists it has literally nothing else to offer, is the fact that there is a main road that runs through the centre and it is literally a case of on one side of the road you are in Uruguay and everybody is speaking in Spanish, yet if you cross the road you are officially in Brazil and everyone is talking in Portuguese!
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