Hola amigos!

So I´m now in the capital of Uruguay and about to take a look around the city with some of mi nuevo amigos. I have 5 mins before we´re about to leave, but there´s free internet in the lobby so thought i´d hop on and say hello. I will write all about my adventures in Buenos Aires and Colonia hopefully tomorrow afternoon, when i have some free time, but wanted to let you know I´m still alive and soaking up the rays :) South America is very beautiful.

Be in touch again soon with all the real goss.

Jen x

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Montevideo continued:

So yesterday I was rudely cut off by the bus arriving to pick us up for our city guide of the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo. I find the best way to get orientated in a new city is to do a quick 3 hour city tour by bus where you can hop and off at certain points. The fist one in Buenos Aires was fantastic, becuase I guess it is an amazing city and our guide was brilliant, she even sang Tango songs to us. BUT the city tour by bus in Montevideo was hilarious for all the wrong reasons, but it certainly made me laugh. The part that made me laugh the most was when we were picked up from our hotel, drove 1 minute down to the square to pick up some people from the Radisson hotel on the corner of the Main Square and waited about 10 minutes for them to come out, then we drove round that same square, no lie, 4 times, just circling it while the guide pointed out all the very unimportant buildings that surrounded it and THEN we stopped on the otherside of the small square opposite the Radisson and all got off for a 10minute photo stop!!! We couldn´t stop laughing, seeing as we were only 1 minute from our hotel and literally opposite where everyone had got on at the Radisson!!

It did get better though and we saw a lot more of the city than we ever would have by foot, the only thing about here is there isn´t actually much to see, another great moment was when Vincenzo couldn´t believe how ugly the city was and took a very beautiful picture of himself with all the cargo ship containers piled up behind him.

It is a very odd city, it´s completely run down and the goverment doesn´t seem to maintain any of the buildings or clear the streets of rubbish and during the day the best way to describe it is like an abandoned war zone, all the buildings are either falling down or boarded up and there is literally no one around or any traffic in some of the streets, but we´re still managing to have lots of fun, which says a lot about what a great group we have on this tour.

Last night we went for dinner in the lively area of town and all enjoyed a long dinner of nearly 3 hours, chatting about our favourite films, of course Anchorman got a big mention. Then we all headed to a local bar for some tequila shots and cocktails and danced to the local band playing a mix of English and Spanish hits, it was a brilliant atmosphere and we all danced till 3am. Anders, one of the Danish guys made me laugh so hard I nearly fell off my seat when he told me about a private school he went to on the basis that from the website and literature it looked like a football based private school and only when he had enrolled and his parents had paid the fees did he find out it was about 10% a football school and 90% a gymnastics school! And this guy is extremely tall and not agile looking at all, he was decribing how he always got put at the very back during performances for the parents and was obviously hating his life, it stilll makes me chuckle just writing about it.

So today we all woke up very leisurely after making back to the hotel and asleep by about 3.30am. Then Sarah, Andrea, Jona and I walked down the main street in the glorious sun for lunch in the market square and sat outside and enjoyed some more italian food - I seem to be eating more italian than anything else at the moment, but then there´s only so much Steak I can eat. Lunch again was very nice and the chat was amusing and now I am in an internet cafe letting you all know I´m still alve and well and I am about to leave to have a shower before we head to the grand opera house to watch Macbeth. It´s in Spanish but it will good for me to practise my Spanish and also it´s just a beautiful settting at the opera house and the stall tickets were only $5 each?!

Tomorrow morning we have a 6hr bus journey to Salto to enjoy the thermal baths before we have an over night bus to Iguassu Falls, one of the main highlights on this tour! Hopefully it won´t be too long before I can update my blog again.

Having fun and loving the sun and company.

Jen x

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Montevideo - continued

Sooooo, after I finished writing my last blog entry I headed off to the theatre to watch the magnificient Macbeth in the beautiful opera house, but alas when we got to the foyer a nice guy on the door informed us that that nights performance had been cancelled due the mother of the main actor dying that morning, how inconsiderate of her. So a bit deflated we had a grand tour of the opera house instead, just our small group, and then we decided to exchange our tickets for the "modern dance" performance held in the auditorium next door. This however turned out to be a very very very odd abstract performance by two rather odd Russian women rolling around the floor screaming with zero music and definitely no beautiful dancing, which in turn made the Danish guys start wetting themselves and in an intimate crowd of only about 30 people this didn{t go down very well with the very serious audience members in the row in front, I wa trying so hard not to laugh too, but when Sophie was dying in her chair trying so hard not to make a sound in her fits of giggles and let out a big snort I couldnt contain myself either and in the end we had to leave! :)

I then joined Sarah, Andrea and Jonas for some pizza and then us three girls headed back to the hotel and ended up chatting and staying up to watch the remake of the Omen until 2am - which scared the hell out of me when i had to then take the riggety old lift on my own back to my room in the dark...

I woke up bright and early though at 10am to get ready for our bus journey to Salto, but not before I headed down for the free breaksfast in the hotel cafe. Lars was the only other one from our group at the breakfast so i joined his table, which was a good job, as I then proceeded to choke on my toast until I literally had no breathe in my lungs and Lars was whacking me on the back to no provail so the rest of the rugby looking Uruguayian guys in the restaurant ran over and picked my arms up until they were lifting me off the chair (i didnt know this was the way to cure choking until then) but it worked a treat and I splurted back into life.....not too much of an embarrassing way to start the day then!!

Next blog - Salto