As much fun as scootin around Colonia del Sacramento was, our itinerary quickly reminded us that we needed to be on the move again if we were going to see more of what Uruguay had to offer. So, we hopped on one of the many buses we would board in the coming days, and made for the Uruguayan capital.When I look back on Montevideo little comes to mind other than showing Morgan and Travis who owns the Ping Pong championship belt,and empty streets lined with stripper/ escort clubs. We onlyplanned to stay there for a few days at the most, but soon after our arrival we came to a consensus that we would prefer to move on to another beach town asap. Although I am sure that Montevideo has much more to offer than we gave it the chance to show, we were just not all that taken by the atmosphere while we were there. Granted, it was Sunday, which means uneventful in even the most lively of cities, but Montevideo had literally shut down. We went out for dinner and drinks in what is deemed the most happening area of the city- and were greeted by nearly deserted streets, flying paper bags, and the token stray dogs. We did find a live band, however, that offered up a few Cumbia songs so that Morgan and I could get our fix and go home with smiles on our faces. But, all in all, we weren´t all that impressed, and decided to head out the following morning to the hippie beach town of La Paloma.

La Paloma is about two hours down the coast from Montevideo. We had heard very little about it beforehand, knowing only that it has great beaches and accomodations that are much cheaper than its Cancun-like neighbor Punte del Este. We are arrived in the mid-afternoon and set about acquiring our accomodations. Morgan and I were set on putting our new tent to use, so we found Travis a hostel and headed up the road in search of a piece of flat ground where we could legally- and safely, set up our tent. We found a fantastic campground only ten minutes up the road for what worked out to be $8CDN for two nights! The tent had already proved to be a great investment. The campground came with two added bonuses: we were the only non-Uruguayans there, and the senora camped beside us (a Uruguayan Marna Main). The senora camped beside us immediately took us under her wing, watching our stuff while we were at the beach, chasing down our blowing laundry that flew off the line in the wind, and greeting us in the morning with hot Yerba mate and Zucaritas (frosted flakes). For both Morgan and I the highlight of La Paloma was that little campground and the time we spent chatting and getting advice from our lovely neighbor who could swear that Morgan was the same person as her daughter in law.

Although the water was not a beautiful colour and the wind made it tough to truly relax and enjoy the beach, La Paloma really was beautiful. Unfortunately for us, it decided to show its true colours on the day that we left when all the clouds disappeared, the wind died down, and the crowds started to flock as the weekend approached. But, once agan we had to be on our way, wanted to spend a few days at another beach town called Punte Del Diablo before making our way north to Iguazu Falls.

La Paloma in a nutshell: our incredible first South American camping experience, the beach, Pat´s new silver ring souvenir (there is cheap silver Dagmar!), la senora and her yerba mate and Zucaritas, and in general- YERBA MATE. Yerba mate is a green tea that everyone- and I mean EVERYONE, drinks. Without a word of a lie every Uruguayan can be found at any given moment drinking the stuff from their goard through a bombilla (a metal filtered straw), or carrying around a thermus full of hot water so they can drink it eventually. They like mate in Argentina, in Uruguay it is their life. We both actually really like it, and plan on getting our own mate set when we get back to Argentina (It supresses your appetite and is alot cheaper than eating as much as we have grown accumstomed to) :)