Weeks Two & Three

Montevideo - Punta del Diablo (Uru) - La Paloma (Uru) - Puerto Iguacu (Arg) - Santa Fe (Arg) - Mendoza (Arg)

On the last night in Monetvideo we were treated to a spectacular thunder and fork lightening storm.

Left Monetvideo by bus to the small fishing and surfing village of Punta del Diablo along the coast of Uruguay. We followed Lonely Planets advice and tried to save money by asking at the supermarket if there was a small cabana (Cabin) we could rent, and the butcher took us out to a little cabin we could rent. However, we understood very little of what he was trying to tell us, and though cheaper, we decided to go back into the town centre to stay at a cute little hostel owned by an artist (no one spoke English there either).

Although it was raining, we ventured out to the National Park, Santa Teresa, down the road. We were accompanied for an hour by two stray dogs who were finally tied up and taken away after the army police tried to tell us we couldn´t bring our dogs into the little animal park. At this park we met our favourite new South American animals, the cuati - really cute possum-come-hyperactive-kitten animal. Still in the rain, we walked another hour to Santa Teresa Fort where Uruguay had once acted as a buffer state and stopped the Brazilian Portugese from entering Argentina. After four hours in the pouring rain (we were theonly people walking that day, everyone else was in a car) we finally made it back to the bus stop, and saturated, waited for two hours for the bus to take us home. Otherwise, we spent the next couple of days relaxing and walking the vast beaches to either side of the town.

We made our way by bus again to the bigger beach town of La Paloma. A beach wedding was going on across from our hostel, so an Australian girl and I watched the Catholic ceremony from the beach.

We then ventured on a two day journey by bus back to Buenos Aires and up to Puerto Iguacu. As we crossed the Uruguay border back into Argentin at 2am, I tried to declare my fruit (as the signs so strictly said I must do) but the officials wouldn´t accept it and told me to put it away.

At Puerto Iguacu we went for a walk to a river intersection which is the border of the three countries - Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. On our second day in Puerto Iguacu we ventrued out to the Iguacu Falls. These were spectacular, despite the huge number of tourists there. We saw our furry friends, the cuati, this time in the wild, and some neat lizards and butterflies. I can´t describe how amazing the falls are - just beautiful and HUGE. It was a long, hot and exhausting day at the falls and we were glad to get back to the pool at the hostel.

We then bused to Santa Fe and spent the day wandering around this city in 36 degrees C for 12 hours waiting for our next bus. Saw some neat old churches. We couldn´t find anywhere but the mall which had air conditioning, so we suffered a little.

We have just arrived in Mendoza and will stay for a couple of nights to try and get some energy back into us after all the bussing.

Having lots of fun, but very tired at the moment.