I arrived in Montevideo, late afternoon, without a plan. I figured, since it is a big city, there must be plenty of hostels all over the place and especially close to the terminal. Turns out, the terminal is not really located in the center of Montevideo, it's actually quite a long walk from the both the port and the main street. I started walking with my backpacks, tired and with a cold. I stopped, after about an hour of walking (it felt like an eternity), at a cafe, had some water and used their wifi to find a hostel near by. Lucky me there was a hostel with really good reviews just a few blocks from the cafe! I grabbed my bags and walked the last bit. When I finally got there I was happily surprised. The hostel was clean and the staff spoke English! I went up to my room, had a shower and went out to buy some dinner. Lesson learned: make sure you know where the bus stops before you decide to walk from the bus to the hostel.

After a good nights sleep, I woke up without any voice, a nose that wouldn't stop rinning and an eye that tried to copy the nose... My cold had become worse during the night and I felt so sick. I decided to have a quiet day in bed, went to buy some honey, lemon and soft toilet paper and then I just stayed inside feeling sorry for myself.

The honey and the lemon must have been a really good treatment though, cause the next day I felt a lot better. Two of my roomies, Luc and Gabi, were going to take a bus to the botanical garden so I went with them. We ended up not just going to the botanical garden (which was really boring and small), we continued to a big church (it was closed though, sad), we found an art studio in an old mansion, went to see a museum and the Japanese garden, took the bus back, searched for a market, went to the port and then walked to the river to see the sunset, before heading back to the hostel. We didn't stay at the hostel for very long though. We showered, changed our clothes and headed out for the Carneval. The Carneval was a bit disappointing but it was still a great experience and we had a good time!

My days in Montevideo passed fast and I continued to Punta del Este. I don't like Punta del Este... When I got here, my first feeling was: "this is too much". There's big hotels and luxury apartments everywhere, the beach is so crowded you can barely get down to the water and it's very expensive. In Montevideo I paid 16 usd per night for my three nights, here I paid 30 usd for one night! In Montevideo I stayed in a spacious 9 bed dorm with a balcony and here I stayed in a tiny 12 bed dorm with no light... The staff at the hostel was really nice though, and I guess it was worth staying at least one night just to have seen it.

Now I'm at the terminal waiting for my bus to Punta del Diablo, which is a small town up the Uruguayan coast. This time I already booked the hostel so that I won't have to think about that when I get there. I'm hoping for two quiet, nice days by the beach now. That would be nice!

Cheers!