Dog Has Abcess In Lip

Mellow Uruguay


Uruguay somehow seems to be Argentina's little brother. People there eat the same food, they have some similar habits, but still you notice that you are in another country: dishes are bigger and cost less and people live a even more laid-back life than Argentinians do. This is, of course, not more than our personal impression based on an only three days stay in Colonia del Sacramento and Carmelo and you might say, 'How does she even dare to generalize about the land and the people after such a short stay?' I don't, but I shall stick to the habit of writing an English entry about every country we have been to and simply describe what we saw: Every (!) Uruguayan (in Colonia and Carmelo that is) carries a thermos flask under his arm and holds a special cup with herbs in her hand so that they can drink maté whenever they feel like it. To us this sort of tea tasted rather bitter and it also seemed to be quite impractical to perform daily tasks with a bottle under your arm but to Uruguayans it apparently doesn't.

What's far more uncomfortable, however, are the many mosquitoes which no one told us about when talking of their enjoyable trip to Colonia. Those extremely aggressive insects seemed to be waiting in trees and flowers to then randomly attack passing by tourists, which - considering the few people around - often happened to be us.
But there were also other, friendlier animals waiting for us on the streets. Longing for someone to take them for a walk Uruguayan dogs wait at the bus station for arriving tourists and then happily follow them throughout town and even wait for them when they decide to enter a shop.

They are lucky because they will find many tourists exploring charming Colonia which attractions are the cobbled streets and the old buildings which make perfect motifs for photographs. Apparently Colonia has always been a quite attractive place because back in history Portugal, Spain and Britain tried to get hold of this place. The presence of the latter might be the reason why we, once again, found the 'beloved' two taps in every bathroom (cf. earlier entry: The Tap Situation).
Water, hot or cold, is plenty in Colonia because the 'sea' surrounding it is actually a river and it takes you quite some time to cross it by ferry. Once you crossed it you will find yourself back in Buenos Aires, Argentina from where I will write our next English entry.
Michi