Video of Montevideo and Punta del Este

Montevideo, Uruguay from Carlos Reyes on Vimeo.

After Colonia del Sacramento I went to Montevideo and Punta del Este, I loved Uruguay, It's such a beautiful country, and people look sooo calmed.

Puerto Madero

De youngest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero was planned in an era of plenty in which the expectations were to create a dense business center, however although beautiful in a sense it has a strange feeling of being fake, there is a train that goes around carrying no one, a bridge that was designed by Santiago Calatrava to spin, that never spins, a museum with a moving shade that is never used, almost everything in puerto madero has a beautiful look but a relatively poor life in it.

Impressions Buenos aires

The first thing you will notice in Buenos Aires is its continuity, with over 12 million people in the metropolitan area and 3 Million in the Urban, it is a city full of life. And getting around is very easy with a very efficient bus system that is subsidized by the government, you pay barelly about 1.25 pesos (30 cents of a dollar) for a bus ride, and the subway is usually gets pretty much anywhere. However you must pay the bus with coins, which for some reason are impossible to find anywhere, even convenience store sometimes can refuse to sell you things if they don't have enough change for the day. Forcing you to buy more things until you can spare the change.
And some lines of the subway may be closed some days, i was never really that unlucky with the traffic thou.

Daily life can be preatty good in Buenos Aires if you are visiting, after their economic crash of 2001 the exchange rate significantly benefits the dollar holder, and you can do a lot of things in a day with just a few bucks. Getting s great steak dinner, having a couple of beers or Fernet with coke and go dancing in "boliches" all these activities are inexpensive.

A few budget recommendation on where to go.
Eat steak at "el desnivel" in San Telmo
Go to the malba Museum
Have wine in jazz joint "thelonius Club" Adress Jerónimo Salguero 1884
Have some beers before you go to a boliche in "el alamo" where girls drink free Therefore it's packed with beautiful local girls. :)


But the Best way to get to know buenos aires is throu it's people, get a good group of friends, the Argentinians and Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) are really friendlly and the will welcome you to their homes. And you haven't tasted beef until you have had a home made "asado" in the traditional home style.

Thanks to my friend Pato for cooking this great asado by the pool. You must visit his bar when you go there, ill soon publish the address

Overdue

Myrtle beach drawings, better late than never

Conecting the dots

First of my travel drawing book. The destination Map

Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia del Sacramento is located a the south west of Uruguay and it has an historic town that has been declared en recent years patrimony of humanity (1995) for it's Hispanic, Portuguese and colonial blend of cultures.

It's a beautiful town but the tourism has grown so much, that the town has become artificial and the life it once had has drained out to make room for boutiques, restaurants and hotels. Never the less it's still a must see spot in South america.

Colonia Del Sacramento from Carlos Reyes on Vimeo.

Uruguay

Uruguay is a great place to visit on a budget.

From Buenos Aires you can go to Colonia del Sacramento (my favorite place in Uruguay) for around 50 dls (traveling on weekends) or if you do the trip as I did it, you can travel during week a little bit cheaper. I ended paying 30 dls round trip using Buquebus, then in Colonia there are a lot of ice enough hostels, I especially recommend El Viajero they have a branch in a lot of places in Uruguay. Make reservations depending on the season you are arriving (after the middle of October is better to be prepared) there are some hostels that you can stay for arround 12 dls, but for an extra 4 dls (16dls) you can stay in el viajero an I really recommend it. They do activity's such as bbq, pizza nights, bike trips, so it's more than an average Hostel.

About the bus fare once in Uruguay, pretty much everywhere is about 10 dls bus ride, and if you travel with COT they have buses with Wifi so you get to catch up on things, In my case I thought i was only on the terminal so I turn of the wifi as soon as we left but the last day I found out you had wifi all the way.


So the budget for a trip to Uruguay.

50 dls Buquebus
40 dls Bus Rides (Colonia - Montevideo - Punta del Este) (and Back)
80 dls 5 nights in good hostels
20 dls grocery shopping for the hole stay.
----------------
190 dls Total