Hardly slept a wink last night and kept waking up as I was worried I would miss my alarm. In the end I got up at 6am and crept out of the dorm in the dark to get a shower. Why is it when you are trying to be quiet that EVERY floor board creaks and every zip is the loudest in the world? Lol. After my shower I put my damp towel into a carrier bag that just HAD to be one of them really stiff noisy ones didn’t it. Eventually got my bags out of the dorm and then went downstairs to use the internet. That ones really good thing about this hostel, Free internet, free pool, table football, they even let you use the phone, it’s great.
Got picked up at 7:15am and this time it cost me 5,500 clp not 20,000 !! It was a different bus though it looked more official and they had uniforms and that. I bet the other transfer was just somebody’s mate doin em a favour or sommat.
This time I was under on the luggage allowance as my bag was 22 kilos and your allowed up to 32 kilos but each piece can’t be more than 23 kilos. Check-in was fine and then I spent the rest of my Chillean pesos on stuff I probably don’t need lol. Bought a copper and ceramic ornament thing to go with the one I bought on the city tour and also got two stands for them. Needless to say the same ornament was much cheaper at the airport than it was at that store we went to, tut. Also bought some Pisco as a souvenir as I thought I could use it in Uruguay.
The flight was pretty quick, only 2 hour 45 mins so by the time I’d watched some TV and ate the croissant with ham and cheese on, it was time to start land. Passport control was a breeze and my bags came off pretty quickly. I then started to feel nervous as I was going to be meeting Ismael in arrivals, gulp! I’ve spoken to him for over a year and seen him on video calls etc but we’ve never met. He’s gonna show me around the place while I’m here so I won’t be on my own the whole time.
Went through to the arrivals area and there was quite a bit of crowd of people all with signs with names on. I couldn’t see him at first so walked through and found a place to stand away from the crowd, but then spotted him towards the back of the crowd.
We got the bus to his house first where he picked up some clothes etc then went to the hotel to check in. My first impression of Uruguay is that it doesn’t look like a real tourist place. I’m staying in Montivideo which is the capital but there isn’t loads of big name hotels and fast food places, which is good as it seems like the true country rather than a commercial version of it. The hotel was the Positos Plaza and seemed pretty nice, it’s got a gym and a roof terrace and free Wifi (get in lol).
After I got showered and changed at the hotel we walked over to one of Ismael’s friends houses where we were meeting Alexandra and Fifi. They both seem really nice but neither of them spoke any English so Ismael has to be the interpreter lol. We went to a bar that wasn’t overly busy when we got there, as it was about 11pm and people go out a lot later here. We got a table and ordered drinks with the waitress and then some bits to eat. The girls ordered it and from the menu it looked like some kind of small bites as it said tapio or something (similar to tapas Im guessing). When it came it was a tray of like small pasty’s with different fillings. Some had cheese and ham in and some had mince meat in, I’m not sure what exactly was in them. We had about 2 drinks and a bottle of bubbly (brut or sommat though not champagne), plus the food and the whole thing came to £10. To me that seems really cheap, but during conversation I found out that Ismael gets paid about 35 pesos an hour (less that £1) so things seem expensive to people who live here.
After a few drinks at the bar me and Ismael went to a club, the girls were tired so headed off home. We got a cab which came to 80 pesos (about £2) and then walked a few blocks to the club. The streets all looked the same, quite high grey building with trees along the pavement and not very well lit. The club just looked like another tall grey building, the only difference was that there was a large group of people queuing outside. The entrance fee was 150 pesos (about £3) which to Ismael was a lot but to me it felt cheap.
The club was really busy and you could hardly move on the dance floor. There were different floors with different kinds of music but it was all quite old pop stuff not up to date (in the UK sense). We had a couple of drinks and danced a bit but it both were a bit tired so left at about 4am.
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