Uruguay!

Mike and I are in Uruguay this weekend, and having a great adventure. For the record, Mike is an incredible trip planner, so we've gotten to see and do much more than I expected in such a short amount of time. I have planned a number of trips in my day too, but due to my directionally-challenged-ness, if you join me on a trip I've planned, you'd better be prepared to walk or drive at least 20 minutes in the wrong direction at least twice a day :)

We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, about a three hour "tour." Since getting to Montevideo, we've walked all around the city; saw the Palacio Salvo, which was the tallest building in South America when it was built in 1920; ate chivito al plato: a pile of fries with meat, ham, cheese, bacon, an egg, olives, ketchup and mayo on top; walked through old town, and an antiques market in a park; we ate some grilled meat and grilled sweet potato at a "meat market" by the port, where restaurant after restaurant was firing up its wood grills; we took a cab out to the suburbs to see the LDS temple and then we went to a sushi restaurant that had a great review in the NYTimes -- I've eaten a lot of sushi, and LOVE it, but this was THE BEST sushi I have ever had, go figure. Ceviche sushi with cream cheese, cilantro, and chili; we also walked (and cabbed) along the "rambla," which is a little like Lakeshore Drive in Chicago.

2 major things we've noticed here: 1) the amount of mate drinking here far exceeds what we've seen in Argentina, which is a lot. I'd say every third or fourth person we'd see walking down the street would have their thermos of hot water tucked under their arm, and a mate gourd in their hand. In fact, Mike saw a motorcyclist with the thermos under his arm, the gourd in his hand, a cigarette in his other hand, and...yeah, we're not really sure how he was driving. I spotted a mom with the thermos, gourd in the hand, soccer ball in the other hand, and her other hand holding on to her child (moms have more than two hands, if you hadn't noticed).

2) It smells like smoke here. All the time. It makes your eyes sting and everything. We finally asked the cabbie and the hotel staff "Why does it smell like smoke here all the time?" And they both said "I guess because of all the parrillas (the wood-fired grills)." They guess, because they are probably so used to it that they can't smell it anymore.

Now, we just took a city bus to catch a coach bus to take us to Colonia, a small town just up the coast. We'll spend tomorrow there, then head back to Buenos Aires. Thanks Mike for planning this great trip!