Day 538 - Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay
Leaving Buenos Aires
We burst out of the canyon of tall apartment buildings in Recoleta onto a broad boulevard, Ubering to the Colonia Express ferry. It will take four hours to get to Montevideo - one hour to cross the bay to Colonia and three more by bus. We swing along a spectacular causeway within the city. On either side you can see the evidence of great wealth when Argentina’s GDP was the 7th greatest in the world – architecture of every kind on a lordly scale: Italianate, ornamental French Colonial, Spanish style balustrades, renaissance sculpture atop miles of buildings 12 to 15 stories high in Rose and White with rich façades of marble and stone. Among them is The Rose House which is not unlike our White House, the home to Argentina‘s president. In between, new high-rises are being built or stand, new and shining. Somehow in Argentina's strange economy, money seems to flow. Streets are busy, shoppers and diners are everywhere, even on this Saturday morning. The country where both the people and government cheat one another seems to be working.
The ferry ride is refreshing and warm but the Atlantic's waters are rough. Outside I watch as a sailing ship swings by our bow and thought for certain the wind would take it under. Somehow it didn't.
Arrival in Colonia
On arrival in Colonia we are immediately shuttled onto our clean and air conditioned bus. Cyndy is bussed out and two more hours are pushing it, but she manages a nap and eventually we pull into Montevideo’s huge station. A short Uber ride gets us to the hotel Fauna, our home for the next two nights. Soon, we will at last to be on our way across the Atlantic. After the Bus Odyssey, 21 days of not having to move our bags sounds like Nirvana.
The evening before we leave, I head beyond our neighborhood to the long quay and watch the sunset over the ocean on South America’s eastern coast.
I've been told more than once that unlike Buenos Aires, the people of Montevideo are easy going. Locals with their children, lovers and families lounge and fish and lollygag along the miles long quay. I join them in the twilight and breath. The air is perfect and so is the sunset.
