Some taller than me or large enough to serve as a casketĪt the Casino Hotel in Artigas I bunked with Jan, the other single female on the trip. Rows and rows of amethyst geodes, cleaned, polished and ready for sale. For miles the view became more and more spectacular with each second. With the brilliant sunset serving as a backdrop, the trees created a lacey silhouette. The sky turned yellow, then glowed orange and crimson as if on fire before simmering into a purplish-blue. We oohed and awed at the most incredible sunset I’d ever seen. I likened it to primates grooming each other and after declaring her deloused, we reloaded the van and motored away. “I feel like I’m being de-acupunctured,” she announced. ![]() We helped pull out the tiny sticks one by one. Pam made a pit stop in the woods and returned with her black pants and shirt covered with thin, pointy, thorns pricking her. I left a pile of my belongings behind at Lidia and Ted’s I had decided to return to Montevideo with the group and reconnoiter my next destination from there. Nestor arrived with a 7-person van and we squeezed everyone comfortably into the van with all our luggage and almost all of my travel gear. We all chatted while waiting for Nestor, a Uruguayan who lives in Montevideo and a friend of Pam’s. She blanched, having assumed that I was a friend of his when she included me. I shocked Pam with the news that I had never met Michael from Punta del Este, the man who had initially told me about the tour. The next morning Pam and her friend Jan arrived, having driven in Jan’s car from the beach community of Piriapolis, Uruguay, an hour or so up the coast. But she shook it off suspecting correctly, more or less, that I was safe. ![]() ![]() For a brief moment Lidia expressed alarm that I was a total stranger. I told her I’d never met Pam before and had only connected with her via the internet. She casually asked me how I knew their friend Pam, the woman responsible for the tour and who had suggested I stay with them. After a fantastic dinner, Lidia and I visited in their exquisitely decorated living room. Iglesia de San Francisco in downtown Montevideo I set aside my worries and decided to toss my future to fate and see which way the wind carried me. I hadn’t provided any personal credit card info to them, not much personal information at all. Just what was I getting myself into? I re-read the emails from Pam and contemplated various schemes I could be tricked into by these strangers. If it sounds too good to be true … My antennae straightened and twitched as I headed south to Montevideo on the Ruta del Sol busline, leaving Aguas Dulces on the 8:45 to Castillo for 49 pesos or 50 cents US, catching the 12 o’clock run from Castillo to Montevideo for $475 pesos, around $20 US. I would have almost three weeks before meeting my daughter in Iguazu Falls, should I just go ahead and fly to Peru for a trip to Machu Picchu? Wander into Brazil’s Pantanal and make my way inland back to the falls? I had little to no wifi to research a trip, as I was down to my dumb phone and temporary use on the office computer at my Aguas Dulces’ hotel.Īnd who were these people? This was just a private group of individuals inviting me to share their adventure, and in the case of Ted and Lidia, welcoming me into their home. I considered different travel options requiring me to journey away from the enchanting Uruguayan coast, and I wasn’t sure if Uruguay’s rural towns and the hill country of Cuchilla Grande were enough of a draw to entice me to stay much longer in Uruguay. Colder autumn weather steered its course directly at us, so who knew how long this gorgeous Indian summer would last? It was still warm beach weather I’d jumped in the ocean the day before. I didn’t want to leave the beach yet and contemplated traveling farther north to Punta del Diablo and to the fortress in St. Prior to leaving Aguas Dulces I had my usual second thoughts. She recommended I stay at the home of her friends Ted and Lidia in Montevideo, as we were all meeting there noon Friday before driving to Artigas. Pam and I traded emails back and forth for almost a week. He left his email address for me to contact him directly, then he forwarded me the email of the woman planning the trip. A friend of his was setting up a tour to the amethyst mines near Artigas, Uruguay, on the northern border with Brazil, leaving Uruguay’s capital city of Montevideo on April 24th. I received an interesting post from a Michael in Punta del Este. While in Aguas Dulces, I started a Trip Advisor forum about places to visit in Uruguay other than the standard Colonia, Montevideo, hot springs in Salto, beaches, etc. ![]() PART II of III on Uruguay, circa April/May 2015.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |