So if I had to use one word to describe Uruguay, it would be windy. Just freaking windy all the time!
Ok, I admit it’s a bit reductive to only use one word, let me further develop this.

After spending 3 days in Punta del Diablo, I took a bus to go to Punta del Este, a famous sea resort in Uruguay. I contacted a hostel and asked if I could work there in exchange for a free stay. I wanted to try this experience, see what it’s like to work in a hostel, and stay a bit longer in the same place.
I didn’t stay in Punta del Este, but in the suburbs, in a place called La Barra, and that was actually way better! Punta del Este is like the Monaco of Uruguay, really luxury, lots of big hotels and expensive stuff. Sure it’s beautiful, it’s one of these big sea resorts, new enough so that everything is still nice and shiny, but a bit too artificial for me.

In La Barra everything was more local, convivial and a bit smaller, but the beaches. Beaches as far as the eye could see! Really amazing!
I spent a bit more than one week there, helping in the hostel, doing maintenance work (fixing stuff, cleaning other stuff, painting walls in white) for a few hours per day, and the rest of the day I was free to hang out on the beach 🙂 I’m tanned as hell now! I’ve heard it started to snow in Switzerland 🙂

However the weather changes really fast, and although it was sunny during the day, the wind never stopped! We had wind gusts up to 70 km/h from time to time, once when walking along the coast of Punta del Este I had to hang on to a hand rail not to be blown away! And I’m barely exaggerating, but I have to admit that when the night fell the thermometer dropped to 12°C, adding wind to this I had to wear my jacket and scarf from time to time.

It was a nice experience working there, and after that I decided to move to Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital.
It’s a really nice city, big enough so that you have many things to do and see, and small enough so that you visit it walking around. I’m spending a few days there, visiting the old city, walking along the coast and against the wind, doing free visit walking tours, really interesting!

During this tour I learnt that Uruguay is not the real name of this country, but it’s Republica Oriental de Uruguay (Uruguay’s Eastern Republic), because Uruguay is actually the name of the river on the border of Uruguay and Argentinga, and Uruguay (the country) is located eastern of this river. I also learnt why Montevideo is called this way, because it’s the 6th (VI in roman numbers) mountain (monte in spanish) along the coast from east to west (De Este a Oeste in spanish). Monte-VI-DEO. Mind blowing, right?
During this tour we also learnt a lot about Urugayan history, society and laws. For example canabis is legal here, abortion as well, equality in marriage as well. It’s really a nice contry, working very well!

Walking around the city you can see great stuff, a huge open-air market where you can buy anything, from clothes, to hi-fi gadgets, fruits and vegetables, mate (pronouced mâ-té, the local infusion that everybody drinks) thermos and bombillas, puppies, faucet and pipes… A bit of everything!

The specialty here are Parillas, like huge barbecues where you get an insane amount of meat (mostly beef), alfajores, a cookie filled with dulce de leche (I’m now addicted to it) and mate, this infusion tea that everybody drinks. And it’s really funny to walk around and see everybody drinking and sharing mate, old ones and youg ones without distinction!

I will spend 2 more days here and then go to Colonia del Sacramento, still in Uruguay, before crossing the Rio de la Plata to go to Buenos Aires in Argentina!
I’ll keep you updated!