A little Wine at noon...

We got up at about 10AM, had something to eat and went to Juanico for a little wine tasting! After a short ride we arrived at a small winery. Juanico is the name of the town as well as the winery. The winery is about 12 Acres. It is in a small town and 90% of the town works at the winery. We took the Spanish/English tour but really all we wanted was to drink some wine! After the tour we sat down to enjoy a sip or seven. For 250 pesos (about $10) we, along with a guy from Brazil and his girlfriend from Uruguay, received a little wine lesson, four different choices, and a cheese and salami platter. After a couple of hour of getting to know each other and a little buzz we went back into town. This was a lovely afternoon treat!!

¡Vamos, Vamos Nacional!

Let me start with, we are sorry that we haven't posted anything in awhile. We joined a gym down the street and have been sore, whiny babies for a few days. Who knew that a class called "Model Silhouette" would kick our butts? Anyhow, we went to our first Futball match last week. A small bit of history on soccer here in Uruguay. First, Uruguay has won the world cup twice. The first was the very first world cup that was held here in Uruguay in 1930. The second was in 1950 when Uruguay beat Brazil at Rio's brand new Maracaná stadium. In the Uruguayan league there are about 10 or so club teams but if you ask any one there are really only two, Nacional and Peñarol. These are the two main rivals in Uruguayan soccer. I've seen people with tattoos of their team logos on their bodies. Think River/Boca, or for those of you that don't follow soccer, think Yankees/Red Sox. The graffitti follows the same course of dinner table discussion down here, politics and futball. All over town you see "¡C. N. de F.!" (Club Nacional de Futball) and "¡Viva Peñarol!" right along side who that particular artist is rooting for president. So back to my story. We went to a game. Not just any game, mind you, but a Nacional game. And not just any Nacional game, but the 2008 championship. (the 2008 game was supposed to be played in May of last year, but they postponed it 9 months because of a riot) It was nuts. I felt sorry for the fans of the other team, Danubio, because they just didn't have the shear numbers that we had. I say "we" because Dani and I are Nacional fans, as Dani states...they tended to have more teeth than Peñarol fans, so we're in. We went with Daniela's cousin, Fiorella and her boyfriend who took us to the craziest area right behind the goal. When we finally found a place, we sat to enjoy the show. There were flags and homemade banners flying eveywhere, people chanting Nacional songs, throwing confetti, rolling joints from said confetti, singing about how lame Peñarol was (it didn't matter they weren't playing Peñarol) and generally causing a ruckus. And we still had 20 minutes to go until the game started. I was in heaven, until some kid smashed my toes with his knock-off Nikes when he was chanting a song. But it's ok. I learned a lesson, don't wear sandals to a futball match. Easy enough. I think Dani's favorite part of the game was when she was passing the bottle of water back to Fiorella and it was intercepted by some guy who took a swig and handed it back saying, "It's ok. I have all my teeth still!" She just stood there for a few minutes looking at him while rolled a joint from confetti on the ground before she looked up and said, "That's disgusting" and whirled around in search of another water. And that was the first half, Nacional was down 1-0. The second half was actually much calmer for us. The hardcore fans have banners that unfurl from the scoreboard to the field level. We were in between two of them during the first half but the decided to unleash a third that pretty much blocked our view so we headed out in search of better seats. We watched Nacional come up and win 2-1!!! I lost my voice. It was pretty spectacular. Fiorella asked me if we had anything like this in the States and it was a hard question to answer. We have fans. Anyone who knows a Raiders fan knows that we have intense, hardcore fans. What we don't have is the presence at the stadium that includes flares, fireworks, trip-hazard banners and police in full riot gear by a field that is surrounded by a 10 foot fence and a moat, seriously. Now the season starts again, Copa Libertadores is going on right now and hopefully we'll be able to make it to another game, this time Nacional vs. Peñarol!

The South America RainForest

On Monday, We took an overnight bus to Puerto Iguazu. This is on the Argentine side of the falls. After a long and wet 18 hour ride we arrived at about 2pm. We then started looking for a hostel. After a few failed attempts, Hostel Sweet Hostel was the winner. Our room was small, six beds in a 15 by 7 foot room, the plus was that the bathroom was connected! After dropping off our stuff we went into town, which was only a couple of blocks away. We relaxed with some beer and pizza and picked up some info on the falls. After a few hours in town, Jay, a bottle of wine and myself headed back to the hostel. By the time we arrived back at the hostel our roommates had arrived as well, three Aussies and an Irish guy. We all bragged about our travels, then popped open our bottle of wine and went to sit by the pool. Our hostel was wonderful. It had a bar, pool, kitchen, sitting area and a friendly host, Daniel. After a few minutes our new Aussie friends joined us and we talked about what they think of the States, our new government (which is always the #1 topic) and how people from the States are loud! Yes, we are loud! The hostel also offered a BBQ with wine for only 25 pesos which is US$8!! So at about 11pm we decide to dig in! The table dinner was such a great idea!! We meet travelers from all over the world... a guy from the UK, two girls from Holland, and the two Swedes with a monkey! After a long night of drinking we went to see the monkwe at the Swedes place and then to bed. The next morning, with a small headache, I was up at 7am, super excited about going to the falls!! We packed our backpack, had a bit to eat and we where off....

We took the bus up to the fall, the park reminded us of Disneyland, just so much better!!! Everywhere you turned there was lines and people and more lines but once we got to the top and you felt the rolling water just a finger tip away it was all worth it. We where amazed! I think that we expected it to be spectacular but never as spectacular as it was. We spend the whole day there and just fell in love with the view. We even took a boat ride into the falls! The boat pulls in, you can't see a thing, it's just water pounding in your face but worth every penny. As always I went crazy with the camera and we now are the proud owners of hundreds of pictures of water falls!!! Our time at the falls was breath taking!

No Words Needed... Iguazu Falls

No Words Needed... Iguazu Falls

Las Llamadas, or Throwing Elbows

Las Llamadas is the Uruguayan equivalant of a Mardi Gras parade, just without the beads, boobs and excessive booze. There's the same reoccuring theme that comes throughout all Carnaval celebrations. It seems the slaves and masters are equal, people party and bang drums. Good times! We went to Martin and Cecilias house in Montevideo where we got ready with a warning from Martin to not keep anything in our pockets. Fun! When we get there we see what he meant. There is one street that is blocked off for about 6 blocks with people PACKED onto the sidewalks watching the dancers in full gear shimmy up the street followed by groups of Candombe drummers providing the beat. Now when I say packed I mean literally packed. If there was a spot where you could breathe, there was already some one standing there. There where balconies rented out for $500 bucks and people hanging off of windows (they had bars on them) It was a perfect spot for a pickpocket. Half the time I didn't know if the person grabing my hand was Dani or the dude next to me. I decided not to look and just roll with it. Let me tell you about the kids there. Street Urchins. That's it. That describes them. And nothing will deprive them from procuring a good spot for the parade. I had kids squeze through my legs into a Hobbit size hole in the crowd Frodo would think twice about. The kids would yell Vamos! and stick threre elbows out like tiny porcupines and start walking. The problem was that there was no where for them to go there were that many people. My favorite was when they picked up a baby and used it as a battering ram to get through the crowd. And to be honest with you, it probably worked the best :) All in all, Llamadas was cool. Martin was a great guide, telling us about the parade, getting us beer and chorizos and only getting slightly lost on the way home. But he did let us crash for a few days which was cool. Did I mention his house rocks? Hasta!

Las Llamadas

Not the Best Viedo but hey...

Oh Francis...

So lets get back to Anthony Bourdain... while he was here he made a stop in Garzon. Garzon is a small town in the middle of nowhere. A while back an amazing Chef from Argentina named Francis Malman decide to buy four of the rundown buildings in the town. He then restored them and turned them into a hotel, restaurant, cute little art shop and a theater. Nothing big just a places to relax and enjoy but we must remember that relaxing comes with a price. There are only 8 room and they run $400 to $600 a night. Needless to say we did not stay here. We drove on dirt roads for about 45 minutes. I think we bitched most of the way because there was not one sign. Thank GOD Jay knows how to use a map. We arrived just at sun started to set. The town is small and very rundown. Almost every other building is for sale. From the outside Malman place doesn't look like much but you can tell which buildings belong to him. They all looked clean, yet simple. We parked next to his place, thinking that we weren't going to be able to go in but maybe peek in the window. As we walked to the front my aunt and I saw a bold head. We both look at each other and we know... it was Francis. Jay gave me this, please do not bother him, look, but my aunt and I walked right up to him and pulled the I'm from the US and I saw you on Anthony Bourdain and we loved the bit he did on Garzon and this place is wonderful, so he let us town the place and take pictures. The place was amazing... not $400 to $600 worth of amazing but amazing. We then walked back out and he was gone...

If she can do it, we have to do it

While in Punta we also went to an area called Punta Ballena which is where Casa Pueblo is located. It is the big white house that goes down the side of a cliff to the ocean, it kinda looks like a lemon merang pie but it's absolutely beautiful. We didn't go in and visit, instead we swam out to see it from the ocean side. Let me explain.

Pati, my Aunt who is 57 years old, says to us, "Hey, I'll take you to some rocks we can jump off." Alright, we think, lets go! We drive out to the end of the point, the sunset was just starting, by the way it's 7:30 in the evening. Pati leads us down the cliff about 500 yards to the start of the rocks on the cliff, we look out and think, "Gee, it's beautiful here. A little cold and windy, but we're just wusses. It's beautiful up here." Then Good ol' aunt Pati takes off her glasses and shucks off her shoes and begins to walk to the boulder at the edge of the cliff. Blindly we follow her and some how end up in just our bathing suits too. I don't remember taking anything off, I think it was the wind. I climbing up the boulder and when I look up my Aunt was gone, Jay asks "where did your aunt go?" Well, let me tell you, she jumped, without even thinking about it, just jumped. We looked over the boulder and there she was, a small little person a great big ocean. Jay looked at me and said " I have to jump, if she did I have to do it" so after a few minutes of deep breathing he jumped. Now it was up to me.... so I looked down, which was a bad idea. All I could see was the water being swallow into a cave and then thrown out with great force and I thought that could be me! My Aunt and Jay kept saying "don't think about it, just jump!" so on three, with my eyes closed and one hand over my nose, I JUMPED!!! The jump was so high it took a few seconds to swim back up to the surfaces but I did it.

The water was perfect, the view breath taking! We swam a few 100 yards to some rocks. That where covered in muscles and algae so when the tied came up we let it push us on the rock. We got comfortable and took it all in, there's nothing more beautiful then watching the sunset from the middle of the ocean. It's moments like this one that makes a person feel so small and fragile.

a vacation from our vacation

On Sunday morning, after a long night, we got in the car and headed to Punta Del Este. Punta Del Este is the place to be in Uruguay. From December to the end of February, people from all over the world come to play in Punta. It has everything you want all in one place, It's a glamorous resort town to say the least. We rented a little apartment and spent our five day at the beach relaxing and thinking of ways to stay for the next four months. We ate lots of fresh sea food and had a little to drink as well. Other then a bad sun burn, we really enjoyed every minute!

Ps. While in Punta Jay and I finally saw Marly Y Yo!!! It just arrived here and it was good not as good as the book but we loved it, so Pam give Buddy a big kiss for us because we miss him!