Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2018 April Argentina\Uruguay Day 1

2018 April 18th - Argentina\Uruguay Day 1 - Trip to Montevideo

As I write this, I'm pretty wiped out. It has been a long 36 hours or so. It has definitely been trains, planes, water ferries and automobiles! We started in Farmington taking the Front Runner train to the airport. We met an excited woman who was headed to Seattle to visit her grand children. Her trip sounded so simple...I was pretty envious. We were able to get seats to Houston quite easily. Upon arriving, we grabbed a Jason Deli sandwich (Rueben) and split it as we waited to see if we would win the Business Class lottery...and we did! Unfortunately, though, our seats were two rows in front of each other. But, I got bold and asked my bunk mate if he would consider trading. He first asked if it was an aisle seat...and I had to say no. I then told him don't worry about it...I'd love to sleep with him. No...I did not say that. But he quickly changed his mind, was very kind, and said sure. So Denise came up and sat\slept by me. Boy what a difference it makes to be able to fully lay down while flying across the world. I actually slept pretty good after another full meal. We should never had purchased that deli sandwich. But we rarely get such treatment while flying. One funny note...when we went to Italy years ago, we watched Julee go and change into some sweat pants to 'sleep' more comfortably. We teased her unmercifully about that. Well, I watched two business men literally get into their 'pajamas' from head to toe. They then made their chairs up like beds at home and 'crawled' into them. It was amazing. Then when breakfast was served, they quietly changed into their business attire and were ready for the day. They had it down!

The flight to Buenos Aires was faster than planned...9.5 hours. However, upon arriving, they could not get the jetway to the door. So the time cut off in flying was consumed in waiting. Getting through customs was easy and quick. It was then an issue on getting a car to take us to the Buqubus, the water ferry to take us to Uruguay. Outside the terminal, I hailed an Uber car. It said to go to 'Parking Lot A'. Good luck finding that. We asked and we went to where they told us. While waiting, a taxi drive came by and said 'Uber?' I said Si! I then asked if his name was Aldo. Of course he said 'Si'. Well, suddenly he would not take my card and wanted me to pay cash. I said Uber does not work that way. Well...I pretty much told him forget. And then another taxi guy came up to us and said he would take us...for the same amount the other guy said. I thought I'd be paying about $25 using Uber. Taxi's wanted $40. Anyway...we did it. In hindsight, the first taxi guy was not an Uber driver. The car he was driving and the picture did not match. I should have realized that. Oh well...live and learn.

We arrived at Buquebus about 30 minutes before the next ferry was leaving. There are two options to get to Montevideo...take a ferry to Colonia (1 hour ferry ride) and then get on a bus (3 hours). The other option is to take a direct water ferry to Montevideo. Well, the option that was leaving soonest was going through Colonia and we would almost be at Montevideo before the direct ferry would leave BA. So we did the Colonia route. It was a smooth ferry ride across the channel. Getting on the bus was fast and easy. Our bus was not crowded at all. So it was quite pleasant. I even slept a bit. So much for seeing the country side. But we are taking this route back to BA Saturday morning. I'll see it then.

Upon arriving in Montevideo, we were then challenged by the massive bus terminal. It was quite large and very crowded. We needed some Uruguayan Pesos. So we found a bank. First attempt at using the ATM was a bust. So we went inside. They sent a girl out to help us. Our problem was that we thought we needed to enter dollar amount which was wrong and too small. We needed to enter 3000 pesos for $100. Finally we got some pesos. After that, we went to the Buquebus office to purchase our return trip. That went like clock work. All good there. We'll leave on the bus to go back to Colonia at 7 AM Saturday morning. We will arrive at almost noon in BA that day.

Now we needed a car to get us to our hotel. You'd think this would be easy. This time we walked a ways away from the taxi non-sense to try Uber again. It worked...within a minute a lady Uber driver pulled up, we loaded bags and off we went. I asked her how long she had been driving for Uber...it was her 2nd day! Hmmm...anyway, the ride into where our hotel was took about 10 or 15 minutes. The problem was, we could not visually see our hotel. We looped around and around. Finally the gal got out of the car and asked someone. We were about 50 yards past it. She did not want to go around again, so she tried to back up in crazy traffic coming at her. But...we got there. Uber quoted me $145 pesos...it turned out to be $218 pesos...because apparently Uber uses a clock also and we were slow. I did not have a good taxi day! But I'm learning.

Our hotel is nice, clean and nicely located. We begin exploring tomorrow. Marcos, our guy at the front desk was very kind at check in. He recommended a BBQ place called El Fogon. So we went up to our room, got settled in, showered and then headed there to eat. We decided to get after some steaks...since we are in Uruguay. It was good...nothing to write home about. Things are just so different n how things are done. We walk into this restaurant. There is a ton of tables, but only one taken. Where does the waiter put us...right up next to the other folks eating. I could barely get into my chair. Just silly. Later I saw others come in and just plop down where they wanted. I should have done that too.

Well...we are really tired from a long 36 hours. I'm already sweating getting home a bit. I don't know why so early this trip. I hope I can just forget about it and enjoy the moment and what Uruguay and Argentina have to offer.

More to come.....

Some Pictures:

Here we go again...but this time in style! (Business Class)