South America’s Switzerland

Perhaps I slept too much yesterday, since I today woke up by the sound of some party nearby, and after that, I listened to the bird song, and after that the early morning traffic. But

Perhaps I slept too much yesterday, since I today woke up by the sound of some party nearby, and after that, I listened to the bird song, and after that the early morning traffic. But I still felt a lot better. Lovely Argentinian tea from Lucía and TV series heal you the most!

Looking for clean clothes to wear, I found this weird t-shirt that I’ve never seen before. OMG, the “friendliest person on earth” mixed the clothes up! I also realized that she had hid away most of my socks. But maybe that was good. My socks were mostly huge holes with small pieces of thread between. I didn’t want to buy new ones because of planet blablabla. But now I have to! Maybe she actually is the friendliest person on the world.

*Argentina become so rich from farming. And then poorer.*

Lucía followed me to the bus stop. But when the bus came, my card was empty! And there were no open shops to charge it, because it was a Saturday. So I found a cafe and got my Uber.

*Uber to the central Buenos Aires. Untz untz untz.*

I came to the boat company, and they had a boat leaving right then, so they took my money and threw me around and stamped my passport until I sat on that boat. So fast.

The boat ride was only one hour, as we went to Colonia in the west of Uruguay, and from there there was a bus to Montevideo.

I felt so lucky that I got on the first bus with the same name as the company. But my luck ended there – they were just taking people to nearby Colonia hotels. When they finally asked me, who tried to hide, where I was going and I said “Montevideo, don’t kill me”, they took me back to the boat and the bus was gone. I could wait until 20, or buy my own ticket. I bought my own and then waited in this cafe.

I hadn’t checked before how much an Uruguay peso was. So I ordered a pizza and a glass of wine without knowing if it was expensive or cheap! Untz untz untz.

And 400 peso turned out to be 10 euros. So rather expensive! Although cheaper than Sweden. And the pizza was so massive. I think I ordered some kind of family pizza. And ate it all. Then took the bus.

Uruguay has been called “South America’s Switzerland”. It’s the richest and most equal of all the countries. Gays can get married etc. Famous in Sweden for a humble non-spending president who legalized cannabis. (Although he isn’t president since 2015.) I mean, look at the windmills above! First I’ve seen since leaving Germany.

Above is a lovely view of the water. We passed a lot of favelas, with lots of political propaganda. “Vázquez for president” it said everywhere. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I don’t know) his party lost last weekend. It was super-close, and the decision by the court actually came today. Uruguay now has a right-wing president, after 15 years of centre-left. It’s interesting that the only cities with red leadership are the biggest, while the right-wing is strongest in the countryside. It’s a very American situation.

Here’s Tomás, a very clever test quality assurance manager working for a company with offices in Montevideo, Toronto and Amsterdam. Doesn’t that sound Swiss!