punta del este.

on thursday we crossed the border into colonia del sacrmento, uruguay.. i have now offically visited 25 countries. our first afternoon there we headed straight for the beach after dropping our bags off at an adorable little hostel. we hadn't thought much about how long we were going to stay, but when attempting to book for a second night we were informed that there was a wedding at the hostel and no beds available.. so we wandered the streets and found another place around the corner that we moved to the next morning. that night we wandered around 'old town'.. gorgeous little heritage homes and candelit restaurants.. an old lighthouse and docks.. it reminded me a lot of luang prabang in laos, very beautiful, quiet, and inviting.

after switching hostels the next morning, we wanted to check out another part of the beach as the strip was about 5kms long. we attempted to rent a golf cart, because how much fun would it be cruising in a 6-seater golf cart? but nobody had a credit card on them and so we were denied. we ended up catching a taxi down to the end and spent a gorgeous day swimming and reading.. practising handstands and cartwheels with coach danelle.. loving life.

the fettes boys didn't reapply their sunscreen and were looking pretty toasty, so they decided to walk the beach and head back to the hostel. danelle, mike and i wandered around that part of town, saw the bull fighting stadium.. checked out a craft market.. then on the walk back, bought a quarter of a watermelon from a street vendor for 45 uruguay pesos, not quite $2.. ate our hearts out, and enjoyed the 5km walk.. reuniting with the brothers a few hours later, they looked like naked cooked lobsters with white shorts.. ouch.

attempting a spanish conversation with a girl in our dorm room, we found out that the next day colonia was celebrating carnaval. since we are so good at planning ahead and always know what's going on.. (there wasn't a single poster advertising for the party of the year!) we scrambled around town trying to find accomodation for one more night. no dice. [kind of like when stacy and i pointed to an unknown town on a map.. showing up in kiel, germany.. only to find out that it was the 'week of kiel'] so, we made the only plausible decision.. locked up our bags and pulled an all-nighter.

carnval was quite the experience.. the parade started at 9pm and continued until about 3:30 in the morning.. afterwards we wandered down to the beach, attempting to catch a few z's. after an hour of lying restlessly and getting eaten by mosquitoes, we went back into town and sat in a park. the streets were full of people celebrating until about 6 or 7am, we managed to rest up a bit, and after getting our bags from storage, headed to the bus station..

bused to montevideo, where we said goodbye to the fettes boys, and continued down the coast to punta del este to meet with danelle's friend, rodriguez.. we gave him a call and made plans to meet up in an hour at this huge statue on the beach. we got about 25 steps out of the bus station, and who drove by yelling danelle's name? ..rodriguez! met some of his friends and cooled off in the salty ocean. he owns a restaurant, and had to go to work, but we will meet up with him later tonight.. and his restaurant will also be our new home for the next day or two..