Punta del Este

So, it is officially summer here! Yup, the 22nd of December, and it certainly doesn't feel like the holiday season. In fact, we just returned from a relaxing weekend at the beach in Punta del Este, Uruguay. We took the boat over the river and then a four hour bus ride to get there, but it was well worth it. The beaches are gorgeous, with huge waves, lots of sun and (as we went just before the tourist season) not too many people.

We were lucky we even got there at all, as we almost missed our boat (again... does any of this ring a bell from the last time we went to Uruguay??)!!! We set our alarm for 6:30 the night before, but we must have slept through it or turned it off by accident (we were up until 3 a.m. watching an incredible episode of Law and Order). Thank God Tova woke up at 7:15!!! We rushed to finish packing (Alice only forgot two things!!!) and got to the boat just in time.

We stayed in a really nice hostel in Punta del Este, which was just pure luck considering we booked it about 3 days before through the internet, and it was pretty much the first hostel that came up with Google. It was 2 minute walk from the beach and had an amazing view!!! To save money, we stayed in a six-person dorm. It actually worked out really well, as we met a lot of people (who luckily were not creepy or weird or thieves...). The first two nights we roomed with four girls from Ireland who are making a trip around the world. They were really friendly and let us read their English gossip magazines.... we had no idea so much had happened in Hollywood while we were gone!!! And the last two nights we were with a Mexican guy and three people from France. One of the French ladies was kind of crazy and talked our ears off (which is hard when you just want to sleep). AND she snored like a bear!!!

The only probelms we had were:
1. The fact that Uruguay in general, but especially ultra-tourist Punta, is expensive compared with Argentina. And all the prices look even higher because the pesos are on totally different scales. For example, in Argentina, a McDonalds combo is about 7 pesos, but in Punta it was 120 pesos (but there is only one or two Canadian dollar difference between the prices)!!! And the funniest thing is the peso sign here is just a dollar sign, so it looks ridiculous to see it on the McDonalds menu... $40 for an ice cream!! Hahaha. We would have taken a picture of the menu if it wouldn't have made us look like total weirdos. But seriously some of the things they were selling there were CRAZILY priced. For eample, one store was selling a Vogue magazine for 900 pesos. That is about 50 dollars Canadian!!!!
2. On several nights, there was drag racing outside our window, which was really, really loud!!!

But the weather was amazing, we went to the beach every day and got amazing tans... don't worry, that burn on Alice's back turned into a gorgeous, dark brown tan with no tan lines!!! Hahaha. We arrived back late last night and are now just finalizing our plans for Christmas with friends. Tova's mother and brother, Veronique and Ben, are coming to Buenos Aires in just over a week, and we are awaiting their arrival with much excitement.

Merry Christmas and happy Hannukah to all at home, we can assure you that the beautiful weather here is only a small consolation for the fact that we are missing all our friends and family like crazy right now. All our love to you all.

Alice and Tova