Despite our budget vacation, we find ourselves in super deluxe $60 seats of the Buquebus ferry, with neither peanuts nor beverage, speeding across Rio de la Plata from Argentina to Uruguay. Plata means Silver, Argentina is more expensive than California, and we are spending $200 for a 2-hour ferry ride, so that we can spend 2 days driving along the coast of Uruguay and into Brazil. We would have driven the extra 400 km and entered Uruguay by land had the parking lot security guard not convinced us otherwise. "Look, how much will gas cost you?," he questions although he already knows the answer, "at least $50. This IS Argentina. Now, add on the toll roads. Oh yes, lots of them. $30. And you are adding an extra 400 km to your trip. You have to eat, so add on the cost of food. Your at least at $100, AND, it is raining. I think today the ferry is for you." He convinced us.
The catamaran careens across the water at 70kmh, in the rain. A quick walk to the bathroom looks more like the stroll home after drinking a few too many beers. It has rained 4 days in Buenos Aires, and it is no surprise that, it is also raining when we arrive in Montevideo. "It is a smaller version of Buenos Aires with nicer people," the Uruguayan capital had been described to us. We see a couple of beautiful buildings as we scurry from ferry terminal, to money change office, to restaurant to hotel. We wait out the rain for the afternoon, but by the night, the cute colonial hotel room is too small, and we have to get out, rain or not.
CASINO
This is the thing to do on a rainy night. I forgot the rain when the dealer placed an Ace next to my Jack on the second hand. Winning at Blackjack is diving into the surreal world where things begin to feel good, warm, inviting. Logic blends with feeling, and even though statistics say I should stay when the dealer has a 4, I take a hit and win. This is pretty good. Enric is happy. Hey, I am really good! Each win I keep handing to Enric, to regulate the madness that I feel. The security guard watches, gives me that knowing smile - does she think I am counting cards? My luck is so good! It was a good half hour before that loss came, then another, and we made a mad break for the cashier! It may have been raining in Montevideo, but we were $120 richer.
All of this luck, and the next day, it was STILL raining. We stop for coffee in Punta del Este and there is a woman staring at the stickers on the side panniers. She is telling her husband that he too should by a BMW. Where is the owner of the bike? She looks up to where Enric is standing in the café and moves in his direction.
This is how we came to know Mary and Manfred, and came to know Punta del Este and learn that this is the Monte Carlo of South America, that it is the place for the rich people from Buenos Aires, that they are the ones that fuel the economy of tiny Switzerland-sized country. Punta del Este is the place of film festivals and fashion shows and the place where rich ladies from Buenos Aires leave there husbands to work so that they can meet their same friends here and eat salads at expensive beach side cafes. We stayed with Mary and Manfred just off of the tourist season, which was probably a good thing, since for the first time on this trip we are feeling, underdressed. "Time to change yourselves into something nicer so that we can go out to dinner," Manfred joked.
With them, we learned more about Argentina too - how during WWII, they sold their grains to both the Allies and the Nazis and became a very rich country. And like any new and rich person, the Argentines lived rich and big until they ran out of money and into all of their current economic problems that fuel their daily complaints. Mary also showed us which country's architect designed which high rise apartment building. The colorful zany one was designed by a Brazilian. This is a bit of foreshadowing for our adventure to come.
Warm and out of the wind, we relaxed, showered, dined, talked and slept well in Mary and Manfred's apartment. The next day we stretched back into our galoshes and gortex and once we looked like colorful penguins, headed out into the elements. Uruguay blurred quickly into a 48-hour memory.
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