Macs with Packs: Meeting Courtney in Uruguay

It was only a 3-hour hop, skip and jump from Easter Island to Santiago in Chile. To my disappointment, Santiago wasn't particularly interesting, though it was hard to get a balanced picture in such a short time there. It was also fairly cool but we expected that.

We had a fun first night. We arrived quite late but our body clocks were telling us it was dinner time so we found what looked like a classy little eatery near us. It turned out to be a pizza joint though so we ate pizza and John drank the enormous beers they had. It was fun.

We stayed in an apartment and our first night was terrible. People in nearby apartments talked outside on their balconies and played music until well after 4am.

The city was grey and drab but wasn't unfriendly. The buildings were generally boring and dirty but on one street we suddenly found a few very old buildings. This one was dripping with wintery vines.

There weren't a lot of big name sites so we just wandered around the city. There were a few beggars around, like you'd find in any big city. We walked up to a church and I was looking at the church as we walked past an older man begging. He must have decided that he needed to draw my attention to him because he hit me! It wasn't all that hard, but was bizarre.

On a lighter side, we later saw a policeman holding two police horses. A lady got him to take a photo of her while she held the horses. That wouldn't happen at home!

Being a wine lover. John was pleased to learn about a great wine bar nearby that specialised in Chilean wines, something we haven't drank much of. We had a sensational meal and wonderful wines. Each wine was described to us and came labelled. It was a great night.

After having such terrible internet for so long we were also very excited to discover the great wifi here. The hot chocolates were awesome too!

We then flew on to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, where we would be meeting Courtney. Courtney lives in Buenos Aires in Argentina but it's only a few hours from BA to Montevideo and we were meeting here to catch up with Daniel. I'll explain about Daniel later.

The flight over the Andes was sensational! The weather gods were kind to us giving us a clear view of the stunning range.

We landed in Uruguay and quickly learned about Uruguayans' obsession with smoking when the car that picked us up from the airport stunk of cigarettes. We checked into our room to find it smelled of cigarettes too! Luckily we were able to change rooms the next day.

The next day was the big day - Courtney arrived! We hadn't seen her for seven months and it has been wonderful catching up on all her news. She's now teaching English online in Buenos Aires and is really enjoying life there. Having her passport and credit cards stolen recently has been a real pain for her though.

We found a bar for a pre-dinner drink. Check out the amount of wine in my glass!

We went to the local Irish pub as it was supposed to have live music every night. The atmosphere was good (although there wasn't an Irishman in sight!) so we decided to wait for the band which was supposed to start at 10pm. It started at 10.45 and was fantastic! They played a lot of 70's and 80's rock. The three of us danced but Courtney left after a while. Most of her work is in the mornings so it was well past her bedtime. John and I stayed on til stumps and staggered home at 1.30. It was a great night!

When Courtney first arrived in South America over a year ago, she was really well looked after by Daniel, a wine guy that was a business acquaintance of John's. John barely knew Daniel at the time but Daniel took Courtney under his wing and made sure his sons, all around Courtney's age, looked after her as well. The sons took her out and she loved her time with them. We thought it was our turn to buy Daniel lunch to show our appreciation but Daniel had other plans.

We ubered to Daniel's winery and he showed us around. It was a lovely, small winery with lots of history. We were shown the family's private wine collection. There were racks and racks of dusty, interesting-looking bottles. We were then taken to a dining room filled with old wine bottles, vintage family photos and old maps. It was a cold, windy, rainy day and a man worked over a humongous fire at the end of the room. He was cooking our lunch!

The walls were lined with old bottles and lots of bits and pieces. It was all so fascinaing.

Daniel's export guy, Nico, joined us and we tasted our way through many of their wonderful, unique wines. We ate food that had been roasted in that huge fire, plus salads picked from the garden plus local cheeses. It was an amazing meal. Thank you Daniel!

The weather was better the next day. We were able to admire the green countryside as we travelled by bus to the UNESCO world heritage town of Colonia. It was only a few hours by bus but Colonia was a world away from the hussle and bustle of Montevideo. It was wonderful!

Our first afternoon was a day to remember. It started with a quick karate spar on the deck of our accommodation.

It turned very cold but we were like three kids, mucking around in the trees, climbing up walls and taking silly photos.

We wandered the cobblestones streets admiring the beautiful old buildings. Some were fully restored, some were kind of old and some were really old but they were all stunning. These old coloured walls were my favourite.

Courtney used a filter on her phone camera and came up with some gorgeous photos.

Along with many of the other tourists here, we watched the sun set. It was so cold that we huddled together and made a mum sandwich :)

A surprising thing about Uruguay is that marajuana is legal. You can buy it in shops. We often smelled it as we walked around.

The next day we just wandered around, enjoying the atmosphere. We've seen a lot of graffiti in Uruguay and here was no exception. There was some very cool artwork though!

The historic theme in this town even carries through to the cars. You can rent brand new electric cars that look like old fashioned cars! There are also quite a few of the more genuine antiques.