From Laid Back to Ladyboys

Hello and welcome to the next instalment of my blog. I am currently recovering from a rather large night out in Buenos Aires.

It was a great night out, but very unusual. I had drinks with people at the hostel before we decided to head out to a club night called Studio 69 at Roxy. This was where it got unusual; as you walk in the door your eyes are drawn to the huge stage in the centre where at first it appears there are men and women dancing in costumes. The club has a very bohemian atmosphere and a Moulin Rouge theme to it, which is all fine and not to out of the ordinary. However, it is upon approaching the stage that you begin to notice something, it is not scantilly clad men and women dancing on the stage, but men and ladyboys. What makes this all the more out of the ordinary, is the fact that this is not some tourist attraction like in somewhere like Thailand, or a gay night, it is one of the most popular nights in Buenos Aires for all young people and it was a great laugh.

Anyway ladyboys aside, since my last post I have not really taken part in much strenuos activity, in fact I have been taking it very easy. After spending a couple of nights in Montevideo, which was pleasant but very sleepy, I decided to head to Punta Del Diablo (The Devil`s Beach). I had been attracted by rumours of endless sandy beaches, great surf, great food and no tourists. All of this was true except for the 'no tourists' tag. Punta Del Diablo used to be a sleepy fishing village only a couple of years ago, however off the back of its reputation as such it has attracted many tourists. Where it used to be a fishing village with a few places to stay, it is now a tourist destination with a few boats. However it is certainly not overrun. There is only one hostel in the town with about 20 beds or so and this is where most of the international backpackers go to, the rest of the tourists are in fact Argentine or Uruguayan`s on holiday staying in one of the many cottages for rent.

I loved it and can see why it attracts so many visitors from it`s own and neighbouring countries. It has an amazing charm about it, largely as a result of it´s rugged looks. All the streets are dirt roads and it is based on a point on the coast surrounded by 4 beaches. Because of this at least one beach will always have pretty good surfing conditions, which I took advantage of, or at least attempted to. It is safe to say I am not the best surfer. To be honest this is probably partly due to the fact that aside from 2 months in Australia 4 years ago and a handful of other occassions I have never really surfed. The result was that I had good fun, got up a few times, but in the end had to give up because I had the biggest wipe out i´ve ever had when a wave i was on collapsed on me.

I ended up spending the bulk of my time in Uruguay there, unfortunately I accidentally deleted the photos on my camera, so you`ll have to deal with photos off the internet.

I then headed to Colonia, which came highly reccomended but I can´t see why. Don´t get me wrong it has a nice enough centre, but there is nothing to do there and I would have felt that it was a waste of time and money if I hadn´t had to take the ferry to Buenos Aires from there anyway.

In conclusion, I loved Uruguay. It was my favourite place on the trip so far. It is spectacularly laid back and that is part of its charm, however the result was that at times I got a little bored and for the first time felt that I could have done with a travel buddy to chat with (it didn´t help that nowhere sold English language books). I get the impression that Uruguay is a good addition to a trip to Argentina as opposed to a trip in its own right.

Speak to you all soon

Phil