Rising up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
Rising up, straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not going to stop
Just a man and his will to survive
It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger
Thursday, 14NOV13
We took Buquebus over to Uruguay. The water is very brown. On the boat, I met separately two architects, one from Switzerland and one from Vancouver. I of course talked about Forge and got their contact info for Greg.
I went to a bank machine when I got to Colonia, Uruguay. I managed to get out about $50CDN in Uruguay pesos, and then it said the account had no more money. Greg is in Jamaica, and cannot put money in the account until after he gets home. I decided to cancel the side trip to Montevideo, I have heard it it not that great, and that Salto is really great with the hot springs water park. It basically took all of my cash to get the tickets to Salto. I will have to stay a few days in Salto, and get Greg to Western Union me some money or something. Hopefully I can find a place to stay that takes Visa.
We found a place for lunch that took Visa, and had thinly sliced steak and salad and rice for lunch. It was ok, and not too expensive. At least we are heading off on our 6 hour bus ride to Salto, with a good meal.
The scenery didn’t really change for the whole bus ride. Fields of cows, sheep and horses and corn or other grains, that are similar to Southern Ontario. (Except for the occasional palm tree.)
I will not have to force Aodhan to shower or bathe in Salto, he has agreed that he wants to go to the water park and swim all day. We will see if that pans out:)
We got in very late to Salto, and I spent some time in the bus terminal booking a hotel - I am not on top of this one this time - I think the sore knee is taking it’s toll, but it seems to be improving. I took a Visa advance from the bank machine, and we took a taxi out to the hotel, because the buses don’t run that late, It is not cheap around here, because it is a big tourist area especially for the locals. The hotel I booked was about $50, and included a big buffet breakfast, which was lovely, but problematic because I had to tell Aodhan we couldn’t have it because it was very expensive. Luckily he still doesn’t understand Spanish. He is getting better though, I told the guy “sin pan” and he looked at me and said defiantly “I can have bread, I can have all the bread I want” So he is starting to listen and understand more.
15NOV13 - Salto
The hotel was lovely and cooked Aodhan some plain rice for breakfast. I gave him some sliced meats and fruit and juice and the rice. We will see if he eats.
In the morning the rain was coming down like a coastal tropical storm. We are not near the coast though.
I have to figure things out, because there is the big water park, but that is about all. I want to take the ferry across to Concordia, but I don’t want my luggage with me all day, and of course, Aodhan does. I wish it was a rational human being, the decisions are so muchmore difficult this way. I am not sure I will be able to stay in this hotel tonight, it is fully reserved, but maybe the rain will keep someone from coming. Maybe it would be better to go downtown and get a hotel there and go to the water park out the other way. So many decisions. I don’t want to go out in the rain, because I don’t want to get out the raincoats. Aodhan will never give his back - it will be a nightmare.
I picked out a really nice hotel in the centre of Salto, Uruguay. It was lovely. I told Aodhan he could go swimming instead of having a shower. He got aggressive and angry and belligerent. He said no, and no shower either. He smelled badly like urine. I persisted, and had to fight my way into the bathroom in the pool area. After that, he did get changed, and went in the pool for about 30 seconds. He said that was enough. I gave up. We are going to a water park tomorrow, and he is excited about that. I managed to unload some of the crap out of his backpack, but when he came out of the bathroom, he imagined there was a paper missing and accosted the cleaning trolly to find it. He found a paper and I was able to subdue him. Security came to find out if the terrified cleaning lady needed help. By the time we got back to our hotel room, his pants were damp and he stank with a heavy scent of urine again.
We went back to the bus terminal to book tickets for Iguazu. They gave me directions to the shopping centre. On the street, I asked several people, and they all gave me different directions. The entire town in about 16 square blocks. Nobody seems to know where anything other than the shopping centre (el chopping) is. The bus terminal is part of the “Chopping” though, so we finally found it. We found out that we cannot book tickets from here, we have to go to Concordia to do that. So, we will have to wait until Saturday evening when we arrive in Concordia, and we may have to stay in Concordia overnight. We can’t even book tickets for the launch over to Concordia until tomorrow. We went back to the hotel and had a really great steak dinner.
Crossing the river between Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia, Uruguay
Lunch in Colonia before heading off to Salto. Steak of course.
The road to Salto. Lots of Cattle farming of course.
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