Travel Throwback 1- Uruguay
On our beautiful cruise journey around the Atlantic Ocean we Stopped at this amazing South American country of Uruguay.
As the huge Celebrity Infinity docked itself, owing to the recent buzz about the country making marijuana legal, the cruise officials were all the more careful in letting the passengers know about the adverse actions that could be taken if anyone was found carrying .
We started walking around the port just to discover it was too hot and then took a feeder bus to the city center. It was this huge empty space with a few monuments one of them being an underground museum and surrounded by swanky bank buildings and PWC offices.
We straight away went to a leather house and made friends with a fellow Uruguayan. In a quest to know more about the place we started asking him questions which took us by surprise. The people there have two hours lunch break and they only work till 5. Isn't that AWEMAZING!!
Also every year they have community days when everyone gathers in that Huge square of the city center and any guesses what they do? Well just smoke up and get high. Yes thats what they do, and to everyones surprise, there is no abuse, no fights, no unruliness just peaceful people enjoying themselves.
After knowing some shocking facts from our new friend my husband wanted to quench his fetish for the local drink which in this case was Grappa.
But unfortunately enough we did not have a single Uruguayan Peso and only carried dollars as most of the SouthAmerican countries accept dollars. We walked miles in search for a Grappa bottle but only found them in cute glasses in several restaurants who dont accept dollars.
Tired of looking for currency exchange, we finally went back to our new friend in the leather store and asked where can we get some Pesos, and he points right in the opposite direction of the road and says, "there you go, the Casino" . Desperate to get our Grappa Bottle we started walking towards it but a sweet guy from a souvenir store called out to us, we walked into his store and the first thing we found is small cute bottle of Grappa with Uruguyan flag on it. He even gave me a free shot and it was yummm! and hurrayyy he even accepted dollars.
During the walk around the city we also found really interesting Coca Cola branding all over the flee market and restaurant areas. Right from coca cola umbrellas to benches, to really old looking rusted coke bottles and tins and boxes, we also found really interesting old working radio sets which are around 60 years old.
We also made friends with a guy who was selling hand made bottles which can be used as a smoking pipe. Next to these items was a magazine in which he had appeared as one of the first legal farmers of Marijuana.
The calm , slow yet content life of the people in this town is something that really attracted me.
Oh yes! do not forget to get one of those old car number places when you go. Thats a mus