Beneath the Southern Cross...A Family's Adventures in Uruguay: From Montevideo to Piriapolis

After 3 weeks at our Spanish school in Montevideo we headed towards the coastal town of Piriapolis. This was my children's first opportunity to glimpse rural Uruguay. The day we left was the first warm day we'd had in several weeks. The sun was shining and because it's the beginning of spring, the trees were leafing out and there were flowers everywhere.

The bus ride was quite comfortable. Uruguay has an excellent public transportation system. The 7 of us (with a total of 12 pieces of luggage) were able to ride 103 kilometers on a clean, almost fancy bus with air-conditioning and reclining seats for under $700 pesos (approx. $30 U.S.). And these buses will take you almost anywhere you need to go in this country.

We were met at the bus station by Santino and Claudio. Santino and his wife Dot live in Piriapolis. Andrew and I met them by chance when we visited Uruguay in March. We were eating lunch at a restaurant in Montevideo and heard a woman speaking English. I immediately made a beeline for her and introduced myself. It was quite a providential meeting. They are a wonderful couple with hearts of gold and have been very generous and helpful to us. We were brought to our rental house and discovered much to our delight, that it has a great view of the ocean below. After 3 weeks in the city, everyone was overjoyed to be somewhere with a slower pace of life. The house is only 3 blocks from the beach and 5 blocks to the store. We unloaded and headed to the beach and rambla with Dot and Santino.

On Sunday we headed up the coast to Punta del Este and then up the Atlantic coast as far as San Ignacio. It was a great day with beautiful weather. I've posted lots of photos of the day. We plan to stay here a few weeks until Andrew arrives for a 2 week visit.