Uruguay

So right before I left for Uruguay several minor tragedies had befallen me. The first is when I found out that I would not be able change the departure city on my airline ticket. I really wanted to extend my trip and head north into Brazil, but the evils that be at cheaptickets.com would not let this happen. This bummed me out a bit, for I really don't want this trip to end, I feel like I'm just getting my feet wet, and now its time to dry them off. The second issue happened with my camera, or my zoom lens to be exact. Something got stuck in the lens, and it is not able to zoom in or out. This really bummed me out, but the fact that it still was able to take pictures was good enough for me. I only have two weeks left, and I will get it fixed when I get back to the states.

I once heard that nothing soothes a troubled soul than the sweet people of Uruguay. (ok I never really heard that, but it makes a good segway). So off I was on a 2 hour ferry ride across the river to the small town of Colonia. The main attraction here is the old Spanish ruins in the part of the city called old town. Situated at the mouth of the river, Colonia was a main port for the Spanish in the 1600-1700's. Although not very large, its cobbelstone streets and old ruins had a nice charm to it. If fetl a bit turisty with all of the people scattered about taking snapshots though. And after a day, it was time for me to move on.

A two hour bus ride later and I was on to the city of Montevideo, which is the capital of Urugauy. All in all it's a fairly nice city. It has a section called old town as well where the old architecture resides, and the people are predominately friendly. However I had just came from the uber metropolis of Buenos Aires, and Montevideo just can't stack up. Its like visiting Chicago, and then going to Indianapolis. Its nice enough, but in comparison, it lacks.

Kip vs the Chivito

Since being in Uruguay for the last few days I kept seeing a food on the menu called a Chivito. I had no clue what it was, but since I saw it so often, I decided before I leave tomarrow I better give one a try. There were mutliple kinds, and not being able to read the ingredients, I asked the waiter to recomend a classic, which he did.

Now I've ate a good number of sandwiches in my day; I've wrangled huge Chicago beef sandwiches, taken down Gyros galore, and made quite a few sub sandwiches my bitch. But never before have I encountered a combination such as a Chivito. The sandwich is made up of two large toasted pitas and in the middle: flank steak (or something similar) lettuce, sliced hard boiled eggs, peppers, fried ham, cheese and olives. The first couple of bites tasted good enough, but half way through I knew I had met my match. As I waddled out of the restraunt, unable to eat the whole thing, I hung my head low, defeated. The Chivito had beaten me, and I felt sick the entire way back to the hostel.