Tag: Uruguay

Day 8 (71):

Bus to Piriapolis	245
Hostel de los Colores (3 nights)	12.60 + 71.40 USD
Groceries	503
More Groceries	87
Beach Umbrella	100
Total:	110.56 USD (RMB 763)

On the way to the Tres Cruces bus terminal in Montevideo, a wheel of my rolling duffel popped off. I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or delighted that it lasted a full 10 weeks before breaking. I need to go harass American Tourister to see what they can offer me. Luckily, Piriapolis is a tiny beach town where the hostel was only a block from the terminal and two blocks from the beach. It was a nice hostel, though a bit pricey.

Day 9 (72):

Groceries	92
Superglue	180
One artisanal beer	200
Total:	472 UYU (13.41 USD) (RMB 92.55)

Having received good news about getting compensation for my delayed luggage, I decided to splurge on one beer at the bar operating in the front of the hostel (otherwise, I had still been sipping on leftover martinis). Leftovers beget more leftovers, and I was awash in rice and hot dogs for a few days.

Day 10 (73):

Snacks (including beers)	439
Total:	439 UYU (12.47 USD) (RMB 86.1)

After hiking Sugar Loaf Peak in the morning and spending the afternoon lounging on the beach with a group of women (from whom I was provided with beers and snacks), I made sure to hit up the grocery store in the evening to make things up to them. Of course, they all disappeared and I’m left indebted.

Day 11 (74):

Bus to Punta del Este	156
Taxi to Hostel	280
Hostel Rocamar Boutique (3 nights)	9 + 49.33 USD
Water (2.25 L)	75
Chicken and bread	199
Vegetables	195
Cocktail Happy Hour at Hostel (incl tip)	220
Bus to overnight party	60
Shots of gin	900
Total:	117.56 USD (RMB 811.3)

What an insanely long day! I woke up super early and jogged in the morning in Piriapolis, going by the one night club which was still packed with people at 7:30 in the morning. At midday, I checked out and carried my duffel bag to the terminal for a fairly short bus ride to Punta del Este — the hippest beach town in Uruguay. I couldn’t imagine walking the nearly 3 km to the hostel, but I never imagined how expensive the taxi would be. It was a nice hostel, full of friendly volunteers and I spent the afternoon on the beach with a group of them. Then a long walk to the grocery store/vegetable stand to buy ingredients to whip together a curry. The hostel bar offered a 2-for-1 happy hour on Caipi(rhina)s, which was a pretty decent deal. At 1:30 in the morning, I headed with a new friend to a cervezaria downtown, where her friends who worked their hooked us up with free beer while they were closing for the night. Then three of us took a 45-minute bus ride out to another town where there was a party. I bought the first round of shots (300 pesos per shot), but was supplied with alcohol through sunrise.

Day 12 (75):

Bus back	210
Cocktail	200
Total:	410 UYU (11.65 USD) (RMB 80.4)

For the way back, I forked over 200 pesos as my share of the Uber, but no Ubers were available, and a bus ended up coming around. I didn’t ask for the 200 pesos back because I was still coming out ahead. For example, that night, she ordered a pizza + liter of beer at the hostel bar and I had more than my fair share of it. Before then, I had managed to take advantage of the happy hour once again, but this time scoring one caipi and one mojito.

Day 13 (76)

Cocktails	400
Total:	400 UYU (11.36 USD) (RMB 78.4)

Just listing expenses provides a very skewed perspective of my days, haha. After a morning run, I was grinding coffee while people were breakfasting and I was gifted a small bag of Colombian coffee beans from a woman who had beans but no way to make coffee. I spent two hours on the beach, rested back in the hostel, went out with a group of newcomers to the hostel to what I thought was the beach, but turned out to be a tour of the old town on almost literally the same route as my morning run. We enjoyed the sunset over the harbor, but rushed back in order to avail ourselves of the happy hour where I went all in on two orders. There was a lot of turnover that day in the hostel with many people leaving and a new wave of guests coming in, and I worked my social magic to bring people together into an impromptu party, earning a new epithet–“Amazing Hostel Man.”

Day 14 (77):

Uber to Terminal	6.29 USD
Bus to Punta del Diablo	467 (12.52 USD)
Lemonade & Cookies	161
Hostel Ariana deposit	5.40 USD
Punta del Diablo Hostel (3 nights)	39 USD
Groceries (pasta and wine)	412
Total:	79.49 USD (RMB 548.6)

Unfortunately, the timing of my bus didn’t correspond to anyone else leaving the hostel, so I had to take an Uber by myself, which involved actually setting up an Uber account, a rather Sisyphean task given the fact that Uber assumes I am Chinese because my phone system settings are Chinese and would not accept an Argentinian phone number in Uruguay (!) Tech localization goes way too far and completely overlooks the needs of multilingual global nomads. Anyways, it was a several hour journey to Punta del Diablo and a sweaty walk to the hostel, which turned out to be abandoned. After waiting around on the chance that someone would show up so I could check in, I decided to go to a different hostel. I’m still waiting for Hostelworld to refund the deposit for the non-existent hostel (They email me every couple days saying they are waiting to hear back from the hostel management — which doesn’t exist).

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Uruguay (14 days)

Running Total: 627.73 USD (RMB 4332.1)
Daily Average: 44.84 USD (RMB 309.44)

South America (77 days)

Running Total: 2167.57 USD (RMB 14958.83)
Daily Average: 28.15 USD (RMB 194.27)

Uruguay is a lot like Argentina, but much smaller, less populated, and more expensive. The prices of restaurants and supermarkets look reasonable until you realize that the Uruguayan peso is a lot stronger than the Argentinian peso and suddenly everything is twice as expensive as in Argentina. As nice as the beaches are and as fun as the holiday party vibe with tens of thousands of Brazilians and Argentinians taking their “overseas” vacations in Uruguay, I can’t wait to go back to Argentina.

Day 1 (64):

Mobile credit	403 ARS
Ferry to Colonia	2364 ARS (39.66 USD)
Celestino Hostel (2 nights)	20 + 4.16 USD
Groceries	312 UYU
Total:	USD 79.33 (RMB 552.48)

It was not as easy as I thought it would be to get Uruguayan pesos fresh off the boat. Luckily, I had a bit of USD in cash to float me for the first couple of days. Strangely, the USD-UYU exchange rate was much “better” when I booked the hostels so I think I am locked in at a 38:1 rate though the “real” rate is closer to 36:1.

Day 2 (65):

2.25 Liters of Water	42 UYU
Total:	42 UYU (USD 1.17) (RMB 8.15)

I cooked enough food (pasta with a simple homemade sauce) the first night to last me a couple of days, and only needed a bit of water when I headed to the beaches of Colonia del Sacramento in the afternoon.

Day 3 (66):

Bus ticket to Montevideo	424 UYU (11.36 USD)
Ukulele Hostel (5 nights)	2817 UYU (75.45 USD)+ 12.75
Disco (groceries)	526
Tomato puree	34
Total:	3801 UYU (USD 115.15) (RMB 801.9)

Moved to Montevideo and am learning to pull out the credit card since I am going to be cash poor in Uruguay. I really wish I had hit up a grocery store in Buenos Aires before going to the ferry because even the basic necessities of cooking are almost triple the price in Uruguay and it is going to be hard to get by without salt. And for some odd reason, the big city is more expensive to buy basics than the small tourist town. The shakshuka I made would last 5-6 meals, so I guess the unit price isn’t so bad.

Day 4 (67):

Chewing gum	23
Free walking tour tip	100
Marijuana	150
Movie tickets to Star Wars (2)	660 (17.68)
Burger King	200
Total:	1133 UYU (30.86 USD) (RMB 214.9)

I squeezed in a bit of tourism before everything would shut down for the New Year’s holiday. Marijuana is legal in Uruguay, though only citizens are allowed to register to purchase it in pharmacies. I took a friend to see Star Wars and apparently Burger King was the best option for a bite to eat before the movie started.

Day 5 (68):

Coffee Beans	201
Potatoes	48
Italian Christmas fruitcake and apple cider	156
Cooking oil	49
Total:	454 UYU (12.90 USD) (RMB 89.8)

So, I managed to get 300 USD out of an ATM, which gave me three ancient 100 dollar bills (seriously printed in the 70s and 80s). Fortunately, when I hit up an exchange house on Monday (when they were open again), they took them without a second glance. With the ATM fees (6+2.5) the exchange rate works out to be 35.2 UYU per dollar, while so far the credit card is giving me an exchange of 37.3 and considering that restaurants and supermarkets are supposed to automatically discount the 22% VAT on transactions with foreign credit cards (though evidence suggests otherwise), the credit card is the way to go.

I gambled that Uruguay might have better coffee than Argentina. It doesn’t. Even the Starbucks is 80% more expensive for beans, but I luckily stumbled upon one of those specialty food shops where they had whole beans available in bulk.

Day 6 (69):

Booze and groceries	974.03 (*)
Ice and cider	171
Lighthouse	30
Total:	1175 UYU (USD 31.82) (RMB 221.6)

For New Year’s Eve, I decided to do martinis (possibly because I spotted a martini glass in the hostel kitchen). After talking with the handful of other guests in the hostel and realizing that no one was really clear on what to do, I just bought a steak for myself and some stuff to make Spanish rice. It ended up being a “quiet” night where I drank too much and passed out by 10pm, completely missing out on the scattered fireworks and all night dancing. The plus side is I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning, so I assume that is a bad sign for the coming year.

Day 7 (70):

No expenses. Nothing was open on New Year’s Day and I only ventured out for a jog along the waterfront. I had a giant container of rice to chow down on and pancakes of shredded potato and carrots.

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Okay, Uruguay is really expensive! Not quite Europe, but on par with South Korea.

Uruguay (7 days)

Running Total: 271.23 USD (RMB 1888.9)
Daily Average: 38.75 USD (RMB 269.8)

South America (70 days)

Running Total: 1811.07 USD (RMB 12612.8)
Daily Average: 25.87 USD (RMB 180.2)