Colonia, again.

It´s the perfect spot for older travelers with an eye for cobblestone streets and colonial style architecture, and at an hour´s boat ride from Buenos Aires, it´s one of the better standard day trips here.  Plus, why not give the lady another stamp for her passport?

A gorgeous day in Colonia, Uruguay

The only noteworthily bad thing about this excursion was a dune buggy rental gone wrong.  We were warned not to take the dune buggy onto the beaches, and complied.  But the parking lots are all dirt, and I drove through one, apparently sending some of the mud up into the wheel wells.  It didn´t seem like much to me, and given time, I could´ve just wiped it off.

¨I say no beaches!¨ the man barks at me.  ¨This mud here, now I must clean.  One hour time.  My hour.  FIFTY dollars!  Is my time!  One hour my time!¨

¨Dude, are you kidding me?  I´ll go wipe it off now and be back in five minutes!¨

¨No!  You, I cannot trust now.  How can I trust you, with mud?  I cannot.  I must go.  One hour.  My time, so valuable.  Fifty dollars!¨

It´s a scam.  I get him down to twenty-five, and it´s the worst I´ve ever felt after semi-successfully haggling.  The buggy was mildly fun to have for the afternoon, but I don´t recommend dealing with rental douchebaggery to anyone else.

Other than that, this entry´s not even that pic-heavy.

My mom in our hostel. This was my mother´s first hostel experience, and a mostly good one. It was a little hard getting adjusted to sharing a bathroom and not getting towels and other hotel amenities with the room, but it was quiet, nice, clean and cheap.

My muddy dune buggy. Note dashing pirate figure in background.

Clarico! A sangria-like punch popular in Uruguay that should be popular all around the world. Literally just white wine, an assortment of fruit and sugar.

In terms of character, ambiance and food selection, my mother prefered the two restaurants we ate at in Uruguay to nearly everywhere else. A live jazz band played this night and we stayed until the end, when my mother purchased their CD. No word yet on how good it was...