We both loved staying in Montevideo as the Uruguayan people all seem very polite, relaxed, unruffled  and calm, but when we arrived at the hotel that we stayed in on our outward bound leg, unfortunately for the first time we experience very untypical  traits from a unfamiliar staff member who we did not recognize from our last visit. Although we had booked online for our room for 3 nights that morning, and it had been confirmed, we were told by a very officious, agitated, front desk individual that, because it was a Friday evening and the reservations office was now closed they may not have a room for us! Chris being on the ball pointed to his ipad which showed the booking confirmation but this did not seem to appease this man. We were made to wait so he could check for availability of rooms, and although we were both totally exhausted, we waited and waited and waited patiently. Chris was told to email the confirmation to the hotel, and checks of this and that went on for some time, and then he reprimanded Chris for not sending the confirmation to the right address, despite it being the one that he had written on a piece of paper. I have not often felt an instant dislike to many people but with this man I did. His condescending tone of voice and his lack of eye contact grated on me. When we were finally given our keys and walking to our room, I was ready to make huge note in the “we loved to hear from you, comments card” in our room!!! My suggestion to improve the quality of the hotel, I thought was to fire this guy! I have no idea why this man upset me so much, but I know that tiredness can have a powerful effect on one’s mood. I have witnessed it first hand at work with some passengers on long-haul flights. They board behaving charming and polite but after an 8 hour plus flight, they can become rude, discourteous and offensive. Just as children "throw their toys out of their prams" when they are agitated, frustrated or tired,(this I think is an English expression) I was really ready to bop this guy with my teddy bear!! I don’t remember un-dressing or getting into bed so I assume I must have fallen sleep asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next morning was brilliant sunshine, so we headed off to Poscito’s beach, where there is much people watching to be done, and I was able to chilled out listening to “old school’ tunes on my iPod. I was not really impressed with Chris’s foolhardiness of not listening to my suggestion of keeping his cut dry, because within minutes he was diving in head first and telling me not to fuss.  I couldn’t really blame him for ignoring my “nagging” as it was about 100 degrees!!! We spent all day at the beach, enjoying the sun, swimming and marveling at how so many Uruguayan people love their Mat'e. We saw many different people on the beach, and no matter if they are young or old they were carrying their Mat'e cups and flask of hot water. We saw cool biker dudes, old grandmothers, sexy thong chicks, and total families with their Mat'e gear. Some had special Mat'e leather carrying bags. And no matter whom we watched they all had the same ritual; they added the tea to the cup stirring in the hot water, let it sit for a while so the tea could brew, a small stir and then slow sipping until a slurping sound is heard.
We planned for our first night back in Montevideo to return to the local resturant up the hill that we both enjoyed on our outward bound sector of this trip. So we headed up to savour their lovely lamb, but as we neared the entrance we realized the doors were shut, the front dining room was dark, and no one was around, because it was closed. We had not expected this, but because we were so hungry we decided to go for the easy option, a resturant a couple of doors down, which turned out to be magnificent! The décor inside this resturant looked like a rain forest, with huge tropical plants and lush blossoming trees. The food was also incredible!!!
The next day became the normal drama day(it seems that there is always one ).We could not get our money from the ATM machines and although we had informed the bank before we left that we were going to be traveling for three months and where we were going they have kept blocking our money and stopping it from being dispense to us.One bank person told Chris it was for his own protection that they stopped him from taking out money from his own account(go figure!) We had for some unknown reason been unable to pay for fuel in local currencies or credit cards as they prefer dollars.So we have had to use USA dollars from our money funds and it was starting to be depleted. Chris called on a good loyal old friend of ours to wire us some emergency money (in which we will pay back on our return to the USA) so we could have peace of mind of not running out of cash. Thankful our nice friend kindly obliged, so we had that huge stress off our minds. But the whole process was long winded and mindless in which both parties was asked stupid questions, had to give irrelevant details, and prove everything near close to one’s blood type!! Chris went to the bank to collect the money and we spent all day again relaxing at the beach. It was so hot that I was actually getting too much sun and I felt a bit dizzy and sick, like I had a little sun stroke. I staggered back to the hotel and laid down in our cool air conditioned room, I drank as much cold water to rehydrate myself, and after a while I felt better. I knew I was alright and getting back to my usual self, when my mind was returning to where and what I wanted to eat for dinner!!! 
So our last night, we readied ourselves for dinner, but out of nowhere here was a loud thud against the window. We both jumped out of our skins and Chris said it was probably a poor bird which had flown into the window and had stunned itself. Horrified that it might be hurt I ran to the window only to see something which I could not quite make out. Outside our window was white stuff falling, it took a minute or so to realize that there was balls of snow was falling out of the sky!!How could it be snowing now and still be hot nearly 90 degrees? I had just been suffering from heat stroke!!We looked out of our window with our eyes bulging like we were trying to make sense of what we were seeing; we hardly said a word to each other until we heard another huge bang against our window and the snow had now turned to hail! I watched in awe as the wind suddenly picked up, the trees started whipping around and the leaves and anything not solid or held down bounced and swirled around the street! It was like something out of one of those corny horror /drama films when the sky suddenly goes dark, the weather picks up and whistles, just before the baddie comes into town.
Chris had a total melt down and began freaking out, he started shouting at me for not caring about our poor plane (old Blue Jay) and frantically called the airport because our plane was not chocked or tied. He insisted on us going to the airport to try and secure the plane and became inconsolable when I tried to calm him down. The main problem was when he called the airport no one could speak English so they kept putting the phone down on him, but after a while he got through to someone in operations who said he would get someone to check on our plane. Meanwhile we tried to get a cab from our hotel but of course many other people were also trying to do the same thing, as it was dinner time and people were going out to restaurants. A front desk staff member called us a cab and said it may be 20-30 minutes which seemed like a lifetime watching Chris stomping around, going to pieces, and repeatedly ranting about “old Blue Jay “flipping over” While we waited Chris made several more phones calls to the tower, he found out that the wind was dissipating and had gone from 50knots of wind to 20. People kept stealing “our cab” because as Chris paced up and down in the lobby speaking on his cell phone frantically, by the time I dragged him out they jumped ahead of the line!! The final call to the tower seemed to placate Chris as the wind had now dropped from 20 knots to 7.
We returned from the lobby back up our room and after a harrowing couple of hours but we had still not eaten. We decide to still go our favorite resturant with the outstanding lamb; we chatted to the friendly staff and shared with them our story and our mission for our flight. Although less anxious we still kept an eye looking out of the window checking the weather, noticing that the wind was almost calm and the rain had also died down. We returned to our room totally stuffed, but both less unnerved about “old Blue Jay” being flipped over by the wind and praying it would be in one piece in the morning.
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really weak; I staggered around all night feeling sick, dizzy and generally rotten and sorry for myself. In the morning I still felt dreadful and knew I must have the same type of tummy flu that Chris had in Tigre as the symptoms were the same. I was tempted to stay in bed and curl up in a ball but I knew we had to forge on to Porto de Alegre our first port of customs and immigration for Brazil.






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