Its Christmasssssssssssssssssssssssss!

 Well, not exactly the Christmas that we are used too! No freezing our cute  little behinds off and no Christmas trees... Poor us! However, I think stories of minus 10 degrees and the fact that we are sunning ourselves on the beach may well have made up for the lack of snow. If you take your sunglasses off on the beach, we do indeed have a white (sand) Christmas!

We are maintaining a traditional Christmas as best as we can and managed to buy one of the few turkeys available in Montevideo. We (by "we" - Harriet) considered buying the turkey a huge achievement and failed to realise that you need stuff to cook a turkey. Cue manic dashing on the 23rd to four different supermarkets. Many bus rides and sweat filled taxis later, we very sadly discovered that Uruguay does not have cranberry sauce nor sausage meat. Instead we decided to experiment and bought terrine to stuff the turkey with, and caramelised carrots- known for their sauce like quality-  instead of cranberry sauce. Pure genius! We are now both stuffed, as was the turkey earlier, and currently dying in front of the air conditioning unit which Matthew has put on full blast so we can appreciate the cold that you all going through.

We have had a pretty good day, we bought stockings and Santa being the genius that he is found us all the way in South America! Matt and I also bought some presents for one another and ended up buying each other exactly the same gift - Dulce de Leche Liqour! Turns out that we have similar taste!

Talking of Father Christmas, while at the Brugnini Family Party on Christmas Eve, the Brugnini's and I caught sight of him landing on the roof.!!!! Matt unfortunately did not see him, as he was otherwise occupied - he was very disappointed.

Christmas Eve is the big night here in Uruguay and so we went to the Brugnini family Christmas party, with four generations in one house, it was an amazingly good fun and crazy night! We had an asado and witnessed a hundred million fireworks! Not to mention getting some lovely presents from the family and celebrating 'Papa Noel's' visit ( shame Matt was the only one who missed seeing him!)

WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS, TALK SOON!!!!!! (Peace out- Matt's words, not mine!)

The Cerro

Earlier this week we ventured up Montevideo's solitary real hill, it looks insignificant from the city, but once at the top the views were awesome.

The fort on top of the hill.

Ciudad Vieja- Mercado Del Puerto

So we decided after having been in Uruguay for almost 3 weeks we should probably take some pictures of Uruguay. The city as it now is was built by Europeans a couple of hundred years ago and consequently feels like a European city -kind of- especially with the prices.

The old city - Ciudad Vieja - has some beautiful buildings, although at least half of them look like they could fall down at any moment.

Mercado del Puerto was the an old marketplace - but it is now where plump American tourists go to get more plump , we do not stereotype, this is based on empirical evidence, gained through much observation. The building is full of what can only be described as - all be it crudely - barbecues on steroids. You pull up a stool and eat cows - well that's what it feels like. Cows are yummy.

Carrasco

Matt and I have had a pretty busy week at school. Matt is doing pretty well, while my Spanish is being destroyed by gaining a Uruguayan accent and pronunciation. We are doing so "well" though that we have decided to stay on at school for another week. Matt as per usual is doing amazingly- with his natural "flair" for languages, haha!

We have had quite a busy week visiting people and friends of my family in Montevideo but have managed to find time to get out to the edge of the city to a neighbourhood called Carrasco. We spent ages walking along the Rambla to find my house and then to get into the centre of Carrasco. - Where we had a ridiculousy nice meal. num num num!

The house

Playa De Los Ingleses - The beach of the English (no joke, the name of the beach in front of the house)

As per usual, Harriet doing the "Robot"

View from the Rambla

Rundown Hotel

Hola, Como Estas? Me llamo es...

That's correct people, we have started Spanish school! Our first day at school was highly emotional, we were very nearly late and close to turning up without pens and paper due to Matt's need for a good luck ice-cream (which I (being Matt) might add, was a cleverly thought out and good plan). We managed to arrive as the bell rang, Matt with a very cool Burberry notepad (yes he was like the kid with the uncool lunch box). Matt is in a class all on his own due to his special needs. I am in a class which is very dull, half of the people speak good Spanish and the other half are mildly behind. However, I am now learning to pronounce everything like a Uruguayan and so hopefully should stop being laughed at for my Spanish Spanish.

Today was freezing by the way, in fact it was so cold that I had to put my woolly hat on! Expecting snow any day now!

 
Matt and I are adapting to life very well in Pocitos and Matt has bought trainers so that he can now run up and down the beach while I sunbathe. It's quite a nice lifestyle! We are settling into a routine already of beach, lessons, run/sunbathe, steak dinner and maybe a visit or two in between. It's a world away from backpacking, we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are not millionaires!

Montevideo - (FYI That is in Uruguay Samantha!)

Sorry for the lack of updates but Harriet and I had cleverly been working out the best place to move onto from Acuncion. After careful planning and much consideration it was decided that we would take a giant coach to Buenos Aires (22 hours long), then run to the port get on a ferry, cross the river mouth to Colonia (Uruguay) and then hop straight onto a coach to Montevideo.

Upon arriving we decided why not rent a flat for the month, and enrol in Spanish courses, cue much research and phoning and googling. And then we thought we could just settle down in our new flat and relax.

5 days after starting this we have now and only just now been able to sit and rest in our apartment.We also decided to have a grown up dinner and cooked (kind of) steak and had some surprisingly nice wine.

The flat is in Pocitos, which is just out of the centre of the city - next to one of the best beaches. And we can see the Sea (well kind of the sea) from our window. Hopefully tomorrow we may even have time to have a swim, perhaps.

Harriet has continuously lectured  me on Uruguayan steak and its world beating status! I was always a little sceptical. But having just been to the Adams' favourite restaurant in Montevideo - Garcia's, I can confirm these views. The Baby beef (below) was way beyond incredible - I am in love! Also the "family waiter" - Sergio- was still waiting, much to Harriet's (and his) delight.

Harriet also tells me that I must tell you all about her "excellent" Spanish and how useful it has been. I may joke, but it definitely made finding the flat much easier and in fact she is actually quite competent - (yes she is indeed now reading over my shoulder). On Monday I am starting lessons so hopefully - assuming she regresses- I may overtake.

Asuncion

In Asuncion we found civilisation, aka cinemas showing Harry Potter! Quite embarrassingly we found a cinema within a few hours of arriving in the city, very much worth it though.

Stayed at a nice hostel, the only one in Paraguay, loads of nice people and really helpful English speaking staff. Paraguay, it turns out is cheap, we had really good food for virtually nothing! Matt seems guaranteed to find the most expensive option where ever we are in the world though, so ordered the best cut of meat, followed by a two person chocolate fondue (then sulked because it didn't taste like Cadbury's, unfortunately I'm not joking!) This meal probably cost the same as all the rest of the food we had in Paraguay put together. I was just happy to find food which wasn't intestines!

We did some sightseeing in Asuncion and somehow, completely by accident, saw the changing of the guard which only happens once in a blue moon so we were pretty damn impressed with ourselves. We had to bite our tongues hard as the national anthem was out of tune with the trumpets and the marching was very out of time but it was interesting to put it politely.

We also found a market which was AMAZING! More fake trainers than you can possibly imagine intermingled with butchers, fruit stalls, more knock off DVDs and cafes. There was also one stall which had chickens, ducks ( at which point we thought it was a food stall), rabbits, guinea pigs and then newly hatched parrots?! Matt decided that we should buy the parrots and set them free- luckily he was eventually persuaded of the stupidity of this plan!

Concepcion

So we crossed the border into Paraguay - the second poorest country in South America - to save some money after all of our indulgences in Brazil. On our first night we stayed in the worlds worst hotel it was only about £6 a night, we are sure this was still not cheap enough. Matt nearly died when he stood up as the fan was so low, all Paraguayans we presume must be dwarfs that also like being bitten by bedbugs. The next morning we high-tailed it out of there to the poshest place in town at an exorbitant  £19 a night. Which we feel is easily justified after our life and death experience. We have also decided to behave ourselves now that we have seen what hell looks like.

Anyhoo this new hotel has a huge pool which is lucky as there is absolutely nothing else in Concepcion to do.  After our night at the devil hotel we decided we should treat ourselves to a nice traditional Paraguayan meal out - which it transpires involves eating small intestine, tongue and large intestine. Harriet was not so happy - Matt was in his element.

Muito Bonito

So having left the Pantanal on a ridiculously hot day we arrived in Bonito - via one of the worst roads known to human kind. The journey was quite uneventful apart from the solitary lost bat that decided to pay us a visit inside the tiny coach in pitch black - however after some gentle encouragement i.e. all of the girls on the bus screaming their heads off, it flew away.

Anyhoo we arrived in Bonito and walked straight into a lovely Pousada, which we have decided is much too nice for backpackers. The family who run it are lovely, Harriet spent today learning how to count to 10 in Portuguese. We also met 2 crazy Frenchmen who are travelling all over south america in the coolest offroad jeep thing ever. They definitely haven't given us any ideas for the future - honest!

Bonito is famous for the rivers in the surrounding area, they are incredibly clear and full of hundreds of different species of fish. The first day we went to the municipal pool, where I - Matt - amazed them with my amazing tan (or lack of) and inability to snorkel. Also because the water is so "perfect" we were not allowed to wear sun cream cue horrific burns. Harriet also insists that she got sun stroke, I am sure it was just an excuse for her lack of fitness - we had to cycle 6km to and from the river. 

Matt not really pulling off the snorkel look.

Harriet relaxing in the municipial river pool above, and some of the fish below.

The next day we went on what can only be described as the most expensive day trip ever, to a river a bit further out of town. But it was definitely worth it. We snorkelled for several kilometres down stream and saw a huge amount of different fish - it was like working at Tom's shop all over again. We also saw Capuchin monkeys in the trees and a huge scary looking Golden Dorado in the river - with a mouth not dissimilar to a T-Rex's, this is not even exaggeration.

Update - photos from Rio Prata, kindly sent to us by cool Brazilian guy Anderson.

3 buses, 1 metro, a walk and an offroad truck later .... And we were in the Pantanal

Turns out that as narrow as Brazil may look on a map it kind of takes a while to get from the East of the country to the west - who would have thought.

But wow it was worth it. We had been told that the Pantanal was effectively like the Amazon but you saw more animals - that and it is not actually a jungle but a wetlands. We stayed in a Fazenda or Farm and went on several different excursions and saw shed loads of animals. The best way to describe what we saw and just how amazing it was is to look at the photos below.

Loads of parrots! The red one was really tame though and got grumpy with Harriet because she was doing the laundry where he wanted to walk! Also saw this blue one which is really rare!

Armadillo, Capybaras (largest rodents in the world) and a million monkeys.....

Sincere apologies for Matt's arty, farty sunset photos. Count yourselves fortunate that you only have to see two, there are nearly a hundred replicas, turns out that the new camera has a fast shutter speed so now he can actually take the same photo a gazillion times.

Probably the rarest and most amazing animal that we saw was the giant otter - there are between 2000 and 5000 left in the wild. Not exactly scared either, very curious and stayed really close to us!

There are around 35 million Caymen in the Pantanal! So it obviously made sense to get as close to them as possible!

By swimming with them! We swam in the river off a beach which when we arrived had caymen on it, to scare them off the guide dive bombed into the water, shortly followed by ourselves!

We also went Piranha fishing which was amusing, you literally put a bit of meat in the water and it was gone! Turns out that they were hungry, we decided against swimming with the piranhas, we caught quite a few as a group. I was a bit rubbish but eventually caught one which was deemed fat enough to eat, Matt seemed to be a natural and kept hoisting them out of the water and then playing with them! The guide was not that impressed with Matt for trying to hold it up and poising with it!

 He also used them to feed the Caymen in a bid to get the 'money shot' (his words, not mine). Below is Matt making "subtle" splashy movement to mimic the movement of a Piranha in an effort to make a Caymen snap its jaws for a photo, meanwhile I was having a not so silent strop on the river side.