Waking Up in Uruguay

The next morning I checked out of my apartment knowing I would need to book myself into a hostel for the second night.

As promised, I met Laura at the bus station at 10am.

Because it was summer time AND my next destination was a popular beach resort AND I would be departing on a Friday*, Laura had suggested I buy my onward bus tickets a day in advance.

She kindly offered to meet me at the bus station before we started our day together to ensure I got the right ticket.

Purchasing the bus ticket was easy. Understanding that I would have to buy another bus ticket in Montevideo on a Friday afternoon in the summer took a little while to sink in.

We learned that this bus company, and in fact, all of the companies that ran outbound buses from Colonia, would not run eastbound service past Montevideo and I could only purchase the Colonia – Montevideo leg today. So much for buying my onward ticket to Punta del Este in advance. Oh well.

Laura explained that I would take this bus to Montevideo. Upon arriving in Montevideo, I’d need to find a bus company that ran onward service and hope that I could get a ticket on a bus on a Friday afternoon in the summer.

I’m a city girl. My Spanish is sufficient. I can do this. Tomorrow.

Today, I am in Colonia and I am spending the day with Laura. And more importantly, I needed to book a room for the night!

* For someone who knows traffic is a nightmare leaving a major city (read: New York City to beach towns) on a summer Friday, I sure did a great job of inadvertently doing most of my travel through major cities on summer Fridays.

I found myself in the bus station quite a bit on a Friday afternoon in the summer between the hours of 5pm and 8pm. It happened in Montevideo, Uruguay. It happened in Buenos Aires, Argentina and it happened again in Santiago, Chile.

For someone who had the utmost flexibility, Duh!