I got off the bus in Rocha and walked into the ticket shop. I asked for the bus to Minas and I was told I needed to go to San Carlos. The ticket seller rushed me through and ran me back outside to get my bus. The SAME bus I had just gotten off. So with my bag firmly under the bus I started up the steps to take my seat. Again.

I had a new seat assignment but my new friend saw me with a quizzical look and I shrugged. We both laughed and I settled in for the rest of my ride to San Carlos.

And this is where it got confusing. I needed to get another bus from San Carlos to Minas. After asking around for my bus, finally a woman took pity on my and told me we would travel to Minas together.

I spent less than 18 hours in Minas. I stayed with a Couch Surfing couple who were very kind, and I slept on a mattress in their spare bedroom. We talked for hours and around midnight they asked what I wanted for dinner. The glass of wine I had at 9p would hold me over. They started cooking around 1am and I excused myself and went to bed.

They had warned me that they weren’t morning people so in the morning, I left to explore the town. I figured I did not want to leave without saying goodbye, I should see the town and then head onto Montevideo, where I was anxious to meet up with Romina, Mariela and hopefully an eye doctor! After I spent some time wandering the town, I was given a lift on the moto to the bus station — I was assured it was the only way I’d make the next bus out. So with my eyes shut, I settled in for my second moto ride in Uruguay!

Here are some pictures from my time in Minas…

The center of town…

This was a museum under a candy store. It was noted in my guidebook but the museum may have held the record for smallest museum. I actually stayed about three minutes, two minutes longer than it took to have a look around. Upstairs in the candy shop, I was able to buy a bottle of liquor for my hosts. Liquor, candy, I guess it’s all the same.

On my walk, this was a casino. The door was propped open and I had popped my head in and this was off a residential street.

My host drove me back on the moto to the bus station. The second helmet was mine.

En route to Montevideo!!

After my 4×4 ride back to the road, I crossed the street to the bus stop bench where I saw one other person waiting. I wanted to make sure I was at the right place so I asked, in Spanish, if he was waiting for a bus to take him west.

In English he told me yes. I should clarify, he answered in American English! I had been in Uruguay nearly one week and this was the first American I met. Being that I had just been a little homesick it was nice to hear an American accent.

We introduced ourselves — he was from Colorado and finishing up three months of travel in South America before heading home in a few days.

I told him he was the first American that I met since I arrived in Uruguay nearly a week ago. He did not seem surprised.

We chatted about South America and traveling and why we each chose to explore the continent solo.

He had worked his was from the north to finish up in the south while I would be heading south to north. He told me that depending on where I wound up, I’d hit parts of the backpacker trail. I mentioned that after Colonia, most of Uruguay seemed to be off the beaten path. He laughed and then told me that where we currently were, was off the radar and we weren’t even on a path, much less the backpacker one!

Let me back up a second. Part of my intentions of traveling off the beaten path was to meet locals, not Americans, but after my personal pity party for one earlier in the day, it felt so nice to talk in English without worrying about double meanings or how to explain something in Spanish. We could just talk. And talk we did — for almost an hour. (Good thing I got the fluent English out of my system because it would be another week until I would be speaking English to native English speakers again).

We chatted until the bus arrived and we happened to have bus tickets with seat numbers assigned next to each other so we continued to chat.

We talked about the guard versus co-pilot on the buses, the obsession with mate and assigned seats are serious business here.

We spoke in English until I had to get off the bus in Rocha to buy my connecting ticket. We bid adieu. I grabbed my bags from the belly of the bus so I could sort out my onward bus ticket to Minas.