Summer in Uruguay is a truly unique experience. Uruguayans live for the summer, for these few months of heat and sun that they spend on the beach drinking cold cerveza, hanging out with their friends and enjoying the night life. January is the month when most Uruguayans take their summer vacations and leave their cities to spend some time in one of the beautiful beach towns, while others go to Brazil or Argentina. It was funny for me at first to see how much Uruguayans prepare for this period of the year and how much the whole country transforms. There are people that save up their money all year and then spend it all in the first quincena (first 15 days) of January. Things do get more expensive here in summer that is a fact. But Uruguayans don't care...they party hard and spend their money as if there was no tomorrow :) for a few weeks they live a glamorous life and create memories that they cherish for the rest of the year...On the other hand, those who are not able to leave Montevideo in January experience something completely different. The Rambla is constantly packed with people but the streets are empty. Montevideo transforms into a ghost town, there are very few people on the streets, no traffic, some businesses even close, it basically looks like the city gets abandoned.
This year we are not able to take our vacation days in January, which for us wasn't a big deal at all. We have been taking advantage of the weekends though. So far we've been having lots of fun without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
1. First weekend of January - El Pinar
The firsrt weekend of Janary our lovely friend Fer invited us to her house in el Pinar. EL Pinar is a cute little town right utside Montevideo, only an hour on the bus from where we live. It's close to the city but the beaches there are already a lot nicer and cleaner. We had a great time just sunbathing, drinking daiquiris and talking about life ad stuff. Best part of it: we spent only 200 pesos each (~10 dollars) on food, drinks, snacks, etc! Super cheap and super fun!
2. Second weekend of January: Beautiful Colonia
The weekend after el Pinar we went to Colonia to hang out with our friend Leti and her precious family. Again we had an awesome time doing something a bit different. We drove around the various pueblitos in Colonia, visited Colonia de Sacramento, had the best churros ever!! and even enjoyed some beach time:) We also went to our first baile del interior and played with a bunny. All in all it was great!
Thank you Fer & Leti <3
Can't wait for more weekends like that! Enjoy your summer!
~ A
