Then yesterday happened. July 28th and we decided to do a complete 180 and head to Uruguay this weekend. Now, if I hadn’t had my heart set on visiting one more South American country while I am down here it might not have been a big deal, but I really wanted to go. So, along with only two other gals who wanted to head out this weekend, at about 5pm yesterday we took it upon ourselves to figure out if we could make it happen today! Believe me, this took a lot of deep breathing from me. I quickly went home to check with my host family and pick up my passport and credit card and then we headed to the bus terminal to get bus tickets.
Our first stop was successful- there were still three spots on the bus from Rosario to Montevideo for the following day (today, Friday at midnight). Next point of business- return trip…no such luck. There were no spaces available to return before class on Monday. So, we began the hour and a half long search between bus companies in the Rosario Omnibus Terminal to find if anyone could get us back to Rosario before class on Monday, or at the latest, before class on Tuesday. Very few companies take a direct route and we soon discovered that most bus companies return from Montevideo to Rosario on either Monday evening (arriving Tuesday afternoon) or Thursday evening, neither of which would work for us. We finally made the decision to purchase three bus tickets from three different bus companies; one from Rosario to Montevideo, one from Montevideo to Buenos Aires, and one from Buenos Aires to Rosario, getting us back to Rosario in the middle of our second class, but definitely before class on Tuesday. Then we ran into trouble. After an hour and a half and with dinner time passing (it was now about 8:30pm), we accidently purchased our ticket from Montevideo to Buenos Aires for Monday evening at midnight instead of Sunday evening at midnight, meaning we would end up back on Rosario only in time for class on Wednesday. Missing two days of class for this was not an option in our minds. So, we sheepishly returned to the man who we had already talked to three times to see if we could switch our tickets from Monday to Sunday (after we had just purchased them). Praise the Lord! Apparently international trips can be switched, so with a few little modifications on the computer we had our new tickets and purchased our final ticket to get back to Rosario Monday afternoon.
Our final order of business was to book a hotel. We had a hotel that had been recommended to us and we were excited that it looked very nice and fairly cheap- a three-person room for $68 U.S. dollars. This morning I was informed by one of the other gals that the hotel was booked, so this afternoon (remember we are now talking about the day of the trip) we put in a reservation to another hotel that we hope is going to be a great place to stay.
Now, in just a couple of hours, I will get on a 10-hour bus ride with two other gals and we will make the trek to Montevideo, Uruguay. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will bum around the city, carrying our backpacks until we can check into our hotel (at least the hotel we hope we are staying at). We have nothing planned except that we are eager to take in a small part of the small country of Uruguay in what will most likely be, fairly cold weather. Sunday evening we will once again board a bus, hopefully after a very nice trip, and make our way back to Rosario.
I am excited to travel with a smaller group and it will definitely be an adventure for this girl who likes to know what is happening. Right now, I don’t know what is happening minus the fact that I have some bus tickets and a packed backpack.
Let the adventure begin!!
Ready to get on the midnight bus to Uruguay!!
No comments:
Post a Comment