We decided
with Lucka that it was time to travel a bit inside Uruguay and spend some time
in the open air. Minas was our option. Minas is situated about 110 kilometers
from Montevideo. It is famous for its hills; the highest peak of Uruguay is 514
meters above the sea. So we went to the
mountains :)
It was the
first very warm weekend after the winter time, so at 9 in the morning we could
put on sandals and T-shirts with short sleeves. On Saturday morning we departed
from Montevideo. We took a bus to the outskirts of Montevideo where we started
hitchhiking. We didn’t wait long and followed our way to Minas. We met lot of nice
people and in the last car after introducing ourselves the lady asked us ‘where
are you from?’ And I replied from the Czech Republic. And she told me: ‘me too’.
:) It was the first Czech person I met here in these 5 months. She was born in
the Czecoslovakia, but more than 50 years has been living here.
When we
came to Minas, we decided that it was time to have picnic before climbing
hills. We also visited the traditional confectioner’s Irisarri to find out if
the fame is justifiable. Well, I did like the cakes we tried. And after getting
maps and advice we began climbing up the hill of Artigas to see the highest
monument in South America.
When we
were getting closer we heard loud music, lot of people talking and coming. ‘Upps,
we are coming to a music festival’, was our thought. However, it was a
postponed children’s day celebration.
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| The old confectioner's Irisarri from 1898 in the city of Minas |
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| This house remembers the architetecture of Andalusia |
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| The monument of Jose Artigas - the highest one in Latin America |
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| A bit of ecology, a place to old batteries |
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| CocaCola is really everywhere |
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| Latin America :) |
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| This bus won't work anymore |
And then we just went without knowing where, we followed the hills. After climbing some fences, meeting herds of cows and flocks of sheep, listening the silence we found our shelter for that night on the top of one hill surrounded be sheep. The sunset was amazing and sleeping outside was just a perfect end of the day.
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| The sunset on the top of one of the highest peak in Uruguay |
On Sunday
morning we woke up with the first rays of sun and sounds of sheep. We stayed in
our sleeping bags watching how the sun was rising and the mist was disappearing.
As Lucka said it is amazing that sunset and sunrise are always so impressive
and never get boring. After our breakfast we went down the hill, visited once
more Minas, I was impressed that people were so smiling and helpful.
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| The sunrise in Minas |
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| The sunrise in Minas II |
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| The sunrise in Minas III |
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| The morning and our camping |
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| This path is a hardwork of ants |
That day we
continued to Salto del Penitente which is a nearby waterfall. On the way in the middle of nothing there were
people stopping cars to ask us if we wanted to get a lift. We refused.
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| Breakfast :) |
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| On the way and in between hills, flocks of sheep and herds of cows |
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| Pastures and pastures and pastures |
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| Salto del Penitente - waterfall |
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| The sunset close to Salto del Penitente |
On Monday
morning we woke up early, when the first beams appeared. We saw the sunrise,
had a slow breakfast and went back to the road. We walked a while when we
stopped a man who brought us to Minas on the deck of his car. And in Minas we
ate the last ‘alfajor’ (the typical cake
from here) and followed the track to Montevideo. We stopped a man with whom we
shared experiences from living in different countries and mate.
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| Hitchhiking in South America |
