Thursday, May 27, 2010

Why two brains are better than one.

Kim reminded me about the horse-drawn carriage garbage "trucks" in downtown Montevideo. I can't say I have seen anything like that before, at least not in such an urban setting.

She also reminded me about the cleanest bus station in my history of travels - in the small town of Minas, of all places. There were several women constantly mopping the station floors to the point where they were always wet or about to be, and as soon as you used the (also cleanest in my history of travels) bus station bathroom they went right in after you and cleaned.

As we were sitting in one of the small plazas last night watching the sun set a small girl was sweeping all around the center of the plaza, for fun, from the looks of it. Seems that Minas is a firm believer in cleanliness... Which is odd considering that the Montevideo hostel owner lived there for seven years and her hostel was not the cleanest I have stayed in. That might have been due to some construction she explained as a reason for the grit or, more likely, the 14 grungy young men staying in the dorms.

This morning the city was overcast as we enjoyed a surprisingly good pastry and fruit breakfast (which I suspect was a result of the woman being there instead of one of the many teenagers employed at the hostel). This woman kindly gave us a list of all the museums near the hostel even though we kept saying we were leaving this morning. Information that would have been more helpful Monday night, but I am pleased with my Montevideo/Minas experience so whatevs.

balcony of casa de grunge

When we got to the bus station the sun came out. More and more reminiscent of San Francisco...

I noticed that many of the dark-haired women here have dyed their hair burgundy. Wonder if that's the latest European-ish trend?

Off to Colonia del Sacramento now. Should be a nice break from the last two weeks of gogogo before we head back to Buenos Aires for three days of gogogo again. A zero day sipping coffee and meandering around a sleepy, quaint town sounds good to me.

In one week I will have been in Portland for 24 hours. Weird.

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