To Uruguay and back

¡Que día! I actually made it up at 6:30 (okay, 7) to catch my ride to the boat to Uruguay. And other than the driver dropping me off at the wrong port and me having to navigate my way to the right one (which, I assure you is 10 times more annoying at 7:30 in the morning), things went off without a hitch. I had a hard time deciding where to spend my one day in Uruguay; in the end, I decided against Montevideo as I've been in big cities the whole time I've been here and instead went to Colonia, the oldest city in Uruguay. It was darling and, in the end, I think I made the right choice. And, as a bonus, I met an Israeli brother and sister, Omer and Tal, and we ended up hanging out for part of the day and sharing our meals. Really interesting people!

Since there is no real bus system in the city, and even less of one to get to the outskirts where the beaches are, I decided to rent... ready?... a golf cart to get around for the day. Odd, you think? Not in Colonia. It's such a small, quaint town that most people get around on scooters and golf carts; they have all the same rights as full-on cars. At one point, as I was driving down the main road, darting between cars to get into the traffic circle, I just started to laugh… what a completely bizarre experience! (the picture below right was taken from “behind the wheel”).

The only thing more bizarre than driving a golf cart through a town was… getting a ticket while driving a golf cart through a town! Yes, indeed, I got pulled over in my golf cart. Well, I say “pulled over” but I really mean the two cops who happened to be standing on the corner waved me over. Apparently, I was going the wrong way down a one-way street. Who knew? And they busted me as I was literally only about 15 feet down the street. I thought I could pull out the whole “I'm sorry, I didn’t know” tourist card, which has worked for me to great effect in Portugal and Spain, but apparently Uruguayan cops have heard it all before. I honestly could not believe my eyes when I saw him pull out his ticket book and start writing. He took all of my information (minus my driver’s license which I didn’t have with me; apparently a big no-no that the rental company was willing to overlook for me) and gave me a ticket! A real ticket! I haven’t gotten a ticket in the US for years… and I spend one day in Uruguay, in a golf cart no less, and I get busted! So I ask him how much it will be and he tells me that I’ll have to ask the rental company. What? Why would I ask the rental company how much my ticket is, you’re the cop, right? Turns out the rental company decides. It’s a system I can’t begin to comprehend.

I honestly thought the whole thing might just be dropped but as soon as I took the cart back (after tooling around with my newfound Israeli friends for a bit), she told me she had been contacted by the police about my “infraction” and that I needed to pay up. Turns out it was $33USD, 110 Argentian pesos or 720 Uruguayan pesos… none of which I had enough of on me. So she kindly assisted me to the ATM so I could cough up the dough. I was not getting out of Uruguay without paying for my crime! But, as it turns out, I got off easy: a British fellow I ran into got pulled over for the exact same thing as me, but in addition to the fine for going the wrong way, he also got one for not having his license on him (which they didn’t charge me for… guess the blonde thing has some perks!) and for parking illegally. His ticket was an unbelievable $280USD! Suddenly $33 sounded veeeery reasonable to me.

Otherwise, it was a great day in Uruguay. The people there were as sincerely friendly and helpful as the ones I’ve encountered so far in Argentina. I think I’m just not used to it yet; I’m still kind of back on that Chilean “mind your own business in public” mindset. At one point when I was on my own, putting along in my golf cart, a guy on a scooter rode up alongside me and struck up a conversation. Picture it, us both driving separate vehicles down the road, having a conversation as if we were sitting in a coffee shop... all while driving!! Sho' wish I had a picture of THAT! He eventually offered to “accompany” me around the town. I’m often torn between not wanting to be the jaded American and not wanting to be the naïve American. My gut most often dictates and today in the end it told me it may not be the smartest move to let this guy take me around a town I wasn’t familiar with. I thanked him for the offer but declined and I could see that he was really disappointed by my obvious distrust of him. I think to them it’s just second nature to be so open and helpful to strangers; he was trying to do something nice for me and I rejected him for all the reasons that Americans have for being distrustful of people. It struck me later as being a little sad that we have to live our lives in such a guarded way all the time; no doubt it saves us a lot of trouble but equally little doubt that it also makes us miss out on a lot of what could be great, fun experiences with new, cool people.

Speaking of the incomprehensible kindness of the people here, when I got back to Buenos Aires, the guy was waiting there to take me back to the hotel. We struck up an immediate conversation and once he found out it was my first time in Buenos Aires, he took me on a free tour of the city in his cab! No money was involved since he had already been paid by the hotel; it was just to be kind. Just because. Just to be nice to a stranger. I dig that... and will be much more open to it from now on!