Bienvenidos a Punta del Este!

Hey there dear friends!

After two days, I'm back here to write something. The trip from Porto Alegre to Uruguay took a lot of us and only today I got access to the internet. Wireless, thank God!

Our journey to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay was quite long and bumpy. While in Brazil, in the town of Cristal, southern part of Rio Grande do Sul, we got a ticket by passing in a wrong place. During our trip, we changed our route: instead of crossing the border by the city of Chuy, we went, instead, by the border city of Jaguarão, distant 250 miles (400 km) of Porto Alegre. There's a bridge and, on the other side of the Jaguarão river, is located the Uruguayan town of Río Branco, with brand new duty free shops.

Right after we parked the car, we had lunch. In fact, we tried to have lunch. We went to a restaurant called El Gallego, a place where is served the famous parrillada, the famous Uruguayan bbq. To be quite frank, it was one of the worst places I've ever gone out to eat in my life. Bad service, long time to bring the food. My mom just had the appetizer (a grilled sausage and some fries) and went out to shop. My grandma ate a bit of the asado de tira (beef ribs) but also gone out of the table. We paid 340 Uruguayan pesos ($ 17) but we hated the way we were treated. Arghh!

Afterwards, we spent a considerable time at the duty free shop, called Neutral. There was a lot of good stuff and we bought some good things, from beverages to clothes.

In the aftermath of a busy shopping time, we crossed the border, passing through the checkpoint. Immigration formalities were quick and hassle-free.

From the border, only 250 miles (400 km) more to reach our final destination. The first miles have been driven on a good road. However, in some parts, there were potholes and irregular asphalt.

In the halfway, we passed at the small town of Treinta y Tres, in the middle of Uruguay. We needed to cross that town in order to read the road to Punta del Este.

After reaching the road, we had a safe ride and we arrived in Punta at 7pm local time. For this journey, we're staying at Jean Clevers, a nice hotel located in the eastern part of the town, close to a shopping mall and some restaurants.

Well, it was lot to write and I got tired of writing... there's plenty of other things but I'll tell you during the next days. By now, so long, everybody! Take care y'all!