travel update from Colonia del Sacramento Uy
Saludos a Todos,
I am in a town on the rio del plata (silver River) in Uruguay called Colonia del Sacramento. I just got back from the beach. Here there are white sand beaches on the Rio del Plata. It is marvelously sunny and hot So I took my sarong and put on my swimming pants and went down to the river for a sunbath and a nice cool refreshing dip.
I am staying in a little hostel called El Español. It is a nice hostel. The people are friendly and the place is cheap. Well, okay, cheap by Uruguayan standards. The asking price for the cheap dormitorio is $12. They gave me a 10% discount for offering to stay a week.
Still this is double what I was paying in Guatemala or Ecuador. I dont recall staying anywhere in latin America where a dormitory bed cost over US$10, at least not in low season.
I have booked into a hostel in Buenos Aires which is supposed to be very very nice and it costs also $12, but this is for the busiest time of the year December 20 to January 3. Ah well, What can I say?
It is not so much that prices have gone up (which they have) but that the dollar has gone down. Nothing I can do about that. So I just accept it and say "Oh well".
I left La Paloma yesterday. La Paloma is a lovely little beach town on the Atlantic. I was there for 8 days. It is low season and so I had the beach more or less to myself most of the time.
Beautiful golden sands, but very cold water I said " I dont care!" and charged in anyway. I got in as far as my waist and said "I dont care" and ran back out! Sometimes I just don`t know what I am thinking. Still I had a very nice time there.
I stayed at a cool hostel called Alteena 5000. It was located in a large wooded City Park. The owners had two dogs and older male big black rastafarian looking dog named Oso (bear) and a younger female boxer called Celeste. Oso`s chief past time is to lay around sleeping. He is a real professional sleeper. Rarely do you meet a creature who is a better sleeper than Oso.
Celeste had great energy and went walking with me every afternoon. Well I went walking, she went running! She chased everything that moved! birds, hares, squirrels, you name it. She caught nothing ! My kind of dog !Lots of non violent fun ! She would get way out of sight and I would blow one of my loud whistles and she would come running back from wherever she was, all panting, out of breath, tongue hanging out and a big doggy smile on her face.
La Paloma is famous for its light house. I dont get it. I mean sure its a nice light house one could even call it a fine light house but uhh its just a light house. Still all the other travelers are all posing in front of it and taking fotos. I dont know, I just dont know...
My self and Vincent, a traveler from Switzerland, took a 9 km walk along the beach to the next little beach town called La Pedrera. The first 6 km were a good walk. good well packed firm sand. Then the sand got more and more loose and the walking more and more difficult. After about the first 5km, Vincent and I both thought, well, we will go there look around and walk back.Yeah right, after about 8km we were both thinking "hmmm I reckon we will take the bus back!" So by the time we got there, we were like "Gracias a dios" (thank God) and had a couple of beers and took the bus home!!
My plan has been all along to go to Argentina after here but now I aint so sure...I have been there before andf I really like the country... The problem is this...
My government, the USA is very harsh to any Latino people who want to come to USA. They charge VERY HIGH FEES to apply for a visa and then even higher fees if they grant you a visa for example a person from Uruguay must pay $US450 for a turist visam. Now many of the South and Central American countries are reciprocating because they feel this is unfair.
Of course the Democrats and Republicans who run the country are not concerned with this. they are only concerned with the issues that affect wealthy Americans like themselves. To someone who is a wealthy American the fees are not a big deal where as for me it is very tough, a big expense. here is the quote from the Argentine embassy in Washington DC.
When entering Argentine Territory, the American nationals must pay a "reciprocity fee" of U$D 131.- or its equivalent in Argentinean pesos.The payment of this reciprocity fee is NOT a visa, since Argentina does not require visa to American nationals when travelling for tourism or business purposes. The Argentine Government set this entry free on equal amounts Argentine citizenz must pay when requesting a Visa to travel to the U.S.
I feel that it is a pity that the USA citizen is no longer welcome to travel freely between countries as we once were. Most americans are unaware of this. But travelers like myself are feeling it big time. Most US citizens think the world loves us and our government and this was the case for many many years but this is changing. Laws like the one passed in Arizona are considered an outrage here.
We can not just go on mistreating our friends and neighbors and expect them to do nothing in return. South America is quickly becoming unaccessable to Budget American travelers as a result of our own governments policies. If you are an American and you wish some day to travel the world like I have been doing, the sooner you go the better. The doors to the world are beginning to close on Americans.
I believe that this is the end goal of our government. They would prefer that Americans not travel. They realize that when we leave we see the freedoms and liberties other citizens enjoy in other countries which we no longer enjoy at home and they dont want the word to get out. It is truly a pity. It used to be a good thing to have an American passport but as our government generates more and more animosity around the world this is rapidly changing.
Well that is all for now. Next update from somewhere else.
Peace and love to all of you
robert
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain
"We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" Niels Bohr
"Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be." James Baldwin
I am in a town on the rio del plata (silver River) in Uruguay called Colonia del Sacramento. I just got back from the beach. Here there are white sand beaches on the Rio del Plata. It is marvelously sunny and hot So I took my sarong and put on my swimming pants and went down to the river for a sunbath and a nice cool refreshing dip.
I am staying in a little hostel called El Español. It is a nice hostel. The people are friendly and the place is cheap. Well, okay, cheap by Uruguayan standards. The asking price for the cheap dormitorio is $12. They gave me a 10% discount for offering to stay a week.
Still this is double what I was paying in Guatemala or Ecuador. I dont recall staying anywhere in latin America where a dormitory bed cost over US$10, at least not in low season.
I have booked into a hostel in Buenos Aires which is supposed to be very very nice and it costs also $12, but this is for the busiest time of the year December 20 to January 3. Ah well, What can I say?
It is not so much that prices have gone up (which they have) but that the dollar has gone down. Nothing I can do about that. So I just accept it and say "Oh well".
I left La Paloma yesterday. La Paloma is a lovely little beach town on the Atlantic. I was there for 8 days. It is low season and so I had the beach more or less to myself most of the time.
Beautiful golden sands, but very cold water I said " I dont care!" and charged in anyway. I got in as far as my waist and said "I dont care" and ran back out! Sometimes I just don`t know what I am thinking. Still I had a very nice time there.
I stayed at a cool hostel called Alteena 5000. It was located in a large wooded City Park. The owners had two dogs and older male big black rastafarian looking dog named Oso (bear) and a younger female boxer called Celeste. Oso`s chief past time is to lay around sleeping. He is a real professional sleeper. Rarely do you meet a creature who is a better sleeper than Oso.
Celeste had great energy and went walking with me every afternoon. Well I went walking, she went running! She chased everything that moved! birds, hares, squirrels, you name it. She caught nothing ! My kind of dog !Lots of non violent fun ! She would get way out of sight and I would blow one of my loud whistles and she would come running back from wherever she was, all panting, out of breath, tongue hanging out and a big doggy smile on her face.
La Paloma is famous for its light house. I dont get it. I mean sure its a nice light house one could even call it a fine light house but uhh its just a light house. Still all the other travelers are all posing in front of it and taking fotos. I dont know, I just dont know...
My self and Vincent, a traveler from Switzerland, took a 9 km walk along the beach to the next little beach town called La Pedrera. The first 6 km were a good walk. good well packed firm sand. Then the sand got more and more loose and the walking more and more difficult. After about the first 5km, Vincent and I both thought, well, we will go there look around and walk back.Yeah right, after about 8km we were both thinking "hmmm I reckon we will take the bus back!" So by the time we got there, we were like "Gracias a dios" (thank God) and had a couple of beers and took the bus home!!
My plan has been all along to go to Argentina after here but now I aint so sure...I have been there before andf I really like the country... The problem is this...
My government, the USA is very harsh to any Latino people who want to come to USA. They charge VERY HIGH FEES to apply for a visa and then even higher fees if they grant you a visa for example a person from Uruguay must pay $US450 for a turist visam. Now many of the South and Central American countries are reciprocating because they feel this is unfair.
Of course the Democrats and Republicans who run the country are not concerned with this. they are only concerned with the issues that affect wealthy Americans like themselves. To someone who is a wealthy American the fees are not a big deal where as for me it is very tough, a big expense. here is the quote from the Argentine embassy in Washington DC.
When entering Argentine Territory, the American nationals must pay a "reciprocity fee" of U$D 131.- or its equivalent in Argentinean pesos.The payment of this reciprocity fee is NOT a visa, since Argentina does not require visa to American nationals when travelling for tourism or business purposes. The Argentine Government set this entry free on equal amounts Argentine citizenz must pay when requesting a Visa to travel to the U.S.
I feel that it is a pity that the USA citizen is no longer welcome to travel freely between countries as we once were. Most americans are unaware of this. But travelers like myself are feeling it big time. Most US citizens think the world loves us and our government and this was the case for many many years but this is changing. Laws like the one passed in Arizona are considered an outrage here.
We can not just go on mistreating our friends and neighbors and expect them to do nothing in return. South America is quickly becoming unaccessable to Budget American travelers as a result of our own governments policies. If you are an American and you wish some day to travel the world like I have been doing, the sooner you go the better. The doors to the world are beginning to close on Americans.
I believe that this is the end goal of our government. They would prefer that Americans not travel. They realize that when we leave we see the freedoms and liberties other citizens enjoy in other countries which we no longer enjoy at home and they dont want the word to get out. It is truly a pity. It used to be a good thing to have an American passport but as our government generates more and more animosity around the world this is rapidly changing.
Well that is all for now. Next update from somewhere else.
Peace and love to all of you
robert
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain
"We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" Niels Bohr
"Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be." James Baldwin
posted by Rambling Robert | 6:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home