Hola from Montevideo

First impression: dirty, stinking, dangerous hole full of people trapped in the 70´s - the do's, the cars, the hotels...

Then I went to the tourist office, where the lady took an hour to explain to me (they move and speak ever so slowly here) that Montevideo is safe, but full of people, kids especially that will rob me, that the hotel will have already copied my passport and sold it to drug runners, and while it a hole, its actually a beautiful dirty stinking hole.

Luckily, the guy next door in the Carnaval museum set me straight. That lady is cuckoo, Montevideo is safe, and my biggest problem will be keeping the Uruguayan men away - durrrrrr. Since then I´ve had a slightly kinder opinion of the city.

Next Stop - to buy a ticket to the Carnaval heats tonight - where the dude couldn´t believe I´d come all the way from Australia on my own, and he said he´d be delighted to join me for the rest of my trip. Well, I´d be just delighted if he stayed in the Abitab stand selling tickets. And after all that, heats cancelled due to weather (rain - which I haven´t seen, só it may be predicted rain). Disappointing.....

I wandered around (the dirty, stinking hole that is) Montevideo for most of the day, and found some interesting things. Art especially here is good. The African influence is starting to creep in the further north I go. The beer and coffee are just as good (and cheap) here. And, the beach is only a few blocks from the centre of town, not far away with great games of soccer and volleyball to watch.

Anyway, I´m off back to my dirty, stinking dive of a hotel to check my passport. Ergo, low point #1 of 189 days around the world. Can´t wait to hit Punta del Este (beaches! surf!) where I can rest my tired feet and relax my hypervigilance somewhat.