Iguazú Falls and Uruguay

I went to Iguazú Falls. They were as enormous, amazing, spectacular and everything as they were supposed to be. Even despite the big amount of tourists I enjoyed visiting the place. The photos will give you an idea, but to really understand how stunning the waterfalls are, you have to see them yourself.From Puerto Iguazu I travelled about 20 hours in a bus to Buenos Aires and then crossed the bay to Uruguay. On the ferry a Finnish guy, Tuukka, came to talk to me. He had noticed my Halti backpack and figured that I'm a Finn. The same thing has happened to me once before, in a local bus to a small village in Fiji in 2003. On this trip to South America I didn't see many Finns. After meeting the tango enthusiasts in Buenos Aires, there was a Finnish couple on the same daytrip in Mendoza. In Chile two Finnish guys had stayed at the same hostel just two days before me. In San Pedro de Atacama I saw the Finnish flag in a bar and was told that the owner, Reijo, is a Finn. In Bolivia there was my friend Kati, and - in the Bolivian jungle I spoke Finnish with a traveller called Zamir, or Sami. He was from Stockholm, Sweden. His mother was a Finn and his father an Israeli.

Tuukka told me he had been robbed just before embarking the ferry. On the street, in the daylight, around 8.30 in the morning! Classical case: Some dirty liquid had been spilled on him, two women had appeared asking "Oh, you got it, too? Do you have some water we could use for cleaning our clothes?" Tuukka put down his backpack and started to take out his water bottle. Then there was a man nearby making some weird noise. Tuukka looked up. He knew there was something strange, but it all happened so quick. Before he realised, the women had grabbed his backpack and jumped into a nearby car, which drove away.

Uruguay, the land of mate and gauchos, seemed very European - and for that, after visiting the more exotic countries Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador - somewhat uninteresting to me. It was my last destination and my mind was already home, but I was still able to notice the beauty of the streets lined with trees and the colonial buildings in Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento.

A park in Montevideo:A couple waiting for the sunset and drinking mate by the sea in Montevideo:
Restaurants at Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo:
Big trees lining a street in Colonia del Sacramento:
On the morning of my last day in Uruguay an American man from my hostel asked me if he could join me for a walk in the Old Town of Colonia. Old man (recently retired), American, abdominous, wearing a baseball shirt. I wasn't thrilled with his suggestion. But I wasn't horrified either. I guess I was indifferent. "Sure, whatever, why not", I thought. And he turned out to be excellent company for my last day of travelling. After walking around taking photos we had the most delicious lunch and long conversations at a nice restaurant. We talked about his plans to buy a house somewhere in South America, about travelling, relationships, work, cows and bulls... anything. I would just sit and listen admiring, soaking his wisdom of life in. He said something very beautiful about his girlfriend and their relationship, comparing it to finding an excellent wine, after which he doesn't want to drink other wines anymore. I wish I had written down what he said about travelling, commenting about me taking the risk of leaving everything for a while and going backpacking. It was something like "sometimes people get too involved in their routines and don't see the crystals in their lives. Breaking the routines and experiencing something new broadens your mind, gives you perspective on things".