Urug-why?

Joe, Nidhi (our Aussie friend from Santiago's journalism network) and I jumped the Andes and flew to the Atlantic, landing in Montevideo, Uruguay for a long weekend stay.

Uruguay is a small country, roughly the size of North Dakota, with approx. an equal population size. What makes Uruguay unique? Not much, I gathered, in all honesty. Although some could say bobbing matte gourds in the hands of all those wandering the streets, that, and the pride of winning futbol's first World Cup in 1930, according to my backpacker source of Lonely Planet.

I found meat, remote beaches, ostrich farms, and a small, indescript population of people. Neither loud, rapid speakers like Chileans, nor slow-speaking, amable people like Peruvians, or bubbly Argentines. Uruguay, for now, will be stamped with a big question mark, I have determined.

In a nutshell, our trio biked throughout most of the capitol city of Montevideo. Its pearl is the golden white sand coast that hugs the city's curves. The ocean water, however, slaps the clean beauty with a contrasting dirty puke brown. I didn't dare step my toes in its contaminants, although I'm sure I would have been fine. After all, I did soak in Lima's trash strewn Pacific coast.

After the toast of sun during our three hour bike ride on our beach cruisers, we arrived at Uruguay's flagship market, the Mercado del Puerto. Hidden within this atmospheric mercado are a string of restaurants serving meat with meat, toped with a great meat sauce, seriously. We devulged with a meat medley of steak, chicken, intestines, mystery meat, and even blood sausage (which I secretly enjoyed--this thought still grosses me out), all toped with a grilled red pepper to balance our overflowing meat pot. We sat next to the grill and I could feel my body swelling as we chewed our tender carcasses.

At an early 5:30 a.m. wake up call, we boarded the bus to Punto Lobes (incorrect, I forget the exact name) and slugged five hours by Uruguayan cattle, sheep, and ostrich (?) farms to arrive at the country's most remote and rural beach town. The village consisted of a few decaying restaurants and many abandoned buildings. I found it quite strange and perculiar. To be cont.