World Uruguay Colonia Carmelo

Pops and Andy's South America Trip!

CARMELO, Uruguay Oct 30, 2006

An hour west of Colonia we jumped off the bus in sleepy Carmelo. On the banks of the river Uruguay, Carmelo is a lot less touristy that it's near neighbour. So far we've seen 5 tourists, 2 of whom were us and 1 was a guy from Belgium called Walter we met once we got here. There are plenty of dogs though. A couple of puppies which have owners and then other adult dogs which seem to wonder the street, they look very healthy and are friendly, I have to keept fighting the urge to pat them. We even managed to have a canine tour guide yesterday as we walked through the back streets (well any street bar the main street fall into this category) to the pine plantation and beach yesterday for two hours. He kept other dogs away from us and as a reward got some apple and I used a twig to give him a welcomed scratch behaind the ears.Not quite Skip but it was nice to have him around. The town is currently getting ready for halloween. The restaurant where we ate last night had a community hall attached and the locals were out in force getting the decorations up in time for the big party. Apparently if we get dressed up we can get in for free, otherwise it will cost us 20 pesos (40 pence). As I type this at 7pm local time the main square is filled with little devils and witches with plastic pumpkins in hand which are being slowly filled by the friendly shop owners. Andy and Walter are watching the Champions league and discussing sport over a beer while their hosts'sweet/lolly supply quickly dwindles, but his smile only gets bigger.

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