Uruguay and the Iguazu falls

Continuing with my goal to visit every continental Spanish speaking country before I turn 40, I found my way to out of the way Uruguay.  To my delight, it is a country seldom visited by Americans/English only speakers.
Starting my trip in Montevideo, I met up with a friend of mine who quit his job to travel South America for 6 months.  A nice medium sized city, with a beach.  On which they play a lot of beach handball

and where I tore up my sissy-soft city feet going for a beach run on my first morning...
Will and I also found an interesting little museum dedicated to the Uruguayan rugby team that survived a plane crash and 72 days lost in the Andes.

Where I happened to see this sign that I really liked


And after a sun soaked stroll about town,

it was beer o'clock in the plaza


Moving north up the coast, we arrived at our hostel in Punta Del Este, Uruguay's beach resort destination, to find 14 Chilean girls checking in ahead of us.  Made for some lively nights in the hostel.

There were some nice beaches a bit outside of town,

But a small resort city, dense with tall buildings is not my kinda place...

We headed further north to Punta Del Diablo in search of algo mas tranquilo...
Oversleeping for our 11am bus detoured us for a small pit stop at a small village in route north.

Punta Del Diablo is much more up my alley.  No paved roads, no buildings, little traffic, a nice beach and a cool backpacker's. I didn't want to leave...

We took a bike ride up to the Santa Teresa national park--with a fort, remote roads, and some wild horses.

 

An inconvenient overnight bus trip across the border to Brazil via Chuy

landed me in Porto Alegre Brazil.  Just for a walkabout and a chat with a local, before flying out to Iguazu Falls.

Foz Iguazu, small city that has arisen in large part because of the falls, exists amidst the Amazon in a way that you can't help but observe how besmirched the pristine rain forest now is with paved roads, traffic, and buildings.

Nevertheless, the falls really were quite a sight.  They have built metal walkways over the river, right up to and over the falls.  There are times that, with the rush of water around you and the immense perspectives the walkways afford, it felt like you were transported back to a primitive prehistoric time.