Day 145

     Today we woke up to rain that showed no sign of letting up and the weather forecast was calling for rain showers all day. I was so bummed, it was my last day in Punta Del Este and I still hadn’t been to the most famous beach of all, Bikini Beach. I changed back to my original hostel, The Trip, since my bus the next morning is at 8:45 and The Trip is the closest hostel to the station.

     By about 2:30 though the rain let up. I was with this girl Laura who is from Australia but also living in Buenos Aires. She is traveling alone as am I, so we both kind of merged with Kitty and her English friends to make a 5 person group that pretty much went everywhere together. However the English were no where to be found today so Laura and I convinced four NYU students to stay in Punta Del Este with us for one more night that way we could all go to Bikini together. Surprisingly they agreed although I don’t think they put any thought into how they are going to get to Colonia for the ferry to Buenos Aires tomorrow since all busses are fully booked. Oh well, that’s what tomorrow is for!

     We spent what was left of the day at Bikini with a couple Brazilians also in our hostel. Even though we arrived near 4 in the afternoon we were early as most people don’t even get to Bikini till 5 and stay till a few hours after sunset before going back and getting ready for the clubs.

     For dinner I ate with the NYU kids at this restaurant that had parrots and tucans and some other wild birds. I love how cool Tucans look:

     That night was another night spent in Puerto. I really wanted to go to the Carnival celebration that night but it wasn’t possible. The celebration was the best in all Uruguay with 30,000 people in 5 blocks all in costume celebrating carnival. The hostels were shuttling everyone there but it was two hours away and we were told we wouldn’t return to maybe 10pm the following day which sadly wasn’t an option with our bus for the ferry leaving at 8:45 AM so Puerto it was.

     I met up with two Argentines that I had met the night before at the same club Moby Dick and we spent the whole night dancing together. No idea where any of my friends went but we were all on the same bus the next morning.

     I left the club at about 7:30 to go check out of my hostel and make it to the bus stop. I detoured by the hand on the beach which is one of the famous landmarks I hadn’t visited yet.

     Then it was to the hostel where I walked in at 8 and told the astonished staff that I was checking out and that my sheets didn’t need to be changed since I hadn’t slept in them.

     Made it to the bus with plenty of time to spare… but I was the only one. All my friends slept through it or something and weren’t there. That means they definitely are missing the ferry that afternoon as well since that was the only bus that could get to Colonia in time for it. I guess it is just another adventure for them, just an adventure I wouldn’t want to share with them.