Its a Small world after all: Found Family in Uruguay!

After a long action packed backpacking adventure through Brazil and 3 nights of no sleeping Bibby and I heading to Uruguay to meet up with her Uruguay family for their week at the beach (of course on the way we snuck in one more sleepless and expensive night in the Buenos Aires airport before finally getting to Uruguya....for those that don't know; US passport holders have to pay a 180 dollar tax to step foot in argentina when entering via air... I guess that's what happens when we tighten our borders...a bit of karma)

This cheery bunch greeted us (bag-less, travel dirty, and exhausted) at La Paloma beach and welcomed me in like long lost family.

After 3 days of Carnival in Rio I thought Uruguay was gonna be a relaxing escape into the peace and tranquility of family beach time...boy was I wrong! La Paloma has their own celebration of Carnival and of course their grand finally night was the day we arrived. Bibby's cousin Nano charged the crowd with us with home-mixed capariani in a soda bottle in hand. The down town street, normally paved in dirt, but now mud, was packed with costume wearing locals once again dancing and drinking their hearts out to the beats of the bars blaring music into the streets. And water guns, silly string, and foam guns meant our last pair of clean clothes were no longer anywhere near clean any longer. With the crowd bumping Nano decided on a meet up spot in case we lost each other....with a meet up time at 6am!!! Needless to say the night ended with all of us magically back in our own beds and lots of stories to share in the morning.

Home for the week

The remainder of the week was much more along the lines of what I had been expecting...reading, sipping sangria and mate, late night bi-lingual pic-tionary games, great home cooked meals, sunburns, and lots of time in the surf!

First meal: sea food packed paella

Imade sure to get as much time in the water as possible...even when no one else would dare enter I was there. With prospects of future life in a landlocked city I knew this may be my last chance for some water time.

And when vacationing with Bibby there are always lots of sweets in between!

Churros from the churro man Billy (Bibby's cousin visiting as well from the states) remembered buying churros from during her first visit to family in Uruguay 10+ years ago.

Who knew a house full of adults could have this fun!

Water fights broke out several times during the week leaving waterfalls inside the house and sandy wet people tackling each other outside....I loved it!!! My type of family conflict! (Watch out Sunset Beach....I might bring this element of competitive tradition home with me!)

Spectacular sunsets every evening were accompanied by a neighbor blowing bagpipes and an applause as the sun kissed the earth....This will not be my last time to this beautiful little Uruguayan beach town.