Somewhere in the world is a person who has a burning desire to go to Montevideo.

I know this for a fact because I met that person in Rio. Godfrey from London, who'll never know I wrote this.

It was never on my bucket list to visit Uruguay, I must admit. But there it was, a little shimmer on the horizon. Only an hour away by ferry from Buenos Aires. Closer than the trip out to my father-in-law's for Saturday dinner.

So, 22 hours after landing in Buenos Aires, we boarded the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento.

It was horribly cold and windy when we got off on the other side of Rio de la Plata. Thanks to a lack of research on the tour guide's part [that would be me], we were in our summer Ts and shorts.  The streets were wide and empty. The sky was a forlorn grey. There were hardly any leaves on the trees. I fell in love with the place right away.

 
In fact, between you and me, I'll probably be moving into this house on The Street of Sighs soon.

Or, if that's not available, maybe this one.

Or one of these!

 I won't be picky, I promise.

I'll be buying myself a car too, of course. Who cares if I can't drive?

I can always use it as a planter box.

There were a lot of dogs on the streets of Colonia. They may have belonged to people but they seemed quite at home roaming about on their own.

Or snoozing in the flower beds.

  

 This one adopted The Other Half for a few blocks.

***

We I reluctantly left my future retirement village for Montevideo after only 1 night.
 It took more than 4 hours to get to Uruguay's capital city by bus.

 Mostly because it broke down in the middle of the highway and we had to wait for the next one to come by. It was our very 1st lesson in being *tranquilo. And why not? Everyone else was.

Here's the 1st dog we saw in Montevideo.

It was definitely suicidal a free spirit with no vertigo problems and very tranquilo owners.

Montevideo has a lot of gorgeous old buildings.

Many of them looked abandoned or uncared for. There's no money to fix things up, we were told.

One day, it'll be spectacular.

It was in Montevideo that I 1st met Malfada.

And had fruit juice by the jugful made with milk. Burp.

While the juice might have done bad things to my waistline, it was definitely less addictive than THIS beverage.

I snuck the picture from this blog. It has a story too, about this Uruguaian favourite. Go check it out!

We also met this boy...

...who arrived with some friends at Plaza independencia...

...and was last seen running off into the sunset, on Montevideo's main street.

There were just as many street dogs in Montevideo as there were in Colonia.

We met this one outside the mercado del puerto in the ciudad vieja. She was quite old. Everyone at the craft stalls outside the mercado knew her. She had a collar on, but apparently belonged to no one.
That day, she scored the leftovers from our light lunch of half a cow, blood sausage and various fiddly innards. 

I bought this lovely pendant from the stall where we found her.

Yes, it is EXACTLY what you think it is.

Up the street from the mercado, we saw more dogs.

Some may not have had homes.

Others clearly did.

From our hotel room in the rambla, we saw dogs being taken out for walks or just free running with their friends on the promenade and in the little parks. I failed to take any pictures of them so, sadly, you'll just have to take my word for it.

I have to say, we never saw anyone ill treat a street dog in our short stay there. And, for what it's worth, we didn't meet any dogs that were wary or afraid to approach us.

So if you asked me, "Were the dogs in Uruguay happy?"

Based on the ones we met in these 2 places, and in a completely un-scientifically researched way, I'd have to say, "Yes, I think so."

***

From Montevideo, we took a ferry back to Buenos Aires. The sunset over Rio de la Plata was just as pretty as the guidebooks had described. You couldn't even tell how brown the water was.

My eyes started to water the instant we arrived in Buenos Aires. Anyone who's been there will know exactly what I mean.

So how tranquilo are YOU? From this fun link -

*Fique tranquilo
If Brazilians value any single trait, it's optimism; it's being able to solve problems. And if the problem can't be fixed, just relax and forget about it. At the first signs of someone's stress, a Brazilian often says Fique tranquilo (fee-kee kdang-kwee-loh; Don't worry). It has a very calming effect.


If the bus takes off just as you arrive to the bus stop, don't worry. Fique tranquilo: There'll be another one in ten minutes. And you can make friends while you wait.

***

Just in case anyone cares ...

I went on holiday too! It was cold and wet a lot. My humans forgot to pack my princess bed. I only got 1 lamb neck a week. There wasn't any telly. And there were way too many dogs there.

I don't know why anyone wants to go on holiday. They're not so fun at all.

These are the only pictures I have of my 6 week holiday. The Camp Commandant took them. Sad eh?