Long distance hitchhiking in Uruguay

At first we did not succeed in hitch-hiking to Rocha, where the highway number 9 passed and went south to Punte del Este and Montevideo. Many drivers expected us taking bus, which we finally did by hopping to the bus going to Montevideo. We could have taken that bus and went all the way to Montevideo by just paying the full fare, however, an aim of this trip was to practice our hitch-hiking skill. It would be a pity if we did not practicing it before going to the latter part of our South America trip which hitchhiking should be more frequent. Therefore we changed our mind and took off at Rocha. There was supposed to be a couchsurfing host working in a farm there, but he turned out to be an inconsiderate one who left no contact after agreeing to host and actually was in Montevideo, and wasted our time waiting and making false expectation. However, at least we had a chance to join a local Catholic mass. I thought we just let God lead our way and He really did.

After the mass we had some dinner and washed up in the central plaza (taking water from the toilet of the nearby bus company). There were children playing and curious of us being the rare Chinese (expecting us knowing kung-fu). They kept asking us questions and we could only answer some such as where we were from. It was dark and we had to go. After walking for ten blocks back to the highway 9,we passed the gas station where there were several heavy trucks with lights off. I thought even they were on the right direction, the drivers could be sleeping and we may wake them up. The better time may be in the morning when they started off. However, we did not have plan to sleep next to the gas station though it was safer than next to the highway at dark. So we walked away, passed the bus station (there was still bus to Montevideo at 10pm, it was an easy way out but we did not want to take that), and kept thumbs up. We also made a signboard saying “en cualquier lugar hacia la Montevideo” (anywhere towards Montevideo, we were not sure if the Spanish was correct). Vehicles kept passing us.

The planned one came. There was a heavy truck stopping in front of us to buy stuff from the canteen nearby. We were so excited and must "thicken our face-skin". Practising what we should say in spanish “a donde va ?” (where are you going ?), “puedomos ir con usted ?” (can we go with you ?). The driver laughed at us following the words in iphone to ask these questions. He finally brought us, even though we did not know exactly where he was going. He said something like not going to Montevideo but “San Teresa” (we did not know, as long as it was south along highway 9 then it should be fine).

The kitchen at the side of the truck

Our first truck hitch-hiking in South America !!! The driving cart was so high up that we had to climb up the ladder into that. We thought that we could not do that if we were taking very heavy backpacks. The trip of the driver was from Sao Paulo of Brazil. It was a really long way to come here. Due to the high cost of living in Brazil, he cooked his meal on the truck, not in the truck. How ? There were two metal boxes at the side of the truck for storing food and a gas stove respectively. I wondered if the gas stove was actually burning the diesel from the tank ?! The driver wanted some hot water for his mate, so he stopped the truck aside of the highway, went out, got his kitchen ready, got water from the water tank and boiled it. He made us coffee. It was necessary that we stayed awake in the drive, because it didn’t look good to sleep on the way when the driver was giving a free ride. Better if we could speak spanish, we could chat with him. However he seemed to have fun talking to us even though we did not understand most of what he said.

We did not know where he was taking us, so I kept reading the map and got prepared to know where we would be dropped. Finally we were in San Teresa which was only 20km from Montevideo. Then we just paid 43 peso for two city buses getting to home, just about one-tenth of the long distance bus tickets. Hurray !!! Thanks to the driver of whom the name we did ask but still did not know.

We learnt a good lesson in hitch-hiking: the face should be thick (a chinese saying that we should dare to ask)

中國城一日遊

阿根庭年廿九即香港年初一，我哋去咗中國城跳舞。唔係夜總會，而係唐人街。呢度牌坊都叫中國城。附近公園有露天舞會，唔駛錢，當然要去啦。舞會八點先開始，我哋四點已經迫入中國城逛。因為農曆新年，好多遊客慕名而嚟睇華人過年，周圍迫得水洩不通。點知我哋做埋啲遊客嘢，如果唔係為咗買華貨，去外國入唐人街真係有啲憨居。好多人要試吃各式煎炸嘢，食好嘢嘅我哋緊係敬而遠之。 呢個時候華人超級市場變成大排長龍嘅博物館，遊客同當地無乜入過中國城嘅人對好多嘢好新奇。佢哋拿住奚錢專心硏究、又有個阿婆指住龍眼問我係乜，我用西文話fruto，佢好開心，我都好開心(因為可以講到)。


入超市買中菜食材係為準備香港探弋同學會嘅大食會。嘩！啲嘢好貴，半斤冬菇（不過都大嘅）賣成百港銀。啲蝦乾仲衰，只不過係蝦皮，成五十港銀一小包。為咗之後整蘿蔔糕，買咗幾個唔啱季節嘅白蘿蔔、十幾元一包(x2)粘米粉，用沙樂美乾腸當臘肉。仲貪得意買咗啲貝殼類嘅嘢，成12 peso一公斤，點知喺隔離超市仲大隻啲賣9 peso，唉...


買完嘢六點鐘，仲有時間，喺草地聽現場表演，攤喺度聽。草地雖然有啲濕，但也舒服。有探弋樂隊，當中有華人的手風琴手，亦有唱很好難嘅華人女歌手唱"月亮代表我的心"，唔知唱乜嘅人當然覺得佢好聽，聽鄧麗君大嘅我就覺得剌耳。鄧麗君係全球華人嘅diva一啲都無錯。


仲有非華人組成嘅阿根廷蔡李佛龍虎武師，奇怪嘅係呢度啲人見到舞龍就要走去摸，好似摸狗仔咁，其實個龍頭好似狗頭 (讀狼圖騰就知我講乜)，咁得意啲人想摸下，應該無乜吉祥意思。


等到八點，終於有舞跳，Maria好發市，好多佬請佢跳。我還可以，有一個女嘅同佢跳完兩隻歌就講mucha gracia 咁就走咗，打沈咗...之後都有個跳得好好嘅同我跳Pugliese,佢講咗一大堆西話我都聽唔明, 我估佢話好熱又或者喺附近音樂會好嘈掛。


背囊啲海鮮唔可以放太耐，舞會未完就搭巴士走，好多人走，好似工展會散場咁。

啲貝殼類嘅嘢好難攪，勁浸都好多沙，又沖又洗，煮到Maria死死下。


最後拜個年，祝身心康泰。

Dancing in the afternoon milonga - La Matine de La Ideal

We started the day as usual: bible study, jogging in the nearby park, brunch and self-study, we went to our first milonga in BsAs - La Matine de la Ideal at La Confiteria de Ideal.


May I go back a little on the Spanish learning first. We seemed to improve from knowing nothing to barely some words. It is better having a partner to study together, which I haven't done before (I used to study by myself). Maria has a better grasp of language than me, although we both found learning a new language more difficult at our age.Dissolving in the environment and solving problems at life do push our motivation to learn a language. Thanks to Reina for the two writing board. With lack of writing tools we use them on doing exercise and copying words, like when we had started learning language in childhood. Copying does help.

23 peso each on entry fee was low in HK standard but still a lot for our daily budget. Viewing that it was our first milonga we dared to go for it. Also we did not want to go for overnight milonga and spoiled our healthy daily routine. I like the interior design with pillars and the high ceiling decorated with floral graze. Bringing water ourselves we found a table next to the marble tiled floor and decided to order nothing.  My first tanda with Maria was a salon and I felt the atmosphere given by the design not by the people, most of them in their fifties or above. Only the tourists were younger. We did see a couple of rocket flying around in their sixties. The floor was quite smooth that my giro was so easily done that also gave Maria a good impression to the viewers. Then invitations for Maria were non-stop, not only because she was the youngest and most beautiful lady on the floor but also people found she danced well. With a sprang ankle she could not push too herself too much. My next tanda after Maria was the invitation from a 70s year-old woman named "Otieria (?)". Later I found that she was one of the best tangueras that afternoon. In open embrace her open arm was very strong, to me it was stiff. It was enjoyable dance.


We danced till 8pm, then went to grocery shopping at CarreFour, where we realized that drinking large bottle was quite a nuisance here. We had to pay 2.75 peso more for the bottle; we could take empty ones to waive the bottle charge in the next beer purchase. However, how on early we bring empty bottles around for grocery shopping ?

A more normal day, at least the market is open

On the bed on the second day, we discussed about what we shall be after two years. If we are having a hectic life in BsAs like in Hong Kong, we shall become nothing but tourists with a forgotten trip. We should have a more scheduled life with some objective, or actually are we too used to the HK life emphasizing a life with objectives and outcomes ? Can't we just live and see what God put before us ? To feel more secure we set some schedule, so as to get ourselves prepared for future challenges: bible study after waking up from bed, then jogging in the nearby park, brunch, afternoon activities include going around the city, taking language/tango class, research for Antarctica and South America trip, preparing the gears, or finding living place for February. It is still quite a busy life, however it is different from Hong Kong that we do them with less distractions and these tasks are more directly related to nearer future.


Under where we live there is a grocery store opened by Chinese. There is a young woman called Ms Wong who just came from Mainland China to BsAs for 2 years. She introduced a Spanish language school opened by Chinese. After having brunch (the small eggs made by the pan we took from Hong Kong - our first trial), we decided to give a visit on Av Corrientes, after not calling the school successfully. It was a half hour walk and we missed the junction under strong sun, forgetting to bring a sandwich along, we are on the verge of paying another expensive dine-out. Thanks God we walked into a traditional pizza house called Uza (?) selling only one kind of pizza - mozzarella cheese pizza. A whole one cost 18 peso and 1/4 cost 4.75. It is a very honest pizza house. We bought our 1/4 pizza with speaking only one Spanish word in the whole process : delicioso !!! what came before was only body language.


We have too much to learn in the language, so there should be enough motivation for joining the suggested school. However, we were disappointed by the Chinese lady who claimed profession on language teaching studied in Germany, just because his husband was German in Goethe Institute. When I asked if there is any course schedule and syllabus, she could not give a concrete answer. How come a teacher trained in Germany which emphasizes a lot on planning and system, does not write teaching plan ? Costing 420 peso per person for 24 1.5 hour course was not expensive in Hong Kong level of living, but it was our one-week-expense. Bringing Berlitz "Essential Spanish" and an iphone under wifi, we decided to study by ourselves.


Another objective of our exploration was to find the market in San Telmo. To our disappointment there was not much fresh food sold there. We also found a CarryFour store on Av. Corrientes where we bought ice-cream, beef, beer and cheese for our big home-made steak dinner. We were quite tired after a whole day of walking and then cooking. We both fell asleep and forgot about Salon Canning that we expected to go after dinner. Not getting in touch of tango community in BsAs, we only knew from Hong Kong about the sad news of Andrea Misse's death. To me, she is a beautiful fire on dancefloor that I felt pity of not having a chance of inviting her to dance, but an embrace in the class with her when I was in Taipei was memorable enough. My heart throbbed in the embrace. Miss you, Andrea. Wish you rest in peace.

First staying place in BsAs - have a comfortable start

After many exchanges, some of them in Spanish using Goggle translate (it is odd, but better than nothing for a new Spanish learner like me, we finally find a room in an apartment. The host is an eager man who speaks simple English and seems to use translate website to write English with us. We'll stay here for one month, when we shall be finding another cheaper place.

It only costs US$400 a month, with kitchen, shared bathroom, internet,  parrilla. It is located at


435 Cochabamba (between Defense and Bolivar), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Capital Federal, Argentina


http://maps.google.com.hk/maps/ms?msid=212522051720559287784.0004b496088a3e6c5370f&msa=0&ll=-34.622751,-58.371853&spn=0.002521,0.003449


It is in San Telmo area. Wish us luck about the place. If you know other cheaper place in BsAs (especially near Palermo), please inform.