Quick Check-in With Real World

And by "real world" I mean the Oscars. This morning I had to get up early to get some work done before school, but the first thing I did was of course to check the winners and an Oscar fashion slide show. A 6-hour red carpet/awards show distilled into 10 min on the internet: done.

Down here in MVD I've been going to the movies a ton because they have fairly recent movies and they have Spanish subtitles instead of dubbing (which they always do in Italy). I don't mind the dubbing in Italian because I know it well enough to understand fine anyway, but my Spanish isn't nearly that good. The problem in Italy is the "recent" part - they will probably get The Wrestler there around Christmas '10. So while down here I've seen Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Benjamin Button, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Vicky Christina Barcelona (PC totally deserved that win!), and The Wrestler. Unfortunately, The Reader and Gran Torino don't come out here til after I leave, which I'm kind of sad about. Really wanted to see them and want to see The Reader even more now that she's won. Frost/Nixon is out though so I'm planning on seeing that before I jump to Peru. Will probably also see the Will Smith movie (called Seven Souls in both Italian and Spanish - not sure in English).

Since I am loathe to post without adding a pic, here is one of me this morning at my computer. Sorry, it's the best I could do - if I look tired, I am only a little into my first coffee. Ok, now that I've spent half an hour writing a short blog post about the Oscars and attempting to take a timed photo of myself on top of a giant stack of books, time to work a bit before school. Hasta Luego!!

Cabo Polonio - Most beautiful of them all

This past weekend I went to Cabo Polonio, a "village" in the sand dunes of Uruguay. You take a bus to the side of the road then you have to take a dune truck to the coast because it's a natural preserve. There is no electrical grid so they use gas lamps and candles everywhere. (The lights from our cell phones - which had no service whatsoever there - also came in handy when trying to use the bathroom or get ready for bed at night.) There is no running water - they need to pump it from wells. Our hostel was on the beach and it was the most beautiful, relaxing place I've ever been to. On Saturday Cecile and I did a 3-hour walk to a neighboring village. The walk took us along the coast across beach, dunes and giant rocks jetting out into the ocean. On Sunday we woke at dawn to see the sunrise. All pics below.

Sitting on the hostel swing, with the beach and ocean behind me:


The beach in front of the hostel, close to dusk:


A view of the "town":


Jumping on sand dunes while on our 3-hour walk:


Shadows pic:


More dune jumping:


Self portrait with the ocean:


The deserted beach. At one point we put down our stuff and went for a swim and laid out in the sun for a while...the was no one as far as we could see:


Rocks along the cost. We had to climb over a few of these to get to the next town:



Paradise!


We saw a dolphin pod along the way. This is the best pic I could manage:


As we approached the next town it was around 1pm and the sun was harsh. We wore our towels like capes to protect ourselves:


Looking down on the beach from the top of a rock formation. You can get a sense of how far up I am by that little person in the middle of the photo:


On top of the rocks


Beginning of sunrise, Sunday morning:







Walking back to the hostel after the sunrise


One of my favorite pics from Cabo Polonio:
Looks like sunset but it was actually right after the sunrise.


The hostel dog, Lobo:


The restaurant that we ate in 3 times. The waitress, Sheila, was so nice. Uruguayans in general are some of the friendliest people I've ever met


A calzone, or as I like to call it, big empanada, for dinner. Yum.


Cecile relaxing at our table at the restaurant:


Our hostel on the beach:

Colonia del Sacramento

On Friday afternoon I went to Colonia del Sacramento, a small, old town about 2.5 hours from Montevideo. It's an UNESCO World Heritage site and the old city has been around for centuries. The city was super-tranquillo and at night we saw a free concert near the beach around sunset. On Saturday we went to the beach then came back to Montevideo for my friend Cecile's birthday party.

By the sea:


In the historic town:


Walking around the old town:


Outside our hostel:


On the beach - so peaceful:


On the sea - looks kind of like Ireland or something:


In the town checking the camera:


At the top of the city lighthouse:


While walking on the lighthouse stairs we needed a short break:


Cecile gets artistic on the pier:

Montevideo Sunset

Cecile and I went to the beach to watch the sunset the other day. Here are the time lapse pics.

Arriving at the beach around 8pm, the sun was still pretty yellow and high up:







True to form, I went with a cookie in hand (a Uruguayan cookie called an 'ojoito') to eat as I watched the sun go down:



Pic with Cecile:



The sun's final 15 minutes. To tell you the truth, New York sunrises do rival this...

Punta del Diablo Part I - Beach, etc

Last weekend I went to Punta del Diablo with friends from school. It was so beautiful, and, as has been pointed out on facebook, it is a hippie paradise. In Punta del Diablo Part II, below, I document our horse tour through a national park.. after the tour, our guide, Fabian, invited us to his comune/shack in the woods to eat bbq pizza with his friends. We got to ride out to the ranch on the horses in the dark. The sky was filled with stars - I have never seen it filled up with stars like that anywhere.
The pizza was cooked on a grate over a small fire on the ground and we sat on logs. There was no electricity and no running water (thank god I didn't have to pee) and everyone was playing music. I felt like I was truly and deeply living in a cliche--and then they sang a Bob Marley song (!). It was fun, though, and the pizza was damn good.

Anyway, pics:






Me, Cecile, and Mallory:


Our hostel, El Diablo Tranquillo:



Our room had an nice private balcony with a hammock:


View from balcony at dusk:


Out Friday night with Cecile and Johnathan, a friend from school that we hang out with a lot. He is from Scotland.



With the hostel dog, Bart, who was pregnant:






Last but not least, the hippie pizza bbq in the woods with our new friends: