What's best way to get from Downtown BA to Punta Del Este using BusqueBus boat
Goin to Colonia/Montevideo/Punta Del Este in Feb and want to know is it best to hire a Remis in BA to take one to the Harbor Busqebus to get to Uruguay, then get off boat and then either get driver or take a bus to Colonia/Montevideo/Punta Del Este.
I understand there are demonstrators land wise near bridges near Argentine/Uruguay border and don't want to deal with this, could fly BA/Montevideo, of course but doin a lot of time in airplanes and would like to go via boat/ferry/hydrofoil.
How far is it/How long should it take to get to Busquebus Boat as Going to be staying near Galeria Maill in BA/Orleans?
If one is leaving out of BA with a 5 pm flight midweek, is it best to avoid border/customs/aduana hassle to go back to BA the night before or can one leave either Montevideo/Colonia say that morning and safely make it to the BA airport in time without missing their flight?
Thanks for your time and help, will post when done.
Salto, Uruguay Trip March 2006
I just realized I had written this report but never posted it, from my Uruguay trip of March-April. But since there is nothing on Salto here, I think it is still useful.
To start looking around Uruguay, I crossed from Concordia, Argentina into Salto. The trip is $ar45 by taxi. I prefer to cross the border in a taxi when possible, because it is much faster. Also, there are few options for crossing the border by bus. For light travellers, there is a bus from Concordia's terminal to Salto.
I was going to stay in Salto possibly until after Semana Santa(Easter) so I could go on to Paysandu. Paysandu was full for Semana Santa. Instead, I left early and went on to Montevideo directly(see below). I stayed here 6 days.
Salto is a city of 50-100,000. It is located near the Salto Grande Dam, which forms a large artificial lake. It is also located near 2 or 3 areas of termas in Uruguay. The termas are natural hot springs. The water rises from deep in the ground and because of this arrives at the surface with a temperature of 95F to 110F or so, and contains a variety of minerals and ions. This gives them naturally heated swimming pools. There are claims of health benefits from lounging around in this water. If you want the touristy details, look around in [url]www.salto.gub.uy/turismo[/url] and [url]www.termassaltogrande.com[/url].
There are nice resort hotels in the termal areas. On the bus from Salto to Montevideo, we stopped at one just south of Salto, Termas Del Daymen. It looked quite elaborate, with several hotels and a waterpark called Aguamania. But I imagine that most of the guests are older people 65+, and can't imagine many opportunities for finding women.
Uruguay has the oldest average population age of any country in the western hemisphere. And you can see it on the streets of Salto. During the day, people over 40 dominate the main streets, with many over 60. It is very striking. Later in the day, after 5 PM, one begins to see more younger people. But these tend to be very young, under 18. There are not many people in the 20's and 30's, relatively. I suppose they must all go to other countries or cities to work.
Everything is more expensive in Uruguay than in Argentina. A 500ml Diet Coke is $ar150 in Argentina but $ar225 equivalent in Uruguay, 50% more. This is typical. Many things, though more expensive, are also lower in quality. Like restaurant food. A Chivita in a restaurant is about $ar11, but is not as good as a Lomito Completo in an Argentina cafe for $ar8. Again, almost 50% more, but less cheese, no fried egg, and inferior meat. The hotels are expensive for a small city, but generally not as nice as similar Argentina Hotels.
The city of Salto is quite symmetrical, centered on a river port. The main street, Av Uruguay, is an E-W street in the center of town, from the Western port to the eastern edge. There is a very long costanera and river highway along practically the entire riverfront of the city, extending both south and north equally from Uruguay. From what I can see, the part of the city immediately south of Uruguay is more prosperous than the part north of Uruguay.
The Omnibus terminal is located at Av Batille and Av Blandengues. Av Blandengues is a main 2 way N-S highway that defines the eastern border of the main city. The city is growing into the other side of Brandengues, but there isn't very much over there. The taxi fare downtown from the terminal is about $ur60.
I stayed in the Hotel Los Cedros, right on Av Uruguay in the center of the business district. I had a nice large room with a frig, a special. It had a queen/king bed and a balcony, on the 4th floor. I paid the rack rate, $ur890 for a single. The catch is that if I had a visitor, even for an hour, they wanted to charge me the double rate of $ur1280 for that day. An almost 50% increase! I had a big discussion about this with the desk clerks when I found out. I refused to enter with the woman, and took her back to the street. I told them I was going to leave Salto early because of it, and did. I never did bring in a woman. Basically, I told them that they were exploiting men and I didn't like it and wasn't going to reward it.
The silly thing is, the room as a single is worth more than the $ur890. The rate for a regular room is $ur810 double, a much smaller room. So they really shouldn't rent this room at a single price. The $ur1280 is too high. Given the area and rates, this room should be priced at $ur1000 for single OR double. I stay frequently in larger rooms, and am used to paying a higher price for the larger room. It is ridiculous to charge less for a single person, since the value is all in the limited no. of rooms. For a couple, the increased cost is basically breakfast and towels. If they had priced it correctly, I might have stayed the full 3 weeks.
I mention this because this type of pricing seems to be common in Uruguay. I found it in other hotels where I looked at rooms. For this, it is necessary to negotiate for the right to have visitors when you get the room. Also, I have found other examples of a type of pricing with a too low minimum level price, but then price all the options until it is overpriced. It seems that they really like the upsell. I have heard they use this technique in many apartments/wiskerias in Monevideo. The SW also use it on the street(see below).
Possibly the best hotel option is the Gran Hotel Uruguay on Brasil, the next block N of Uruguay. It is 3 blocks from the Los Cedros. It was full when I arrived, so I didn't get to look at the rooms, but they also have friges. I may or may not have been able to negotiate for guests. I didn't have much choice because of Easter. Another option is Gran Hotel Salto, on Plaza Artigas at the far east end of the business strip. It looked OK from the outside, but I don't know if it has friges in the rooms, and didn't look at the rooms. There are other, cheaper hotels around the strip on Brasil, Uruguay, and some of the N-S streets within 1 block on both sides of Uruguay. The El Dorado was very nicely located. Most of the hotels are located near the center.
Salto is a clean city, and does not have much of the extreme poverty areas of Argentinian and Paraguay cities. In general, it would appear that the socialistic policies that Uruguay implemented early in the 20th century have had many beneficial effects. There are many poor people, but not so much extreme poverty. Generally, I was able to walk all over the city center for 5 blocks each side of Uruguay with no problems, from the river to Plaza de Deportes. I did not walk all the way to Blandengues, about 4 blocks further. I now wish I had looked at Blandengues, just for completeness.
The restaurants generally do not serve food between 3 PM and 8 PM. This is common in the smaller cities, but is very strong here. I could find nothing in the town center where I could eat at about 5 PM, my favorite time. I began eating cold premade sandwiches from the supermarket. I would have loved to find a good chivita or hamberguesa completa, but I never did. So I wasn't picky. Several restaurants don't open their kitchens unitil 8:30 PM. There may or may not be something for cafe food open on Blandengues around the bus terminal area, but it is a bus or taxi ride. I did not see many options for breakfast, but the hotel breakfast was barely sufficient. I had to buy my own fruit.
There is some action in town. There are no ads in the local daily. There may be apartments, but I don't know how to find them. I know of no internet site. One thing different in this town is I never did try to ask cab drivers about finding women. This is strange and very unusual for me. It was just that the whole arrangement did not seem to be set up to make it useful for a taxi tour. Also, on the 1st night I talked to 2-3 guys in the hotel and they marked up a map for me. Everything was in walking distance. Also, when I realized I couldn't have a room guest on day 3 I basically lost interest, and began feverishly researching hotels in Montevideo until late at night, preparing to leave.
There are 3 bars with women working in town. They are located within 3 blocks of each other near the port, Albiso N-S and Brasil and 19 de Abril E-W. They are 1-2 blocks N of Uruguay. They are:
"PK2(pronounced Pe-KU-dos)" on Albiso. Supposedly has 2 rooms available, one woman told me. I went in, there were about 4 women, 4-5 range. I just left immediately.
Leonas, around the corner on 19 de Abril, is supposedly a more strip type bar, lower level than PK2, with 1 room. I didn't go in. Citi, also on 19 de Abril about 3 blocks E of Albiso, is supposedly lower level also, with 1 room. I didn't go in there either. They didn't look like much from the outside, and I was told they were low level. After PK2, I didn't need to go to a lower level.
There are some disco/dance bars in the area of the Plaza de Deportes, at 19 de Abril and Morquio. I walked out there, and there are a few bars, but also a lot of locals hanging around them. It looked like they were regular local places. There are at least 2 discos, one well out on the Costanera Sur and one well out on the Costanera Norte.
There are some SW working in El Centro. The hotel guys marked the map. I also walked around an awful lot of the centro area and didn't spot any others. Since I didn't talk to the cabbies, I can't be sure there aren't some out on Blandengues or another area.
In the center, they are around the corners of Dr Soca and Osmani N-S and 19 de Abril, Agraciada, and 8 de Octubre E-W. There are also sometimes some on Av Barbieri between Zorilla and Herrera, but one woman told me they were all TV's on Barbieri. I only saw several on Wed night but they didn't look like TV's to me from accross the street. None looked interesting to me at that distance, but I am picky. I probably saw a total of about 15 people the 3 nights I looked, with the most Wed. They start at about 10:30 PM, and a couple were in the 6-8 range.
I did find one woman I wanted to session with. She was quite pretty, 24 years old and slim. I did not like the fact that she worked all night, while smoking pot and drinking beer. I had the impression it was almost as much of a party to her as that she needed the money, and she would probably not stop working for me. Also, when I got her in the light, her clothes were a little dirty. I figured I didn't have time to clean her up in 1 week, and wasn't terribly unhappy that I had the problem with the $ur400 hotel charge for a guest in my room and so never sessioned. I had negotiated a price with her of $ur600 for 2 hours. I did give her $ur200 for all her trouble when it didn't work out, since it wasn't her fault. We had spent an hour on the whole room charge business. She was very pleasant. I feel a little regret it didn't work out.
On the street, the price is $ur150 for "simple", and $ur300 for "more complete". This is a classic upsell situation, as the "simple" is too simple and cheap. I don't know exactly what "more complete" means, but had the impression it involved kissing as well as possible full service and maybe completo, probably about 40 min. I had negotiated the top level in the $ur600 for 2 hrs, but I was primarily interested in kissing.
Overall, there is no good reason to go to Salto. If you are going thru there, it can be an interesting stop.
Nana´s Maldonado a Good Inexpensive place....
If one is staying in Punta Del Este, an inexpensive place to get laid costing 400 to 500 Uruguay Pesos is Casa Nana's. Went a couple nites this week, gals were 6+ not 10´s but decent, eager to please, no bs. Opens 8 pm in eve , not B4, gals say they stay til 3 - 5 am, though I was done by 10 pm in my case.
Different than transito in Buenos Aires where one has to walk at least around corner or a bit, instead one walks into club which is in Maldonádo area, each chica has her own room and one bargains with her, once price agreed , I did pay 500 Pesos for head and fuck approx 45 minutes, one gets down to business, girls each got me off good, one pays the money, a little nice bar area outside if waiting for a buddy to finish with selection of booze or cokes, no pressure to buy, park cars in enclosed guarded area.
I don't think I would walk around the streets surrounding counting my money as might be rougher area but had no problems, Punta Del Este approx 15 minute drive off season as now, Piriopolous approx 30 -45 minute drive.
The street behind is another place called I think Champaign's, it does have red lights outside and opens I believe 8 pm, gals there seemed a bit older but was with one for 500 Peso's , gave great head, BJ, and very nice massage after, felt safe.
There seems to be another Whiskeria just down street from Nana's they may have chicas but did not go in as was satisfied with Nana's though did venture in one other day at the other Champains.
I'm in Montevideo now and nice city but just hanging out. So don't rule Uruguay out. Take care.
Very Belated post on Paysandu-April 2006 Visit
Since Nibu posted complaining that noone ever posted on this city, I will make this belated post here.
I stopped here for a few days on my tour of Uruguay. I went here from Montevideo, on my way to Cordoba, Argentina.
I originally didn't post on this city because I didn't want to pile bad news on Uruguay, and was sort of hoping someone else would report. But since they didn't, I will render this service to the community.
Paysandu is a small city on the border, about 50,000 I think. It has a nice beer festival once a year, I understand. I couldn't get anything here aound the time of the festival. I was in Salto and tried. Other than that, it is a really boring place.
The biggest problem with Paysandu is the lack of hotels. The city apparently understands this, and is trying to address it somehow. There was a huge hotel in the center that looked to be about 5 star, but it was closed, apparently some years ago. The best hotel, Mykonos, is very small, with 26 rooms. It seems to be always booked, and I stopped and talked to them. No luck. The Casagrande has only 10 rooms and was also heavily booked. After that, there is very little.
I stayed in a fairly large place with very worn rooms on Bulevar Artigas near Florida. It was cheap, but I didn't even save the name.
There is some street action on Calles Uruguay and Florida. They parallel the main drag of Av Brasil. I walked both streets several times in the night, and saw very little. I talked to one woman who was working(maybe a 7) and she was friendly but said there weren't very many women working.
I looked for bar action or other things. I saw what looked like a bar with action on a side street toward the port end of town, but it didn't look like a good place for a stranger to enter. I was able to walk all the center streets until 2:00AM with no problem. Uruguayan web sites don't have any more information that I can find.
In summary, if you go, either make sure you have a room booked or be prepared to take slim pickings. And don't expect much interesting in the place.
Was at Nana's last week on a Wed night
This is off season and went in Wed eve around 11:30 midnite, a few gals were occupied, on the weekends, think a lot more guys going round talking/nailing the gals but during the week, during off season, there was several good looking gals, one may have been the robotic one mentioned, she wanted 500 pesos for 15 minutes was not flexible in prices, she was younger gal, though down the hall found a bottle type, large tit that were real, blond from Montevideo who first gave me nice massage with oils, and then let me tit fuck her, come into her bunghole for a visit, and then I left, I gave her 1000 Pesos was with her an hour, at McDonald's in Maldonado square, five minute drive away, gave me 23.5 Pesos to a dollar.
There are some like streetwalkers in the area, but no locals and I am not a local and they told me to avoid, Nana's has a nice well lit parking lot with security, that is much safer to go if your a gringo vs some of the Whisketeria's nearby potentially as your parking your car out on street and when you leave, not saying you will/would have problem with folks outside, but never know.
Have friends who are Uruguayan, native to Maldonado, and tell me, that though yo hablo espanol un pocito, is safer to go to Nana's where they have approximately 30 girls working most of the time , most of the year.
Art Fartzalot
Options in the Durazno area
Hi guys,
I'll be working in the Durazno area from the 11th of jan for three weeks, I know my way around Montevideo but this is a new area for me and I was wondering if any fellow mongers had tips for web sites bars or newspapers for leads for some action during my stay. Any tips or hints would be much appreciated. My only hope is after the job is over I may get a night in monty and there is a chance I may get a couple of weeks work in Brazil, on another job.
GR