Dec 29

So after waiting in a long line to check in, again through immigration and again through boarding we finally claimed some space on the ferry. To our delight, Mariann had prepared us a picada, with fruit, cheese, bread, salad and chocolate...Such a nice suprise at 1am in the morning. A note to Argentinian parents: children should be seen and NOT heard! Thankfully Beanie had earplugs and was able to get some sleep, and Riki, well Riki just blocked it out mentally. Of course we were delayed and finally got into Colonia, Uruguay at 4am and onto the bus to Punta where we arrived at 11ish. We got to our hostel and checked in without issue, its a pretty sweet hostel located well in Punta. We then showered and ubicated ourselves with Punta centro. We walked down in the blazing sun and saw the yacht club and the marina. Some sweet sweet boats are moored there, and Riki and kept trying to come up with some plans to familiarise ourselves with their owners and interiors. We gave up however and Riki had no mental mindmap of where we had been so Beanie had to save the day and redirect her.
Once back at the hostel we had a sundowner (or two..) of strawberry caipiroskas and daiquiris and had a perve session of a Greek God and 2 German boys in the hostel. A preening hour later we were ready to go to meet Oli and Co. We walked to his hotel only to find out they had just left, so we left a note and went on a half hour walk only to return and see them on our walk back. We sat with them and had dinner of salad, grilled chicken and multiple jars of red sangria while exchanging sordid stories and teaching the American boys a few bits of Kiwi vocab. With Ryan kindly picking up the check we all went back to their hotel and Riki and I admired the '50" plasma screen tv' and laughed at their attempts to get the aircon as cold as mechanically possible. At about 130am we taxied to a club called 'Tequila'. By now I should let you know that Punta is a place where the taxis are Mercedes, and the cover charge to enter a club is $50USD... So anyway we got to Tequila and after some debatement and Riki and I declining to go in due to student travel budget, we were incredibly spoiled and the boys paid for both our entries. We love Americans who work in Finance in New York - really we do. An obligatory tequila shot followed our entry, and Beanie had the privilige of standing nearby Ivan de Piñeda - the face of Ben Simon, and who has modelled for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein etc...
Riki and I cringed when we saw the waitresses - dressed like a a Missy Elliot video gone horribly wrong. But the bar itself was pretty funky, (as one would hope when $50Usd is needed per person) and if one had $2,500USD to spare could buy a table for the night with a few bottles of Absolut thrown in. The boys wisely passed on that option. A few vodka sunrises and beers later we were all getting down on the D-Floor and having a good time. Of course our good friend JT came on with our theme song - I've got a sweaty back..
At about 530am we all stumbled out and Riki with her keen eyes got us all on a bus back to Punta saving us a considerable taxi fare. During the bus trip we met an English guy called Richard who was rafting with us in Mendoza..small world, and Riki had a snooze (the bus trip took about 30mins). Afetr arriving in Punta centro again we wobbled back to the hostel where we crashed into bed.