Today we woke up early to get on a boat to Uruguay! This was not something I was aware of that was happening until before I got the itinerary but I’m so happy that I was able to go. We started the day by getting on a big boat that took us across the Rio de la Plata into Colonia, the port for Uruguay. We started by doing a historical walking tour of Colonia and then we did a bus tour around the coast and then we had lunch and free time to explore. One of the most interesting things I learned, that helped me get a better sense of what Colonia was, was that a lot of Buenos Aires citizens vacation here on the weekends. To me, Colonia seemed the equivalent of upstate New York to New York City but with some coasts. I was really fascinated by this area because of the historical significance between the Uruguayans and the Portuguese. Another thing that I really loved about this place was that they had public dogs, and private dogs. The public dogs were kept track of by the town and vaccinated and neutered. The private dogs would run around and play with the public dogs but just go back to their homes at night. The dogs in the street would protect pedestrians by barking at cars that drove by too quickly. This town was so cool because it felt like a tight knit community, even though it was mostly visited by tourists. However even though this was all great, my favorite park was on the boat ride home, sitting next to an older Argentinian couple. I was able to talk to them about so many things but it was really cool to witness the real Argentinian way of living just through strangers I had just met.

And to address the prompt section about Jason, the other program manager, what I like about him is that he is such an interesting person and has so many stories to tell without shame. Just on this trip I learned that he is a poet, professional dancer, and has been to just under 50 countries. He also speaks a few languages. So all in all, he’s just an interesting and kind guy.