back in the u.s. of a

Well, I decided it would probably be best for me to formally end this blog. After 22 straight hours airports and planes, I've made it back to Shorewood, Illinois. On my last two days, I did make it to Uruguay although my friends unfortunately did not. Rachel was sick, and Sara, Friday being my last day (and not knowing at the time that it was also hers), nobly offered to stay back and let me go.

The trip was relaxing and nice - making the decision to bail on Argentina for the day at the last minute, I raced to the ferry and thankfully it was running late. The trip was quick - just an hour's boat ride across the Rio de la Plata (really not a river at all) to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay to get myself another stamp to add to my passport's pages. Colonia turned out to be a smaller, sleepy (at least in the end of their fall) beach town that dated back to being the oldest city in Uruguay. Once on land, I spent the day walking around the old parts of the city, eating lunch at an amazing little Italian place that literally drained me of every peso I had on me (which wasn't much), walked along the coast for a while, and then read and relaxed at a cafe. Once nightfall came around, I headed back to the ferry to make my way back to Buenos Aires.

For my last official night, we all decided more or less to make it an easier night, all having long ways to travel the next day. Sara and I met up with our two Aussie/Kiwi surfer buddies we had made earlier in the trip and went out for some drinks and dinner. Getting a few pints and then some pizza, we were sitting at the restaurant finishing our drinks when our night came to an abrupt end - Rachel's fever ended up spiking again and not wanting to either have a horrible disease to bring back home or become so sick that she would not even be able to come home, we took Rachel to the ER at 2 am. No worries though, she ended up be plenty fine to get herself home to New York Saturday night, and Sunday morning tests show that it was just your average flu.

In between the ER and the flight home, Sara, the boys from Down Under, and I spent our last afternoon (the boys heading out that night as well) walking around San Telmo and going out for one last parilla hurrah. Salad, steak, wine, and Freddo (awesome gelato chain in Argentina) was our last meal in a foreign country (besides airplane food), and it was fantastic. Afterwords, we packed our bags, said goodbyes to friends and vacation, and made our ways to the our respective modes of transportation. At about 7 pm, I said goodbye to my NYC friends who hopefully I'll be able to see sooner than the year intervals we've been averaging.

After non-stop flights without major delays, my bags and I miraculously all made it to Chicago on time, and I was comfy at home by Sunday afternoon. Overall, my trip was an amazing time, though exactly what I expected happened in the end - three weeks seemed significantly insufficient. However, in three weeks I saw some amazing things and definitely met incredible people along the way. Thanks for following along with me, and I'll make sure to invite everyone to see our pics once we get them up and to follow along my next blog whereever I wander to.

Cheers,

Sarah