Inspiro. Exhalo. Inspiro. Exhalo.....

The Second of September, a Tuesday

I am still breathing deeply after a relaxing weekend in Uruguay. Just across the Rio de la Plata is a small town called Colonia del Sacramento and Jimmy and I spent this weekend there. A friend of Jimmy’s, when he heard we were going said, “It’s boring.” and I remember thinking, “Yay!” It is a very quiet little seaside resort town with well preserved 60 year old cars and horses that pull loads along the roadways. There are restaurants and shopping, mostly for hand made Uruguayan art and craft, wool, wood, Jewelry, ceramica...

The town is a peninsula so almost any direction you head you’ll soon hit water. You can walk all over town in an hour or at a stroll. There is seafood there! Jimmy and I both ordered big hunks of fresh white tuna with grilled vegetables for lunch both days. We were so excited to see fresh fish on a menu other than salmon. Decadence! It wasn’t cheap but I didn’t even care.

Both days we walked along the coast, rocky shoreline studded with trees and dotted with grassy areas where we lay in the sun and listened to the water move. We walked on the cobbled streets and had our hearts warmed by the friendly smiles of people who stepped aside to let us pass. We walked over to the jazz bar near our hotel and listened to some Uruguayan musicians play Middle Eastern music. It was lovely all around. We sat and talked to one another with no pressing demands on our time. Even though we knew we were coming back here to that this week it was wonderful to just sit. No computers. No television, nothing we’d watch any way. No phones. Just the air and the small town and us. We befriended a town dog, a German Shepherd, who we met again later, wagging his tail at finding us again.

On the way back we talked about when we might go again. We know that this city, big enough for our dreams, will wear us down if we don’t get away once in a while. Today as I moved through another sun up to sundown non stop day I calmed myself with the knowledge that peace and quiet are only a one hour speed ferry over the river and I can get there. Knowing that makes it so much easier to do what I need and want to do here.