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Following our week in BA, we took a ferry across to Colonia Del Sacremento, Uruguay. While waiting for the ferry at the port, we took a walk around Puerto Madero, remarking on how much it looked like Dublin’s docklands. When we finally boarded, it took a couple of hours to cross over the enormous Rio de la Plata, apparently the widest river in the world, which I can well believe considering how long it took to cross it. When we arrived in Colonia, we immediately noticed how quiet it was, a major contrast to the hustle and bustle we had left behind in BA.
We spent two days in Colonia, a pretty cobbled stoned town set overlooking the Rio de la Plata. We rented a moped, which has fast become my new favourite thing. We scooted to all the sights and sounds in and around the town, including the bull ring, beaches, a lighthouse, some old churches, and a tiny aquarium that had a cover charge of about 50c. Following our day of scooting, we ate in a beautiful restaurant, accompanied by the local birds trying to get a crumb or two, overlooking the river and watched sun sink into
the river’s horizon at the end of the day.
I left my glasses in Montevideo It may never be a hit song like ‘I left my heart in San Francisco’, but I can relate to Tony Bennett’s longing to go back to this city, if only to get my glasses!
After our two days in Colonia, we moved on to Montevideo, capital of Uruguay. We stayed in a really cheap hotel in the city centre that was like something out of a Hitchcock movie, 60s style architecture with threadbare furnishings. The bar downstairs was men only and hard liquor only. We had a drink in the bar and when I used the female toilets I came to the realization that not many women frequented this bar. The toilets looked like they hadn’t been used or cleaned in years. The staff donned white lab coats, giving them the appearance of alcoholic butchers. To make things even spookier, when we checked in, the kind old lady at reception handed me a key to Room 101, I tried to dismiss this out of my head for the day but the setting of the whole hotel was unsettling and the room number
just topped it off. The next morning Simon told me he woke up at about 4am to someone cleaning the hallway and banging off our hotel door. Thank god, I was asleep! Although feeling a little uneasy, this is definitely one of the more interesting and quirky places that we have stayed at so far.
We had two days to explore the city and tried to fit as much in as possible. In the middle of Independence Square, there is a statue of Jose Gervasio Artigas, considered to be the father of Uruguay who fought for the independence of the country. Below the statue is a mausoleum where his remains rest. His remains are guarded by soldiers who don’t move at all during their shifts, tough going! The old town of the city is probably the nicest part and is where most of the museums and restaurants are, so we took our time wandering around these pretty streets. We checked out several of the capital’s museums, most notably Museo Torres Garcia (Joaquin), a famous Uruguayan artist, whose use of colour is eye-catching. His portraits of famous poets and musicians of his day are also so unusual and intriguing.We rented
bikes which allowed us to check out some of the nicer beaches just outside the city, we also went up to the lighthouse to get some panoramic views and discovered a cat colony just beside the lighthouse. After that, we got a beer, sat on the rocks and watched the sunset before cycling back towards the city. Sounds like the perfect ending to a perfect day, but it was here that I lost my glasses!
Overall, Uruguay was good, not quite as much fun as our previous destinations, but a relaxing change of pace. It is the place where I have discovered my new passion for the scooter and for that I will never forget it. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to Eastern Uruguay, we had been recommended to go to Punta del Diablo and I think if we had made it to this destination, my opinion of Uruguay might be different. One euro is equivalent to 24.2 Uruguayan pesos so it was difficult to get our heads around the exchange rate. But I am told this is simple arithmetic comparing it to the exchange rate of the Columbian peso!
Next stop, following in the footsteps of Bear
Gryll’s braving the Patagonian climate to go ice trekking on a glacier!
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