Colonia, Uruguay - 15-19 March

Colonia in Uruguay is just a 1 hour boat ride away from Buenos Aires and it is gorgeous. We went there to kill some time while we waited for James´new bank card which was supposed to be arriving at our hostel in Buenos Aires (BA) following the theft etc which happened in Brazil.

The distraction turned out to be a gorgeous little village, the old town full of big, leafy, tree-lined avenues with cobble stones and quaint, old buildings. We came for 2 and stayed for 5 days, just chilling out really.

Everyone seems really social there and hangs about together with friends and family til late in the evening - all of them drinking mate (pron: mar-tay) which is a bitter tea drink drunk out of special carved wooden and leather cups through an elaborate metal straw thing which looks a bit like a spoon.

We hired a moped and were the only two people in all of Colonia (Uruguay probably) wearing full face helmets, or any helmets for that matter! We got loads of stares from everyone. Everyone. We couldnt care less.. we got used to be constantly stared at a while back.

We hooned around the old streets, found an old bull ring which was fenced off but we found a hole in the fence and climbed through. Well worth the effort as it was quite amazing inside. Not sure why they dont use it anymore.. I guess its not very PC to spear bulls. Found some really cool cow hides and wanted so much to buy one as the ones from here are supposed to be the best in the world, but the cost of posting them back to Oz was as much as the hide itself.. :-(

Colonia was originally set up by the Portugese as a port to smuggle contraband between BA and Uruguay. There are beaches which are lovely but the water is brown for some reason. Didnt stop us from hanging out there on some nice, hot, sunny days and catching some amazing sunsets. We had great weather and the people were friendly.

Quite sad to leave really!

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