Colonial Colonia

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We’re now in Uruguay. It only took an hour to get here from Buenos Aires. By ferry. We arrived in a lovely colonial town called Colonia. It was colonised by the Portuguese and is full of beautiful Portuguese pottery and lovely old buildings. Cobbled streets and lots of old cars - including loads of Fiat 600s. It was a bit chilly too. We went to El Drugstore for lunch - delicious food - I had the most enormous plate of gnocchi or ñoquis as it's spelt here. Then took in the sights of the historic part of the town.

There’s an old street called Calle de los Suspiros or the Street of Sighs. It is a beautiful cobbled street with an old drain running through the middle of it. Reading that doesn’t make it sound beautiful but it was. The old buildings in warm, rustic colours, the bright pinks and purples of the flowers, the water and the fact that it wasn’t very busy gave it a lovely atmosphere. The town had a friendly, romantic feel about it - a very European style to it. Tree lined streets, old colonial style buildings. I loved it. The hostel was really nice. We only had one night here and although I loved the place, once I had explored I could see that there wasn’t much else to do except take in the atmosphere.

I think I definitely prefer the smaller towns with more personality rather than the really big cities where I always get lost! All the big cities seem to roll in to one - particularly the more westernised they become. They lose their sense of individualism and although they can be fantastic places to explore and have loads of things to keep you occupied, it’s always the smaller places that I remember most (if they have the character to go with it). I’m not saying that all the little towns are nice - some weren’t great - and that all cities are bad - some were beautiful - but just that the small places seemed friendlier and more welcoming.

Everyone drinks ‘mate’(pronounced ‘ma-tay’) in Uruguay. A very strong herbal tea served in a wooden cup with a metal drinking straw/spout. I'm not describing it particularly well I'm afraid. I tried some - it was very strong - not something I’d chose to drink every day.

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