A short visit to Colonia and Montevideo

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After a full day on Friday with lessons and planning for the onward travel later this week, Jerry and Nicole (both from Colorado) and I took the late ferry for the one hour ride to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, just across the Rio de la Plata. Our B&B was just four blocks from the ferry terminal and once we checked in and dropped our bags off, we ventured out for dinner to celebrate Nicole's birthday! The old town of Colonia is a Unesco World Heritage site and with its cobblestone streets, old city wall, old sycamore lined calles, right on the shore of the Rio de la Plata is as picturesque and relaxing as Buenos Aires is hectic and crammed! What a welcomed change of pace to listen to birds and waves and the wind in the trees. We opted to have dinner in a local dive "parrilla" where the steaks are cooked over the open fire, they are bigger than the plates, and where the wine was plentyful, the Flan for desert amazing, and then we topped it all of with "miel (honey) grapa" shots at the bar, where a bunch of older locals where hanging out! I think they had as much fun laughing at us as we did hanging in this bar that was as far off the tourist trail as it gets! A night to remember!

Being woke up by chirping birds was certainly a change to the honking of BsAs, and so we "explored" this little town with a spring in our step the next morning! Colonia is the perfect day trip escape from BsAs, and so we had the whole old town covered after about 45 min, and settled in a funky cafe for lunch before I said good bye to my friends who had to return to BsAs to catch a flight, and I ventured on to take the local bus fro the 2.5 hrs ride to Montevideo.

I arrived in Montevideo at the main bus terminal at 3:45 in the afternoon, took a cab to my hostel ( Red Hostel, would highly recommend it to anyone traveling there) and then set out to check out the Ciudad Vieja (old town) and the famous Mercado del Puerto! All in all I have to admit that I was not to impressed with Montevideo, and although I am sure it has its beautiful parts somewhere, the city center and even the historic old town are quite run down and dirty. The Mercado and all the Parrillas and arts and crafts vendors were certainly an experience and worth the trip, but I am not so sure I would come back here. The one really curious thing about Uruguay is the Mate however, and it is just amazing to see people from all walks of life carrying their thermos with hot water and their mate everywhere on the streets! I think it contributes to the laid back attitude of the people here!

ok, now it's time to get busy with Spanish again

hasta luego SL

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Photos

Nuevo San Cono
The best Parrilla and bar in town