Colonia - Uruguay

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We arrived in Colonia in no time on the boat. The journey only took an hour by fast boat. We had only just relaxed and settled into our seats and we were getting off again. We were given a glass of champagne for travelling first class. Everyone else seemed to be getting more, so we ended up having a few. Our hostel was easy to find and our first impressions of Colonia was that is was very picturesque. We checked in and went out to find a restaurant that didn’t have steak on the menu! Michelle got a chicken salad and I got chicken and chips. A jug of the house wine was only €1 so we also had to have that too! We noticed as we sat beside the street that the same cars and bikes were driving up and down the main street. It seemed like the thing to do if you had the transport to do it. They were driving very slowly and there were some cool 1960’s car’s done up with blue lights and loud speaker systems. It was strange at first and the speed they were driving at was kind of like a funeral precession. It provided the entertainment for the evening watching them go by.

The next morning we had breakfast and we were in no rush as the museums only open at 11am. We had heard that Colonia only needs a day but we had given it three. Flicking through the channels we found the Irish match been replayed on the TV. We decided to watch the match again as we had plenty of time to see the town. Even when Jones went to take the kick you still felt like it was all over. I had read on the internet that Kevin Myers of the Irish Independent said that nobody in the world cared about the result Over here it was on all the TV’s and even on the news channel in the boat terminal the day after. When we arrived in Colonia we saw an Irish rugby ball in the window of a shop. I guess nobody cares! We are starting to get a bit cuter and ripped the map of the town out of the LP. I mapped our route and handed over to Michelle so that she could lead the way.

Colonia was founded by smugglers who wanted to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. The Barrio Historico is the area of most interest in Colonia. It contains all the museums and some lovely plaza’s. We walked through the cobbled streets and one ticket did all the museums. They all contained different artifacts. One building contained the bones of dinosaurs and lots of different stuffed animals. We came across Admiral Brown again who had a house here for a while. Us Irish really do get around. This place is exactly how the antiques roadshow would do a town. The pictures I have put up will describe the town the best. It's far from big and the sights can be seen in a little over half a day. Traffic is minimal and although it is and exaggeration to say a moving car warrants a photo been taken, it is not far off true. That night we went in search of The Drugstore. Before you ask why, it’s a restaurant. Strange name, I know. It was a bit pricey so we went to the restaurant next door called Pasta Della Mama. Here we were waited on all night buy a very funny and amusing character. He worked like crazy and was doing at least two tables for every one the other waiters were doing. What was amusing about him is that he wore different clown hats every few minutes. Every time he went inside the restaurant he would come out wearing a different hat. He had at least 50 different hats from what we could see. Every time someone took a photo he would sing ‘Pasta Della Mama’! We had the local Uruguayan dish of Chivito. It is basically steak cooked on the grill with bacon, cheese and a fried egg on top. It was very tasty and the steak was nice and tender. All of this was placed on top of chips and salad and basically you just dig in. I knew Michelle would not pose for a photo with the waiter so I gave here no warning as he passed I asked him could I photo them together and he just jumped in. Michelle had no time to decide either way. It was very funny and I think if she could have kicked me under the table she would have!!

The next day we decided that making our own lunch for the day would be a bit cheaper so we stocked up on some lovely fresh bread, ham and cheese. We made our picnic in the hostel and packed a bag for the day. We had seen people driving around in golf buggies and dune buggies so we decided we would rent out one for a few hours. We decided to get the dune buggy as it looked a little bit cooler than the golf buggy! It was €20 for two hours. The roads are very quite here so driving around was pretty easy. We drove out the coast road and went to a beach that had three people on it. The water is very brown so not many go swimming! It was good fun to drive and we stopped off in different places to have small bits of our lunch. An hour would have done in the dune buggy as we ended up seeing most of the town a few times. We laughed a lot about it as we had now become one of the locals driving around the same path numerous times!

For dinner we decided we would use the kitchen in the hostel. We got the ingredients for some egg fried rice with vegetables and a bottle of red wine in the supermarket for €8. While we were cooking we got talking to lots of people and got some good travel tips for the rest of our journey. The food was great I might add! We drank the wine and sat up on the roof looking at the stars wondering how many people would swap with us right then! So far everything has been perfect and although we can speak no Spanish we are learning a little as we go along. When ordering in a restaurant we can pick out one word from a sentence that we know and are able to understand from that.

We have noticed there are three stages to any place new that you go to. First, is the stage where you feel uncomfortable and unsure of your surroundings and a bit uneasy. Second is the stage where you walk around the place as if you own it and feel like you’ve been here all your life. Thirdly, is where you feel either sad or happy to be leaving a place. We have been lucky so far and always felt sad leaving a place. Today we head back to BA for a flight tomorrow to Fin del Mundo (the end of the world) and a city called Ushuaia. The temp is going to drop by about 20 degree’s and we will finally get to put the thermal wear we bought into action!

In a bit. DH

Song of the Blog: Bullet with butterfly wings - Smashing Pumpkins

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Comments

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Beach Photo
Love the photograph of Michelle strolling on the beach but am puzzled as to what the structure is behind her, What is it? Colonia looks beautiful. You doing wonderful job on the blog Darren, feel I'm tagging along with ye all the way.