DAY 25-26: Colonia de Sacramento, Hostel Español

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I arrived in the afternoon after taking a 2 hour bus from Montevideo. The weather was gorgeous so I dumped my bag down and headed out to the main square and started to get my bearings. Colonia is a beautiful colonial town (suppose the clue is in the title!). It has cobbled stone streets and quaint restaurants and ice cream parlours...not much to do really except wander round, soaking up the atmosphere and ´taking it all in´. I did spot some dinosaur remains in the municipial museum, which apparently were found on the coast of Colonia 400 years ago.

I decided to treat myself to some tea out so I found a nice restaurant and had some steak and wine as the sun was going down. I headed back to the hostel and made friends with Miles and Jenny from Sheffield who were bubbly and friendly and also Puck from Holland who was hilarious. We played card games all night, most of which I didn´t know, had some vodka and chilled out. Puck was saying she has Puck Luck...but she was a pro no question.

The next day we decided to rent bikes and go to the older part of the town where an unused bull ring and train station existed and it also gave access to smaller beaches. We went to the bike shop and saw a four man pedal bike which looked like fun so we gave it a go...we went for about 20 minutes bouncing up and down the bumpy streets, laughing our heads off with everyone laughing at us and taking photos and little old women saying ´Que bueno!´ and taking pictures of us. It was all very bueno until a bolt fell off; I think Miles and Puck had been pedalling too vigorously at the front because me and Jenny were doing naff all at the back! Anyway we took it back and paid a bit extra for our own bikes. It actually worked out for the best because not only were we not a tourist attraction anymore, but we could actually get places quicker- getting four people up hill had been a particular challenge! We headed to the bull ring and stopped by a tiny, desolate beach for lunch before heading back and grabbing a quick coffee before I got my hour long boat to Argentina.

I managed to catch the sun on my little day out and I´m also meeting Jenny next week so we can head to Chile together.

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Photos

South American tea
It´s a silver pot with ground tea leaves. Hot water is added then you drink it from a metal straw

I´m guessing we´re not supposed to go in
But how can we get in...?

Take a seat!
Not exactly well maintained...

Pitstop
Lunch by the beach

Leaving Uruguay
Heading over to Buenos Aires on the boat