Blogs from West, Uruguay, South America - page 6

Pour échapper, le temps d’une journée, au trépidant rythme de Buenos Aires, nous avons décidé de nous payer le billet aller-retour en bateau jusqu’à Colonia, en Uruguay. En effet, comme expliqué dans le blog précédent, Buenos Aires se trouve au bord du « Río de la Plata » et de l’autre côté de ce fleuve, se trouve l’Uruguay. Colonia del Sacramento est la ville uruguayenne la plus proche de la capitale argentine, seulement 1h en bateau rapide (très rapide !) pour la rejoindre. De plus, la jolie petite bourgade est classée au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO, il n’en fallait pas plus pour nous inciter au déplacement ! Nous nous levons donc à l’aube pour nous rendre au terminal des bateaux, à 20 minutes en taxi de notre hostel, terminal d’ailleurs ultra-moderne. Une seule compagnie effectue ce ... read more

Geo: -34.4771, -57.8386Today (14th July), it is exactly a year to the day since I first arrived in Buenos Aires. Happy anniversary to me. I am also just over three weeks away from returning to the UK, with feelings as mixed as my hairstyles have been over the past twelve months. (The fact that the "News of the World" is no more makes me a little more inclined to come home, I have to say.)I had to renew my 90-day tourist visa one last time a couple of days ago, so I went across the river on another day trip to Colonia, in Uruguay…this time with a friend who was getting over the same flu that I was recovering from. We figured we wouldn´t be likely to cross-infect each other if it was the same flu. ... read more

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 ... read more

We woke up Saturday morning relatively well rested. Our room rate includes breakfast, so we head towards the restaurant for what we expect would be your standard continental breakfast. Nope. It was a massive spread of local meats, cheeses, Narbona yogurts, breads and pastries, cereal, fresh fruit, bacon, eggs, etc. Yum. We enjoyed it thoroughly and then caught a ride to La Tierra de Caballos for some horseback riding. Eric and I were the only two on the trail ride, which was led by an authentic-looking gaucho who tried earnestly to communicate with us. My horse had a mind of its own, generally ignoring my directions to stay in line and out of the thorny trees and bushes. Eric's horse had a, como se dice?, gas problem. We both laughed at that one... Thankfully my horse ... read more

Geo: -34.4771, -57.8386"Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."I just spent three days in Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Colonia is a smallish, waterside, switchy-off-and-relaxy kinda place, and I liked it. The souvenir shops were tacky, but I did come away with something – skin burned to buggery, as Nanny Pay would have said if she was still alive.Colonia is very easy to get to from Buenos Aires by ferry (www.buquebus.com, return trip for around 300 Argentinean pesos/U$S75/£50, less if you book well in advance). The end of December is the beginning of summer and averaged 32 or 33°C with ... read more