Advertisement
Published: September 18th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Our research showed that one of the things to do while in Buenos Aires, is to hop on a ferry across the Rio Del Plata to Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay. A lot of sources were saying that a day is more than enough to spend in Colonia Del Sacramento, and we found that this was very true. Another reason to visit this place is to withdraw dollars (USD) from ATMs. As you would have seen in my first blog post, the dollar is a strong currency here, especially at the blue rate. ATMs have a limit of $300 a day per card. We had read online that on weekends, the banks run out of dollars quickly, as people come over to Colonia Del Sacramento for the purpose of returning to Argentina with dollars - and they get a weekend break out of it!
Booking tickets online We booked our ferry tickets online on SeaCat Colonia and the website was mostly in Spanish, though it had the option of reading in English. This is possibly the longest online booking procedure I have ever encountered; the most frustrating part of booking on this website was that they were asking
for various things such as the Argentine tax code numbers, and there wasn't an option to say that you didn't have one. Also, the country of origin / residence part for the UK was not easy to find on the drop down selection. Anyway, they emailed the e-tickets after 10 minutes of (patiently?) waiting for them.
The journey there On a more positive note, the ferry terminal was very impressive; it looked like a small airport and was very well staffed. The people around were friendly and helpful; my SUBE card fell out of my pocket while I got my phone out, and the man who found it, followed us all the way to the boarding gate to give it to us.
The ferry journey lasted about an hour; there is an option to sail on a three hour ferry too and a blog that Alex read, said that entertainment is provided on them. The boat was small - I was not expecting this. The ferries in England are much bigger and they have a whole cafeteria section, duty free, shops etc to keep customers entertained. There were only passengers and no vehicles on this ferry,
which could explain why the boat was so small. The seating on board was like that of a plane, but without the seat belts. Light refreshments were available; we had tea and two medialunas each. Medialuna is THE thing for breakfast here, if you've read my previous posts, you will know that they are very tasty! About half the people on board were enjoying their Yerba Mate. They came prepared with containers of herb, sugar and their flasks of hot water. Some people had already finished their hot water and so bought some from the refreshment stand.
The town The town reminded me of high streets in the UK, with shops on either side with restaurants dotted all around. It was clearly a very touristic area as you could pay in USD, Reals (Brazilian) and Argentine Peso. All around town, we could spot really old and classic cars, some were in better condition than others. We walked further towards the coast and found the old, historic part of Colonia Del Sacramento: Barrio Historico. This place was beautiful; the cobbled streets, the basilica, the ruins of the Portuguese San Franciscan Covent beside the Lighthouse, Calle de Los Suspiros,
the coast; we loved it! We took lots of photos and quite a few selfies on the selfie stick, as you can see in the photos. We really admired the Portuguese influences of the town; the basilica reminded me of the churches in Goa.
There were quite a few restaurants, cafés and ice cream parlours around Barrio Historico, they even had a Freddo store, which is a helado (icecream) chain here. We sampled a Dulce de Leche (caramel) icecream here with our tea and it was so good! Dulce de Leche seems to be really popular in Argentina and in Uruguay; most desserts, pastries, pancakes and chocolates come with an option of Dulce de Leche. Alex thinks it is too sweet but I've become a fan of the Dulce de Leche icecream!
The sea side town of Colonia Del Sacramento is quite small, and we had seen the main tourists attractions within a couple of hours of being there. We also visited the harbour, which was very pretty, quiet and calm. We went on a weekday, off-peak season so the quite and calm atmosphere could be explained by this. We walked to a nearby mall after lunch; it
was the smallest mall we had ever seen! It had a cinema, fast food restaurant, supermarket and a few shops - but that was it. This mall had nothing on Westfield or Dubai Mall!
Right before we walked back to the ferry terminal, we watched the sunset on the coast. There were cars parked at the harbour, with drivers and passengers watching the sunset. There were a few couples watching the sunset too; it looked very romantic and picturesque, at the same time.
Things we noticed There was a general lack of PDA in Colonia Del Sacramento, unlike Buenos Aires, which had it at every corner of your eye. When we arrived back at the ferry terminal in Buenos Aires, as couples were reunited, we saw PDA and immediately realised that we were back in the city of Buenos Aires.
The drivers were every relaxed and calm in Colonia Del Sacramento, compared to Buenos Aires. Just an observation - most cars in Buenos Aires have scratches, dents and marks on their bumpers. We have seen the way people park and reverse in BA; yesterday we witnessed a small van backing right up into a
huge dumpster. We really could not understand how he didn't see it. In general though, as people park in BA, their car touches the car parked behind them and we have witnessed this too many times.
We had problems using our Lloyds cards (both of us!) when paying for a meal, despite letting the bank know we were in Uruguay for the day. We were able to use our Halifax, Barclays and Santander cards, thankfully. Santander only charged us a bit under £3 for the withdrawal which we thought was pretty good; we withdrew at a Santander branch so that could explain why we didn't get charged by the actual ATM machine. Not all machines accept a Sterling card so perhaps go to a bank that has a worldwide presence.
Nonetheless, we had a relaxing day away from the hustle and bustle in Buenos Aires. We enjoyed the scenery and the atmosphere in the town and would recommend it to anyone who wants a day away from the city life. If you fancy it and have the time, you can hop on a ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay, from BA or you can get a coach from
Colonia Del Sacramento.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.153s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0743s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb