Blogs from Uruguay, South America - page 9

We Went to the Colonia bus station and looked for a company sign that listed Montevideo and bought a ticket. We arrived in Montevideo in two hours and took a taxi to our hotel. I fell down on the job with this hotel. It was cheap $40.00 per night but the location was 2K from the areas tourist visit and was in a bad neighborhood. The bed was very uncomfortable and the share kitchen was disgusting. Well we were only staying two nights. On the up side we got lots of exercise walking to and from the tourist area every day. We also had two really good steak dinners here at El Fogon at 1080 San Jose and El Palenque at 579 Perez Casterlano. We went to the museum Historia del Arte and it was interesting ... read more

Colonia is easy to get to from Buenos Aires. We used the ferry service Buquebus, it has a large station in the Puerto Monte area of Buenos Aires. We bought our tickets a few days in advance but it was not necessary because the ferry is very large and could have carried at least a hundred more passengers. We knew how much the tickets were. We tried to buy the tickets online but the tickets were more expensice online so we went and bought our tickets in person. You need to have your passport with you when you buy your tickets. You make your reservation at one window, then pay at the cashier. You need to get to the ferry an hour and a half before your departure time. When you arrive you go to a ... read more

Saturday 7thFebruary 2015 This blog is being written half way across the Atlantic on a flight bound for England. It is the early hours of the morning. Very sadly, John’s mum passed away on Wednesday evening, so we are returning to the UK. We shall return to South America to continue our travels in a week or two and resume the blogging. Here follows a very brief update, since we left Buenos Aires on Tuesday morning… The ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia de Sacramento took just over an hour and it was a smooth crossing. Colonia is a small town, the oldest in Uruguay, with some of the old walls still intact. It is located in a strategic position, guarding the entrances to the River Uruguay and the River Parana. We stayed ... read more

Wednesday 28thJanuary: Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Argentina In July 1865, a clipper named “Mimosa” entered the natural harbour of Golfo Nuevo, bringing 150 Welsh immigrants to Argentina. They found some natural caves on the south eastern shore of the harbour, in which they made their homes; the caves are still there. They named the place “Porth Madryn”, after the name of the estate of Madryn in Wales, owned at the time by Sir Love Jones-Parry, the Baron of Madryn. Spanish settlers soon followed and in the 20th Century, more still from several different European countries. Puerto Madryn, as it is now called, is very European in style. The architecture of many of the buildings reflects the English style and many of the houses look Bavarian in character. The beach culture, however, is entirely Spanish. It is ... read more

27. Dezember, Bariloche - Buenos Aires - Colonia (Uruguay) Der Stadtflughafen in Buenos Aires verläuft parallel zum Meer, welches wir beim Verlassen des Terminals auch direkt erblicken konnten. Leider gabs keinen Bus zum Hafen und so stiegen wir in ein Taxi ein. Der Fahrer liess die Reifen schon bei der ersten S-Kurve zweimal quietschen. Vermutlich war er früher ein Ralleyfahrer oder so. Er gab vollgas, hat in den Kurven alle Spuren genutzt, vor dem Grünschalten fuhr er los und beschleunigte auf über 100 km/h in der Stadt. Leider hatte die Schifffahrtsgesellschaft „Colonia Express“ Weihnachtsferien bis zum 7. Januar und so mussten wir zurück zu „Buquebus“ fahren. Der Fahrer hatte zuvor etwas auf Spanisch geschwafelt, was wir aber nicht verstanden haben. Vermutlich wusste er es schon. Nach nur 1 h Fahrt mit dem Passagier- und Autokatamaran bei ... read more