Colonia Del Sacramento
It was our plan right from the beginning to pay Uruguay a short visit while living in Buenos Aires for a month. Best way to get there is to use one of the ferries that run several times a day. The quickest place to reach is Colonia Del Sacramento and visiting is highly recommended. We decided to take the fast ferry that only takes one hour. There is a second option, a bit cheaper, but it takes three hours ... By now, our language skills are good enough to handle even the Spanish online booking for the ticket and hotel. Not possible just a few months or even weeks back! Hey, it seems we are making progress as even check-in and emigration was working well in Spanish! :-)
The ferry arrives at 10:15am local time (Uruguay being ahead of Argentina one hour) in the harbor and we arrive in the hotel at around 11 am. With the room not ready yet, we decide to take a walk down the lovely beach. A bit of exercise such as palm tree stemming helped to increase the huge hunger we already have. Lunch was not available before 1pm and we didn’t have a decent breakfast that day...
We use the fast ferry to get to Uruguay from Buenos Aires.
A little exercise before lunch to increase the appetite. ;-)
A lovely old town with lots of old cars. Th ones here belong to the restaurant.
The old lighthouse of Colonia Del Sacramento.
A view from the old lighthouse across the old town.
Few remains of the old town wall.
An old gate as part of the old town wall.
Locals enjoying themselves while drinking Mate.
Skyline of Buenos Aires in the distance across the Rio de la Plata.
1 - 9
<
>
The city itself was founded in 1680 and the old part is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Really beautiful with a lot of old houses, tiny streets and a lot of vintage cars. Makes you feel like traveling back in time. Time in Uruguay seems to be slower than in other places we have visited so far (with the exception of Africa). Compared to European life Buenos Aires is significantly more relaxed already (yes, we like this a lot! :-) but here in Uruguay time is even less important and people are very relaxed and friendly.
On the map we find a suggested tour through the old town which takes you to the most important sites to visit. From the old lighthouse you have a great view across the city and the Rio de la Plata which is “only” about 50 km wide here. The old part of the city is not very big. So spending two full days is more than enough if you come here just for the “city”.
A small part of the old town wall and one gate are still visible as well. For us however, the most amazing thing is how “addicted” the locals are to Mate, the national drink of Argentina and in particular of Uruguay. Independent of young and old, women or men, you see them all walking around with their “calabash gourd” and a thermos with hot water. Even in the restaurants they have it with them. Well, I guess it’s better than drinking lots of alcohol...
Before we have to go back to the ferry, we take a sundowner at the beach of the Rio de la Plata (not Mate though ;-). On a clear and sunny day like we have you can actually see the skyline of Buenos Aires. From Buenos Aires it is far more difficult. The city is not facing the river, it is really focused inwards. Something we can’t really understand ...
Two very relaxing and interesting days come to an end with another hour on the ferry back to Buenos Aires. There we even manage to identify and find the right bus back to our neighborhood (not an easy task with about 200 bus lines). We are becoming locals after all ... ;-)
