HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Crossing another South American country off the list
BUMMER OF THE DAY: It was HOT HUMID and HOT
WORD OF THE DAY: We have big fat donuts….
We had an early start this morning. We were heading to Uruguay for the day to cross another South American country off our list. There are only 3 countries that we don’t do on this trip, besides Uruguay, which are Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. After talking to Mark, they seem to be European influenced and quite expensive countries to visit. Well my round the world ticket brings me back to South America in 12 months’ time, maybe I can cross them off then?
We left the hotel at 6.40am; with the hope of getting a taxi straight away to the port for the check-in requirement of an hour prior to departure with our ferry leaving art 8am. We were a little surprised when there wasn’t a taxi at the rank and there didn’t seem o be many of them on the road. We only had to wait around 10 minutes and we got one no problems, but we have been used to taxi just ‘being’ there every time we have needed one. We have been so lucky on that front; it is a little surreal actually. But the drive was only 10 minutes for the ferry port getting us there just before 7am. We lined up to check-in and it is pretty cool that we don’t have any luggage, wish we could travel like that all the time. The check-in dude didn’t even look at our voucher, we just had to show our passports and were given a pre-printed immigration form and boarding pass for the ferry which was pretty cool as we didn’t have to hunt for pens and try and fill in forms. We then had to stand in another line that was to get us through the security checkpoint and immigration. There was a family behind us that had 7 kids under 6 (3 of them were babies) travelling with 3 adults. It was like a military operation on getting them all checked in, security screened with all their hand luggage and stamped through immigration. I am not sure if I would do any ambitious travel with young kids. Firstly it is a mission in another country to keep them feed and watered, do they remember when they are that young and with the stress of it all is it worth it for the parents? Don’t get me wrong I think family holidays are important, but to travel to a different continent, all those hours, language barrier for what? I would be staying closer to home. I think it take the pleasure out of the holiday and with 7 kids….. They sat in front of us on the ferry and they were quite well behaved but they bigger ones had to look after themselves pretty much while the babies got all the attention. It is so hard for me to comprehend having 6 siblings being an only child. Do they miss out on hugs and kisses, sharing the love between so many in such short age gaps? I don’t know, I’m not knocking large families it is just a passing comment.
Our bags got sniffed by a dog before getting scanned and then we were processed through Argentina and Uruguay immigration at the same time, so once we arrive into Uruguay we were ready to hit the ground running without having to wait and go through it all on their side to enter. What a great idea! It was a high speed ferry that only took 1.15 hours to get to Uruguay and the town of Colonia. They had a National Geographic show on Lions in Africa playing on the main screen for the duration of the trip, but I am not sure it was family appropriate as it was quite graphic of the lions kills and attacks on other animals. There were certain scenes I couldn’t watch, let alone a 6 year old watching the show. They also had smaller TV’s on the side searing that had music clips playing and there were classic 80 songs and music videos. To think that was cool 20 years ago was hilarious.
Once we arrived into Uruguay we arrived into the newly built ferry terminal and found our guide for the morning Maria. As we waited for the rest of the group to get off the ferry Kate and I got a bite to eat from the café. In Uruguay they have their own peso for currency, but that also accept the Argentinian peso, so we were able to pay for our chocolate milk and ham and cheese croissant without having to exchange any currency. There was also a post office at the terminal so I took my Globetrotter book in to ask if they could stamp it and it was like an outlet that just sold stamps, but they would only take local currency, he wouldn’t take Arggy pesos or USD, so I asked one more time in the international sign for ‘ink stamp’ with my fist clinched (that looked exactly like a stamp) and did a stamping motion, to which he got up from his desk and retrieved an envelope from another room. He pulled out lick lick stamps and gave me one for free. I was very grateful and when I looked again later it had a dollar value of $1, which isn’t much in AUD, but did he pop in some of his own money to pay for my stamp? It was a very generous gesture and I now had my Uruguay box now ticked off.
So with everyone now accounted for our group of 22 then started out walking tour of downtown Colonia. The tour was to only last around an hour and then we had free time till our ferry departure at 5pm. We had to wind our watches forward an hour and we had to be back at the ferry terminal an hour before, so we literally had 5 hours in Colonia, which after spending the time here was well and truly enough.
Colonia del Sacramento (formerly the Portuguese Colónia do Sacramento) is a city in south western Uruguay, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the oldest town in Uruguay it has a population of around 22,000. It is renowned for its historic quarter, a World Heritage Site. Founded in 1680 by Portugal as Colónia do Sacramento, the colony was later disputed by the Spanish who settled on the opposite bank of the river at Buenos Aires. The colony was conquered by José de Garro in 1680, but returned to Portugal the next year. It was conquered again by the Spanish in March 1705 after a siege of five months, but given back in the Treaty of Utrecht. Another attack during the Spanish-Portuguese War, 1735-1737, failed. It kept changing hands from crown to crown due to treaties such as the Treaty of Madrid in 1750 and the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777, until it remained with the Spanish. It then transferred to Portuguese control again, being later incorporated in Brazil after 1816, when the entire Banda Oriental (Uruguay) was seized by the government of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and renamed the Cisplatina province.
Now part of the independent country of Uruguay, Colonia del Sacramento has expanded to the north and east, but the original Barrio Histórico(historic quarter) retains its irregular, terrain-fitting street plan built by the Portuguese, contrasting with the wider, orthogonal calles in the newer Spanish area.
The Barrio Histórico (historic quarter) section of Colonia del Sacramento is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is a popular tourist attraction for visitors from Buenos Aires, and there is frequent ferry service across the Río de la Plata between the two cities. The historical section of Colonia, which has some cobblestone streets built by the Portuguese in the 17th century, is within walking distance of the ferry terminal.
So our walking tour encompassed a walk by the notable visitor attractions included the tree-lined Plaza Mayor (main square), the City Gate and wooden drawbridge, the Lighthouse and convent ruins of the 17th century Convent of San Francisco, the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament, built of stone by the Portuguese in 1808, the Casa de Nacarello – an 18th century Portuguese house, the Viceroy's House – the Casa del Virrey, reconstructed from the original ruins and the Iglesia Matriz – the oldest church in Uruguay, dating from 1695–99, which we got to go inside.
We were then walked onto the main street of Colonia, shown which direction the restaurant was for the included lunch and suggestions on how to spend the rest of the afternoon. The tour finished out the front of the Thrifty Car Rental office and you could hire golf buggies to drive yourself around the old town and up to one of the beached called San Carlos, so after seeing what the sleepy old town offered we decided to pay the 50USD for the rental of a buggy and cruise around for a few hours after lunch. I asked what an excess on a golf buggy was and it was only 200USD, I can handle that. I wonder if my travel insurance would have covered a golf buggy accident on a public road. These are the chance we take on holidays aren’t they, it is something that wouldn’t have been done back home but in our defence Colonia was a pretty sleepy little town, so the traffic wasn’t really an issue. There was enough to keep you on your toes but not manic.
The included lunch wasn’t that great, but it got us out of the heat for an hour and then we hopped into our golf buggy and cruised around for a few hours along the coast of the beach to San Carlos and then we doubled back via some suburbs of Colonia and the Plaza de Toros Real de San Carlos, a Bullring included in an old tourist complex now abandoned. It really was quite hot so it was nice to have the wind flapping in our hair and the breeze to keep us cool for the drive. The second we parked the buggy in the old square and got out the heat was oppressive. It was weird getting out of the buggy and not having to lock doors or wind up windows. It was the first time I have driven a motorized car since leaving home over 10 months ago and it just reminded me how much I missed it. I think with that in mind it made it easier for me to be able to drive on the opposite side of the road without too much trouble as I hadn’t driven for too long. There is one rule I remember when driving on the right side of the road is when turning the vehicle right, keep it tight! So with our red faces we found a café that had umbrellas set up and we sat in the shade and a soft drink with ice to try and cool ourselves down. By the time we rustled ourselves to get some more use out of the buggy, we had 40 minutes till we had to be back at the port, so we drove for another 20 minutes along the beach and then turned around and drove to the port to drop off our buggy and check-in for the fast ferry home.
The check-in procedure for the ferry back was as easy as the coming over. The main difference is the Uruguay terminal is a lot bigger and newer than the Argentinian side. Before heading through immigration I used the money changer to get myself some Uruguay money as part of my souvenirs. One USD gets you 20 Uruguay pesos. So with the stickers, the postcard and the magnet I bought today it will all be shipped home in the next box. I haven’t sent a box home since La Paz, so it has been awhile, but I really haven’t been buying a hell of a lot the last month or so, which is always a good thing for the budget.
They did the same immigration procedure on this side, and we got our Uruguay and Argentina stamps done at the same time, they literally sit next to each other at the same counter and then we are through to the departure lounge and wait for the boarding call. They showed the same Lion eating documentary on the way back and a whole lot of early 80’s Elton John tunes.
Gray has been mentioning all week about this steakhouse in Buenos Aires that has the best steaks in the whole world, so tonight we were going to see this for ourselves. There was a small spanner thrown into the works when we got out of the hostel it was raining cats and dogs. Now the rain wasn’t the issue, it was finding taxis that were available to take us the 12 blocks to the restaurant. Finding one was tough, we needed 3. Gray had a positive outlook for the first 40 minutes and after standing out in the rain and looking like a drowned rat it was time to give up and go to a plan B. Well Gray and Debs plan B was Macca’s. I couldn’t do it again, so we took 5 of the crew to ‘our’ restaurant at 9pm for a late dinner. Our restaurant serves pretty good food, a little on the expensive side but you don’t mind paying that when you get the good food, but the service is a little to be desired. We have had the same Spanish speaking waiter for the last few visits and he has yet to get one of them right! It is a little like Faulty Towers and it gives us a good laugh. So we didn’t get to the steak house and the weather was crap for the rest of the evening.
All in all it was a nice day. If you were limited on your time in Buenos Aires, then I wouldn’t suggest the day trip to Uruguay, your time would be better spent in BA, but as we had 10 days, it was good to get out and as mentioned previously to cross off another South American country. The other good thing was the day trip normally comes back on the 9.45pm ferry but there were no seats left when we had made our booking last week. This was a blessing in disguise as to spend another 5 hours here would have been really tough.
