Colonia, Uruguay

It is finally time to get out of Buenos Aires in what is probably the longest I've ever spent in one city on one visit, besides probably Washington DC. We left BA this morning, taking the fast boat ferry across the Rio de la Platta over to Uruguay. Our first stop, of several, is to be the old Portuguese port city of Colonia. Colonia was founded when the Portuguese needed a city close enough to BA to be their base port for illict trade into Argentina. The Spanish countered by later building Montevideo.

Colonia is small, only about 22,000 people. The old town is still intact with many buildings and streets looking the part of 1700. Our group took a taxi from the port for a short ride over to our hotel. It was one of the few minutes we were sharing rooms in a hostel-like environment, five of us guys to a single room. We quickly had lunch and were then free to explore the city on our own. I rented a mountain bike, great for the semi-hilly and cobblestoned streets.

Uruguay is the third wealthiest country in South America, so I'm not moving into the developing world with the next serious of stops. Uruguay has just enough poverty though to keep things interestng at times. The people are supposedly very friendly and proud of their small nation (only 3 million people) squeezed between larger Argentina and Brazil.

A large thunderstorm hit late in the afternoon, ending the bike ride a little early. It rained for a couple hours and then got very windy for the rest of the evening and overnight. Our group had a more intimate dinner that night at an in-house restaurant in the old city at a couple's house. The menu was exclusively in Spanish and was difficult and confusing to read, but I ended up with the salmon on a sweet citrus orange sauce (yum) with a side of thick-sliced homemade potato chips that were only slightly crisp. I wanted juice for my beverage but couldn't understand the waitress when she was taking orders and went with the safe bet of apple juice, since "manzana" was the only recognizable word I could gather from her verbal list. I thought she said "banana" at one point and jumped for the banana juice only to get a good laugh and jibbing from her to think I could have a banana beverage...lol. I tried. :/

We only briefly stay in Colonia and move on to Montevideo in the morning...the capital city that houses half of the entire country's population.

Aussie David is traveling with his newleywed wife, Eleanore, and is enjoying the chloresterol-bomb, chivito sandwich, shown here (steak sandwich with cheese, ham, egg, bacon, etc)





Empanadas - a South American favorite. They come with just about anything on the inside (but typically a meat and veggie mix)



Our cramped van transport from the ferry port. Shown - Eleanore from Australia, Anzo from France, back of Mathias from Denmark and Emilee (Anzo's newleywed wife). Some of them had multiweek trips prior to this GAP trip (Peru and Bolivia are popular stops...Bolivia sounds like a "hoot")