Our journey to Uruguay had two purposes:
First, we were out of money in Argentina and needed to cross the border to get American dollars *see posts on Argentina.
Second, I was hoping to discover the fantasy I had imagined by traveling to the three hot spots mentioned in all the guide books.
This one time pirate port is now a sort of upscale day trip from Buenos Aires. Tourists and Argentines make the ferry crossing from BA to Colonia across the Rio de la Plata- "River of Silver" the joke is that it is neither a river nor silver colored- instead it's an hour long trip on big ocean waves that when rough can leave you quite seasick.
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| The view from inside the boat of Buenos Aires |
The above pictures were taken on our return trip which was much smoother than on the way.
Colonia is really just a small town with two basic sections, the tourist area which consists of fancy restaurants, gift shops, he historical port and a few museums, and the regular side of town which looks like any small Midwestern town in the US.
It rained every day we were in Uruguay so I have less pictures to share, but these were a few from our last night there.
My impressions of Colonia and Uruguay in general were probably marred by the rain, but Colonia didn't seem to offer much, the restaurants all seemed too expensive and the tourist sites didn't seem to be anything new... I think many Porteños (people from BA) use it as a day trip to get away from the big city, maybe just to relax and have a glass of wine.
I hoped the big capital city if Uruguay would offer what Colonia hadn't, and I can't say that the city didn't try. There are pedestrian walkways with arts and craft sellers, beaches, malls, public parks and lots of museums, but the culture of Uruguay is just too similar to Argentina and one can't help but compare the two capital cities when they are just a ferry ride apart(this comparison leaves Montevideo seeming like a deprived younger cousin that just can't keep up).
They even had a lot of buildings and public spaces designed by the same architects... But overall Montevideo just seems less exciting.
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| This building was designed by the same architect as a building in BA *see next post |
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| The cathedral looks like a lot of other South American Churches... |
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| Awesome painting shows Montevideo many years ago, notice the cathedral... |
One museum I did appreciate quite a lot (and not just because it included an espresso in the ticket price) was the carnaval museum. The museum includes history about the mixing of the different cultures which created the South American carnaval and distinguishes it from Venetian or Spanish celebrations.
The last place I wanted to check out in Uruguay before heading back to BA was one of the famous beach towns that Uruguay is most famous for. I think in hindsight it might have been better to go to one of the less famous ones, because everything in Punta del Este is in the words of a local expat about double the price of any other town near by...
But we got to see the giant hand!
Punta del Este
The tourist area of Punta had two beach fronts, one super windy(where the hand warns of danger), the other fairly calm(where the port is). Both sides lived up to their reputation, while walking along the coast I saw 10-12 foot waves crashing into the rocks along the windy side:
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| This photo is blurry because it was so windy I couldn't take a proper picture. |
The other side:
The town itself didn't have much to offer, I mostly tried to find cheap food and took pictures of anything that wasn't a fancy store or restaurant.
Other than that our time in Uruguay was spent cooking food, journaling and watercoloring... All of which I'd been meaning to do more often -so not a terrible time, but still not what I had anticipated.
We returned to BA with pockets full of American dollars to exchange and no real need to set foot in Uruguay again... Which is kind of sad because now where will I retire?
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| This is my favorite photo from the Uruguay expedition... |
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