Colonia, Uruguay

View of the Plaza Mayor from the lighthouse

Historic street in Colonia

Car as planter

Mid-week we decided to do an overnight trip to Colonia, Uruguay.  Colonia is almost due east of Buenos Aires, on the other side of the Rio de la Plata.  We walked to the Colonia Express ferry terminal (probably wouldn't do that again as it required crossing some highway entrance ramps with no crosswalks) and were quickly processed through customs and immigration.  This ferry takes about an hour to reach Colonia.  It is less expensive, but less luxurious, than the Buquebus ferry.  It was perfectly adequate though for such a short trip.  Arriving in Colonia, the ferry terminal is a 10 block walk or so from the historic area.

Colonia has been designated as a UN World Heritage Site.  The historic area is compact and blends into a more modern shopping district that then winds around the coast to suburban areas and a few resort hotels. It was the site of many battles between the Spanish and Portuguese, but now seems a peaceful, tourist-oriented place.  Colonia turned out to be an hour ahead of B.A., so we dropped off our backpacks at our hotel and went to the nearest corner restaurant, El Farol, for lunch.  Sitting outside under umbrellas admiring the plaza and colonial buildings, we shared a plate of salmon with shrimp sauce.  The food sounds better than it was, but the view was pleasant.  In the afternoon we strolled around town, stopped for the obligatory licuado and expresso, visited cute shops, and watched the sunset over the river.  We had dinner at "The Drugstore" which I had read good reviews of.  They offer smaller plates of food, although certainly larger than what I think of as tapas size!  Again though, neither the mussels provencal nor the fried calamari were all that special.  In honor of my brother's birthday, we sought out a piece of chocolate cake elsewhere, but that was also better than it looked.  Happy Birthday though Bro!

Sunset over Rio de la Plata

Happy Birthday Joe!

Balustrade along the river

We were supposed to leave on the 11 am ferry, but were surprised by longer than expected lines and then that we needed our piece of paper proving that we'd paid Argentina's reciprocity fee to return to Argentina.  I had mine, but Jake had left his at home and we had a very difficult time attempting to access the damn thing on line.  Eventually securing the required piece of paper we also got seats on the 5 pm return boat.  It was a steamy hot day, so we decided to have as leisurely a lunch as possible at one of the waterfront restaurants.  We shared a salad of orange slices, cured ham, toasted walnuts, and cherry tomatoes, and a lamb risotto that were both very good.  Realizing that it was Valentine's Day we ordered a dish of strawberries covered in chocolate sauce for dessert.

No problems this time checking in and getting through immigration.  While we were in line to board the boat, a young guy came up and asked if were from NM having seen the flag sewn on Jake's backpack.  He was from NM and had just graduated from MIT.  He was spending a couple months traveling before starting a job in Chicago.  It's always fun to meet smart, young, independent travelers.  Gives me hope for the next generation!