Uruguay

Last weekend we had our BC trip to Uruguay, which was a nice change of pace from the intense Patagonia trip and the business of Buenos Aires.

We took a boat across the Río de la Plata, which took about three hours, and arrived in Colonia in time to check into our hotel and find somewhere to eat. My particular table of six opted to split three of an excellent Uruguayan dish that consisted of two large cuts of meat topped with two fried eggs and cheese on a bed of french fries with two pieces of ham, potato salad, lettuce, and four or five slices of tomato on the side. Needless to say, it was delicious and filling. We then wandered around the little city, found the shoreline and sat there for a while. I stared at little optis sailing on the river and probably talked about sailing to whomever would listen because I was pretty nostalgic right about then. After staring at the water for a really long time we came back to the hotel to meet a tour guide for our city tour, which was honestly quite boring but I enjoyed watching the sunset and walking around the town some more. We were all tired and hot at this point since it was probably about 90 degrees Fahrenheit that day so we went back to the hotel to rest and watch Argentina cream Venezuela in an excellent World Cup qualifier game on TV. We went to a really nice restaurant-bar for dinner and I somehow managed to eat again mere hours after the largest lunch I have had in months (impressive). We went back to go to bed asap in order to get up early for the beach.

The following day was spent renting motos/ATVs/bicycles (I’m cheap, hence opted for a barely-functional bike for about three dollars) and driving them to the gorgeous beach. We laid there and collected sunburns for a few hours before struggling back into town on our crappy bikes to see some artisans and climb the big lighthouse. The view of the river and Colonia itself were really pretty, so it was definitely worth the staggering 85 cents we paid to climb it. After returning the bikes and packing up, we went back to the boat terminal to board and watch the incredible sunset over the river before coming home to Buenos Aires.

I really liked the nice, slow pace of the trip, and Colonia was very quaint and pretty.

Fun fact: My family is here!!!!!! We’re going to Iguazú and Misiones tomorrow to see the huge waterfall, the jungle, and hopefully the Jesuit Mission ruins and then coming back so they can see some of Buenos Aires. I’ll probably have even more cool pictures so I’ll put those up with my huge picture post that is coming one day soon…