A day in Uruguay

Trip Start Aug 25, 2008

Trip End Dec 16, 2008

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Flag of Uruguay Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
Friday, October 3, 2008

The tranquil streets of Colonia

Uruguay is South America's premier beach destination with international resorts, casinos, and some of the best beaches in the world. This is where the people from Rio go for beach holidays.

Uruguay is just on the other side of the river from Buenos Aires, so I thought I'd hop over and get some sun for a day or two, but it's been cold and rainy the entire week - I wanted to see Uruguay, but wasn't keen on walking the beach with an umbrella.

Colonia street

So I changed my plans, skipped the Uruguay resorts and went to a little historic town called Colonia - an old smugglers port with cobble stone streets, ancient stone buildings, and built in an old walled fortress (but no beach).

To get there, I had to cross the Rio del Plata - the widest river in the world (137 miles across at it's mouth!). I crossed a narrower part but it still took 3 hours by ferry.

Colonia was a cool little town with art galleries, botiques, and restaurants built in ancient buildings.

Tile roof

And since it was a weekday and early in the season, I basically had the place to myself.

I spent the day wandering the cobbled streets, and every time I entered a shop, the owners would turn on the lights for me.

Main excitement for the day - capsized boat

And the entire police was on hand

Half the town came out to see

The big excitement for the day was that a boat capsized just off the shore, and I think half the town and the entire police force and coast guard were on hand for the excitement. Not much happens in this sleepy little town this time of year.

Main transportation are golf and go-carts

Rent the Hertz batmobile

Squirrel Hell

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The main mode of transportation was golf cart, go-kart, and Hertz had some sort of bat-mobile thing for rent that looked pretty cool. The Hertz office was the size of a newspaper stand with three of these things out front. It was the smallest Hertz office I've ever seen.

Coolest planter ever.

Cool old cars

Old cars parked on the street

The town had a bunch of old cars, some parked on the street with rotten tires and have obviously been there for a very long time. One (above) had a tree growing out of the top, but others were fully operational and the cool thing to do was drive around town in antique cars.