A Day Trip to Another Country

(That one was for you siblings)

My mom and I both were so relaxed after coming from Mendoza that the Buenos Aires noise and rush was too much for us. So, we decided to take a day trip to Colonia , Uruguay. This quaint and serene old city is just on the other side of the Rio de la Plata (apparently the widest river in the world). We had a bit of drama getting to the boat dock. I am beginning to learn that people here are accustomed to being absolutely certain about the directions they are giving even if they are absolutely wrong. Nevertheless, we made it to the Buquebus station just in time for our ferry to Colonia. The ferry ride over is about 1 hour. The ride isn't very eventful...at least it wasn't for us since we were not able to sit by a window. (Sidenote: if you want to get a window seat, be sure to arrive at the dock 1 hr before it leaves).

Upon docking in Uruguay, I received another stamp in my passport and my mom and I headed off to see when our city tour would start. We purchased a package with Buquebus that included a lunch and a city tour. First was our lunch. Lunch was not very good and I would suggest people not to the package with the lunches because the restaurant they send you to is not worth it. The restaurant smelled a bit and the salad bar (which was to be our first course) had nothing but left overs. The main entrée of steak was dry and the postre (dessert) was nasty...It would be better to scope out a restaurant on your own. There are plenty of restaurants all around and I am sure that they would be 10 times better.

When we began our tour (the one for English speakers) we found that we were the only ones on the tour. We could not object to that. The tour started with a bus ride through the centro historico.

We saw an old Spanish bull fighting ring. I love the Moorish architecture. Don't worry animal lovers bull fighting has been outlawed for decades.

We drove up the coast and got a chance to stop and enjoy the river. Sure it make look like the beach but this is a riverbank. It was water none the less and I loved it.

The second half of our trip was of Real de San Carlos, the town center. The main emphasis of this portion was the influence of both the Spanish and the Portuguese in this city. The Spanish and Portuguese fraught against each other 7 times in pursuit of this land and during their different periods of inhabitance they made their mark.

You can't really see the details very well but the Portuguese houses are smaller and colorful and the Spanish houses are taller and more ornate in its structure.

They even made their streets differently. The Portuguese made their streets slant into a "V" shape so that water on the road would collect in one stream. While the Spanish slightly beveled their streets to run the water off the middle of the roads. This pictures is attempting to show that...

This church had been destroyed during the 7 different wars over this land and it too has signs of both culture. The outside door is Spanish while the inside door is Portuguese.

After our tour I went up in the lighthouse. Climbing 157 stairs to its top.

This was the view.

It was beginning to get darker and cooler so my and I ended out trip with a mate (tea that is). Mate is a popular tea in many South American countries. It is slightly similar to green tea. You place the loose herbs in a gourd or wooden cup called a mate. You pour hot water into the cup and extract the water using a special straw with a strainer on the end called a bombilla.

Mom didn't like the tea that much. She said it was too strong.

I, on the other hand, loved this particular brand of Uruguayan Mate (Canarias).

All in all this day trip was perfect and we had just enough time to the area to our liking. If you plan to make a day trip here, planning to stay from lunch time till the last ferry back at 8:00pm was a perfect amount of time.