On Your (My) Way to Uruguay

On Friday evening, I caught a ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.  I had a bit of trouble finding the ferry terminal after taking the bus from Palermo to Puerto Madero.  I had to walk quite a ways along the waterfront until I finally saw a big sign on a building announcing "Buquebus."  The terminal itself reminded me of an airport as we had to go through customs (both to leave Argentina and enter Uruguay) before getting on board.  The boat itself was nice and since it was a fast ferry it only took an hour to get across to the other side.  Colonia is a pretty small town so luckily it was only a few minutes' walk from the terminal to my hostel.

By the time I arrived, it was already late so I just chatted for a while in Spanish with a young woman and her mother from Argentina and then got ready for bed.  In the morning, I headed over to the historic neighborhood passing through the Porton de Campo city gate.  Colonia is a former Portuguese colony and the oldest city in the country.  It is one of the most charming and quaint little towns I have ever seen.  I felt like I was stepping back in time since the cobblestone streets the Portuguese built and many 17th and 18th century buildings are still standing to this day.  I also loved how all of the street signs were posted on traditional ceramic tiles.  I mainly spent the day just wandering around the waterfront, popping into different shops and having a leisurely lunch.  I did make it into the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament and up the steps of the landmark lighthouse, but by the time I tried to go to any other museums they were already closing for the day.  Instead I went to a cafe on the water to have a glass of wine at dusk before stopping at another place for dinner on the way back to the hostel in the "non-historic" district.

When I got back to the hostel, there was a new guest in my room who I introduced myself to in Spanish.  It turns out that my roommate, Remy, was actually French, but had been living for the past few months in Argentina.  He didn't really speak English and I don't really speak French so the only language we had in common was Spanish.  A bit later we met another one of our roommates who I believe was on vacation from Colombia.  The three of us went to go buy some beers and then sat in the hostel garden talking into the wee hours of the night.  We were all planning to go to Montevideo the next day so we discussed taking the bus there together.

The next morning, I had wanted to get up early to go back to the barrio historico one final time, but of course that didn't end up happening.  As it was, once I had showered, eaten breakfast and finished packing, it was nearly time to head to the bus station.  I had already booked my ticket and the two guys were planning to join me.  However, when it was time to leave the Colombian guy was still in the bathroom taking a shower.  I felt bad, but I needed to go so I wouldn't miss my bus.  Remy decided to come with me, which meant we left the Colombian guy behind.

The bus took a little over 2 1/2 hours and then Remy and I shared a cab to the hostel I had booked ahead of time on-line.  He hadn't reserved a bed, but luckily there was still space.  After checking in, we went to the grocery store down the street and bought some ingredients to cook lunch in the hostel kitchen.  We were only a few blocks from the riverfront so once we had eaten we walked down toward the beach.  Remy and I didn't really know exactly where we were going so we picked a direction and ended up heading west down the Rambla.

We walked for a while in the direction of the port until we started to get an uneasy feeling about the neighborhood and decided we should probably turn around.  We thought that on the way back we would walk through the Old City instead of right along the water.  The eerie sensation continued for a while as the streets and even many of the surrounding buildings seemed to be nearly abandoned.  I later learned that the neighborhood wasn't so much unsafe as just not very well maintained.  Uruguay is doing pretty well economically, but hasn't yet poured a lot of money into new development.  As a result, older buildings constructed in the early-1800s are still in continuous use and can appear rather dilapidated from a lack of consistent upkeep.  Also, the reason why the area may have seemed particularly empty was because it was a Sunday.  We passed through the deserted financial district and were able to walk right in the street given the complete absence of any moving vehicles during the weekend.  We then went by the Plaza de Independencia before making it back to the hostel.

That evening while he was using the hostel computer, Remy started talking to a French couple that was also doing an around-the-world trip.  The couple was planning to go out with some other friends they had met along the way so Remy and I tagged along.  We joined the other couple, a Spanish guy and his girlfriend, who I believe was also Spanish, at the Tres Cruces bus station.  We then walked around the area and tried to find a place to get some drinks, though it proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Evidently many bars were closed because it was a Sunday night.

We finally found a low-key place where we could sit out on the sidewalk and have some beers.  We also ordered food to share, including the traditional chivito sandwiches filled with vegetables and meat.  Communication was a bit of an issue as the French couple only spoke French and English, Remy only spoke French and Spanish, I only spoke English and Spanish and the Spanish guy was the only one who I believe spoke all three languages.  As a result, there were quite a few separate conversations going on all at the same time.  I ended up speaking mostly with the French guy who was sitting right across from me.  His English was excellent as his mother is a native English speaker.  Back at the hostel, we went out to the balcony where the three Frenchies started blabbing away, leaving me completely left out.  I finally called it quits and decided to just go to bed.

In the morning Remy was still asleep when I woke up so I ventured out on my own for the day.  I went back through the Plaza de Independencia in order to look for a bank.  After getting some cash I stopped at one branch of the National History Museum, which seemed to consist of only one room that was currently open.  Luckily I didn't pay anything to get in so there was nothing lost or gained.  I then got some lunch at an outdoor cafe in Plaza Constitucion across from the Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral.  In the afternoon, I walked back to the Rambla promenade and set off in the opposite direction from the day before.  I went along the water for what seemed like forever until I finally reached the Parque Rodo.  It wasn't quite as exciting as I expected it to be, especially since one whole large swath was taken over by a golf course.  In spite of that, I meandered around for a bit around the ponds before going back through the city streets to get a different perspective.  That night, the French folks all cooked dinner together without asking me to join, so I just went out and grabbed some take-away on my own.  I was a bit annoyed about being left out, but I guess that's what can happen when there's some sort of language barrier.

On Tuesday, I was too unmotivated to figure out the bus system so I decided to walk north from the hostel with the vague notion of making it all the way to the botanical garden.  I ended up going by the commercial port area and made it as far as the Legislative Palace before realizing the park was too far to go by foot.  The actual legislature building is in a plaza in the middle of a major multi-lane traffic circle.  I wasn't sure if I was allowed to go inside as a layman so I didn't bother trying to cross all the lanes of traffic to find out.  I instead looped back around and set off toward an interesting modern building that I wanted to check out.  As I got closer I realized it was not really accessible since I was stuck on a narrow sidewalk along a busy highway next to the port.  It was a rather unpleasant walk for some distance, but I did get to go by the old abandoned rail station.  When I made it back to Barrio Sur, I grabbed my video camera and then stopped for lunch before wandering around the Old City to get a bit of scenic footage.

When I returned to the hostel in the late afternoon, I happened to run into Remy.  He apologized for the day before, explaining that he had needed to talk over some things and found it a lot easier to do with his "countrymen" in his native language.  We chatted for a bit and discussed how we couldn't believe the other French couple still kept to such a tightly-packed sightseeing schedule even after nine months of travel.  We both agreed that that would drive us nuts.  Soon it was time for me to leave to catch my bus and ferry back to Buenos Aires.  It was the quick and dirty tour of Uruguay but I'm still really glad that I went.