Colonia, Uruguay!

Getting back a little later than I expected from the night before, I decided it would be a good idea to set the alarm on my phone so I didn't miss the ferry to Uruguay.

I set the alarm one hour ahead of 11:30am because I was told to be there an hour early. For some reason when I looked at the ticket I thought it mentioned the ferry left at 11:30 instead of 12:30, so I panicked and thought I was going to miss the nonrefundable ferry ride. I was wrong and happened to be an hour and 15 minutes early; oh the joys of being lost in translation. LOL!

Since this was my first ferry ride I had no clue what to expect. When I got aboard, I noticed the boat had striking resemblances to a plane. All it was missing was the Air Mall magazine.

The first thing I did when touched down on Uruguayan land was exchanged some Argentinean pesos. Uruguayan Pesos are quite different than the Dollar and Argentinean Peso; they contain more color and the dimensions seem wider than normal. The rate I exchanged at was 2 for 1.

Immediately after, I went on a walking tour of Historic Colonia. It was an hour long and the tour guide was kind enough to translate her script into English for me and several Australians.

The historic neighborhood was breathtaking. There were original parts of buildings, river stone paved streets, and pieces of the wall that surrounded the colony still standing and visible. Just thinking about the colonial people who walked on the same paved streets as I did is an amazing feeling.

The tour guide even placed a little advertising in her speech. She mentioned Uruguay loves Americans, and then she went into this spiel about an American couple who held their wedding in the historic church and brought 80 people down with them. She told me to think about it. LOL!

After the tour I was on my own to venture out and explore the city. The guide mentioned something about a bullring on the other side of the city. Having never seen one before, I was ready for the long trek.

I walked along the road which followed the shoreline. After about 1.5 hours of walking, I made it to the bullring. It was still cool to see even though I couldn’t go inside. Back when the town was under Spanish influence, the people wanted to build a bullring; however, about halfway through its construction, Uruguay disapproved of bullfighting and made it illegal.

Walking my way back to the historic neighborhood, I noticed the shoreline road was filled with people sitting along the curb drinking mate with their friends. I love this concept of South America.

It took me a while to realize why everyone was out and along the shoreline. Then I looked to the west and seen the magnificent sunset in the distance. I ended up watching it from the dock in the fishing wharf.

With my time winding down in Uruguay, I decided to grab a bite to eat. I asked my guide earlier in the day what was the special cuisine for Uruguay. She told me it was dish that contained a nice cut of beef, slice of ham, cheese, fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and mayo served on a plate or in a bun. This Uruguayan dish is called Chivito, and it was delicious.

Back at the port, I made my way back to the city of Buenos Aires.