Another Day, Another Dorm

I've just realised when uploading them, that I took a lot of photos in Colonia, so this entry will be mostly photos... but it's a really pretty place, so I think it's inevitable.

Our ferry to Uruguay was quite early in the day, which meant negotiating the Buenos Aires metro during rush hour. It actually wasn't too bad and when we got off and looked around, confused, an Argentinian offered to help us. Unfortunately his English wasn't good enough and I couldn't muster the Spanish I needed in time. I resorted to pointing at the boat icon on the map where the ferry port was and saying the name of ferry company: Buquebus. Still he had no idea and wandered off. About thirty seconds later, he came running after us: oooh – Buquebooss; apparently I had pronounced it too much like an English U instead of a Spanish one. We didn't actually need any help now that we had decided which direction to walk, but he wanted to help us. He told us, apologising I think, that Argentinians are very rude. After asking where we were from, he told us that he doesn't like the British... but that he likes the Scots and the Irish. Oh, you don't like the English, I corrected. Then we reached the ferry terminal and he gave us each a kiss on the cheek goodbye. I'd heard that they are even more keen on kissing than continental Europeans and it seems that's correct: a five minute walking conversation with a stranger is enough to earn a kiss from another man.

The ferry to Colonia, I think, is the most luxurious boat I've ever been on: much nicer than those grotty cross-Channel efforts, and many times better than the cross-Channel cast-offs that they use for the Cyclades.

Patterns and textures

Once in Colonia, we were struck by how many people are walking about with a cup of mate in one hand and a thermos flask tucked under the other arm. In Argentina you see quite a lot of people outside, sucking on a Bombilla, but in Uruguay it's an epidemic and they don't even bother to sit down like they usually do in Argentina. Shops everywhere have entire window displays of hundreds of different flasks. They must be world leaders in flask technology.

Somehow the horns go with the beer

The hostel was lovely and the staff were very friendly and helpful; a total contrast to the place we had left behind in Buenos Aires, with their obsession with rules. There was a fire burning in the bar, so we felt obliged to sit there and sample a Uruguayan beer before we ventured back out to wander around. The old town isn't very big, so we thought we would probably have time to see most of it in the remainder of the day, and we weren't wrong. It is very pretty though and, like Argentina, there were old cars in various stages of decay but, happily unlike Argentina, the whole place wasn't covered in ugly graffiti.

More patterns and textures

Lighthouse and destroyed nunnery

It could be Italy or Spain; I don't know if it was because of this but, as we walked around, I started to feel like we were on holiday, rather than travelling. This was dangerous because, by the time we sat down at a cafe for a drink, I was thinking “to hell with the budget! Let's just relax” so, before even calculating how much it would have cost in Argentine Pesos, I ordered a different Uruguayan beer and a grappa.

Relaxing

Now I definitely felt like I was in Italy. The Italian influence is even more evident in Uruguay than it is in Argentina (grappa for instance), and if you don't concentrate on what they are saying and just listen to the sounds, it is definitely Italian they are speaking, not Spanish. As we were sitting there, relaxing in the sun, we encountered the only thing I objected to at all in Uruguay: buskers; generally I hate buskers. OK, very occasionally you may come across one who is quite competent and playing something that appeals to you, but for the most part, they impose their awful noise on you, uninvited, then they have the cheek to expect you to pay for that privilege. I refused to give him anything with this busker came round with his hat but Joanne was embarrassed into scraping together a few coins.

This busker I like

Museum

Sycamores lining the streets

Colonia

"Drugstore" restaurant in front of the clocktower

Old Ford

Colonia

More old stuff

Colonia del Sacremento was set up as a Portuguese colony in direct competition to Spain's Buenos Aires, denying them exclusive access to the region's riches. It soon because a centre for smuggling and so historically was a pirate town. Arrrrr. Portugal eventually ceded Colonia to the Spanish, eliminating its raison d'etre and precipitating its decay. Actually it seems in pretty good shape, apart from the crumbly city walls, so it must have been largely rejuvenated by all the Argentinian tourist money.

Back at the hostel, we were encouraged by a staff member who was eating a chivito, to try one for ourselves, from a take-away kiosk on the corner. A chivito is a Uruguayan national food, described in our guide book as “a heart-attack on a plate”.

Saturated in light too

People familiar with the Maggie in Glasgow will be aware of the Scoobie snacks that they sell; a chivito is something very similar, except that they use a piece of steak, instead of a burger, as the starting point on which to build. Bacon and a fried egg seem to be mandatory, then you can choose what you want from various salads (OK it's slightly healthier than a Maggie Scoobie snack), garlic mayonnaise, chillies, olives, various sauces, and so on. Very tasty!

Street of Sighs

St Miguel

We had been dreading staying in another dorm, because we were really starting to feel like we deserved another double room, but they had been all booked up or far too expensive for the last couple of places. But this dorm was a bit better: it had an en-suite bathroom and only one other person staying there. The next day, though, Joanne had a few insect bites. And they were very itchy a red, just like bed bug bites tend to be. We were only staying there one night, so there was nothing to be gained by complaining and they had been so nice that we didn't want to anyway.

One of the staff members let me use his own laptop to write the DVDs of photos that I had first tried to create in New Zealand, because the guest PCs had no DVD writer. Then, when I completely failed to communicate at the post office, so failed to send the package, another member of staff phoned the post office for me to help me and find out what had gone wrong. The contrast with the staff in Buenos Aires could not have been starker. After finally succeeding to send the disks home, we decided we owed it to them to warn them about the bed bugs, without actually complaining, just because they could end up with a problem, so Joanne very quietly had a word with the manageress.

Colonia

We had most of the day before our bus to Montevideo, so we just wandered around more, taking more photos of the pretty town and spending more money. We had been expecting Uruguay to be cheaper than Argentina, which we had been expecting to be cheaper than Chile, but none of this seemed to be true. Oh, well, who cares? - we're on holiday after all, aren't we? At least that's what it felt like. So we had a very nice meal for lunch and sampled another national speciality: medio y medio, a blend of still and sparkling wine, usually white. It was OK, but a bit sweet for our palettes, and at only 10% alcohol there hardly seemed any point. Actually it reminded me of Baby Cham.

Medio y medio

This time, when we were harassed by a busker, I simply said no quiero when he put his cap out and he didn't bother us for money again. Unfortunately, there was a middle-aged couple, Argentinian I thought, who kept encouraging his crooning by giving him more money and making specific requests. We were contemplating asking to be moved inside when he finally left us in peace. That was when the manager appear in a silly hat, wearing a mask, and blowing through a kazoo. Maybe realising what a grumpy old pair we were, he focused on the other couple who were loving it. He had a different silly rubber hat for each course, including a chicken and a cake, as well as different sparkly jackets and other silly props. Anyway, the food was nice and at least he wasn't looking for extra money like the buskers.

Then it was off to the bus and on to Montevideo.

The Cathedral in Colonia

written by

The Happy Couple on October 1, 2009 from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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