Uruguay

Our day started with an early rise in order to catch our 8:15 ferry to the town of Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. It wouldn’t have been bad except we were exhausted last night and I stayed up blogging. In any case, the ferry was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel so it was pretty simple unlike the process of purchasing tickets online from home which took about two weeks.

The ferry or the Busquebus is no rinky dink operation. The terminal is huge and the boat was beautiful. Both the Argentinian Immigration officer and the Uruguay one sit side by side in the same booth so as quickly as you are stamped out of Argentina, you are welcomed into Uruguay. The ferry ride is only an hour and we both had a little nap.

Our boat....

Shortly after arriving we opted to do a tour with Beatriz and hopped in a van with her and 3 Argentinians and 3 Brazilians. For two straight hours we walked and listened as Beatriz would holler ArgenTINa and ramble in Spanish then BRAzil, with a repeat performance in Portuguese and finally a third time in English. There was no break except with the Argentinians and Brazilians debated the political states of their countries. We did learn, however, that Colonia is one of the oldest cities in Uruguay with a population of 27,000 people. It was recently named a world UNESCO site and its’ beauty and history is preserved in the old city. The city changed hands between the Portuguese and the Spanish many times in its history. The streets are all cobblestone and can be distinguished as Portuguese or Spanish based on the existence of a sidewalk or not.

It was a pretty quiet day really. We simply wandered the streets. Had lunch at the restaurant El Drugstrore and even lay down in the middle of the square under the trees watching the parrots fly about. I enjoyed taking pictures here, it was so quaint and peaceful.

These trees drop leaves that look like Maple Leaves

The walls by the river in the new part of the city. I loved these. Hence a million pictures.

Lots of expensive homes overlooking the river Plata

We returned at 6pm after a short ferry delay on an even bigger boat and opted to just grab some empanadas and bring them back to the room for dinner. Food is quite expensive and restaurants don’t open til 8pm which is approaching bed time on a busy day so this was the easy and economic choice.

Cruise ship? nope, our ride home.

So now we are relaxing and trying to make a plan for tomorrow. Sadly the transportation unions have announced a full strike tomorrow and so my photography course has been cancelled as there will be no way to navigate the city, including taxis. All we know is that the strike is in protest of the minimum rate at which income tax must be paid. This also means all our plans for tomorrow are a bust since they were taking place on the other side of the city. So for now, we plan to sleep in, enjoy breakfast and see what is open and closed. Our hotel says by 10, it should be known what will be opened and then we will plan to walk more in the area around the hotel. I think a tour of the opera house is in order but Isaac is less enthused.

A few more from today.

Our buddy who escorted us today.

And last but not least, a selfie of me and Isaac. We had quite a laugh because I suck at taking selfies. I tell Isaac I want a picture of us and I am going to take a selfie. After 3 attempts, I finally got a good one, or that's what I thought until Isaac says, "mom, I am not even in it!” I give him the phone to take over. He got this one.