Colonia, Uruguay

We left Sunday afternoon for Colonia, Uruguay via a Buquebus ferry. We ended up taking the fast ferry (1hr) vs. the 3 hr ferry. The ferries in Argentina are unique in the sense that it is more similar to service you would have received from the U.S. airlines 5 plus years ago. When you walk onto the boat you're greeted by multiple representatives and they direct you to your seating area ie. 1^st class or tourist class. The seats are older but plush and comfortable. After the standard instructional safety video, they bring a cart by with ham & cheese sandwiches, a brownie and your choice of drinks. They must have come by our seat 3-4 times within the hour and offered us more food or drinks. In addition to the snack they had a duty-free store on board where you could purchase the typical alcohol, chocolates and perfume/cologne.

Payton made some friends on the ferry ride, two college age girls from Chile, Anita and Maryanna. They played and talked with Payton almost the entire time. Payton liked the girls instantly and by the time we arrived in Colonia she was sitting on Anita's lap. It was nice to see her get out of her protected shell and interact with other people. We arrived in Colonia and picked up our checked luggage and we were off. The exchange rate for Uruguay peso vs. USD is roughly 23.6 to 1 USD. You may think to yourself, wow, its dirt-cheap there. However, your assumptions would be wrong. Although it’s considerably cheaper than the USD it is a little more expensive than Argentina. As an example, a meal of ravioles with a bolognese salsa was 210 pesos.

Colonia was such a blessing in disguise.
We truly needed a vacation from vacation. Colonia is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s a historic old town that dates back to the mid to late 1700’s. Click the link above for more information on Colonia.

We stayed at the Radisson Hotel and Casino. Depending on where you obtain your information it is either a 3 or 5 star hotel. The lobby, pool and exterior are beautiful, but the actual hotel rooms themselves are clean but dated. On the other hand, the service is truly ***** (5 star) quality.

All of the staff was so friendly, polite and professional. When I made our reservations, (via Radisson.com) I requested a king size bed instead of the 2 double beds that we booked for a speficied rate. When we arrived to the hotel, not only did they give us a king size bed, but they also had a bed for Payton to sleep on as well. We didn’t even have to ask. It didn’t take long for Payton to find the pool, take off her clothes and jump in. It was a rough start in the beginning with a couple of head dunks accidentally, but she adapted to the pool quickly. She’s kicking pretty well now and I spent some time teaching her how to dog paddle. That didn’t last too long though, she thought it was more fun watching me splash in the water and stay afloat than doing it herself.

Colonia is truly beautiful in it’s own right with it’s historic cobblestone streets, and 17^th century buildings. It was very humbling to say the least. As we were walking the streets in the evening we stopped and ate at this fabulous restaurant called El Drugstore. It was some of the best food we’ve had this entire trip. If we weren't so hungry we probably would have taken a picture before engulfing the food.

This is El Drugstore. We ate outside and the and there were 2 old cars parked amongst the the tables. One was set up to eat inside and other was filled with beautiful plants and flowers.

Monday we rented an off road golf cart from Thrifty car rental and toured the city. If it weren’t for the damn governor on the golf cart we probably would have drove to Montevideo. We stopped at one of the many beaches surrounding Colonia and played in the sand. The beaches on the Northwestern end of Colonia are white sand that is more typical of an ocean beach than a river beach. Although the water is brown, Rio de la Plata ranges from blue to brown, brown due to the silt/loam river bed, we are told it is perfectly safe to swim in. That night, Payton met an Argentinean girl, Josephina, who is 3 years old. She and Payton must have played for over a hour running and screaming after one another. I think she is missing other children to play with. Jen states, “That is why we need to have another child!” I still like the idea of rent-a-friend. It is much cheaper and I only have to pay for one car, one college tuition and one wedding. We spoke with Josephina's parents for approximately 30 minutes. I feel bad at times because here we are in another country where the principle language is Spanish and we are in their country and they know more English than we do Spanish. Pathetic! Although our conversation with Josephina’s parents was difficult at times, we truly felt that we were able to understand each other for the most part. Our conversation just reinforces our need to study more Spanish. We are far from being fluent, but each week we take one step forward.

Monday night we went to the El Drugstore again. The food continued to be above average, but we were a little disappointed compared to the previous night. We should know not to visit the same restaurant twice. The picture to the left is a typical salmon dish in a white sauce. 7USD. Ironically enough, every restaurant in Colonia charges a sitting fee. In addition, if there is live music, they charge you a couple dollars for the music as well. Something, I need to read more into is the IVA tax. Apparently, tourists are not supposed to be taxed for the IVA, however, we were charged with an IVA tax at every resturant/store except for our hotel. I think it's truly a tourist town in a small country that is trying to stay alive anyway it can...

Tuesday was uneventful, but fun. We went to the beach and Payton drove the golf cart. She was pretty excited. She's loving the beach! Jen had a massage, 25 USD for 1 hour. She said it was the best massage she has ever had. Must have been the half bottle of wine before the massage.

Side note, one thing that is pretty scary in Uruguay is that most people have some type of moped/scooter and they travel with their infant, toddler or preschooler while driving down the cobblestone street. Crazy! We saw numerous scooters with 2 adults and one small child. In Buenos Aires we have seen 2 adults and a toddler on a motorcyle on a 7 lane busy road. Obviously, we are suprised by this and we are used to different laws in the US.

On our way back to our hotel on our last night in Colonia we saw Josephina's parents, Fernando and Maryanna. After talking with them for some time, they invited us to their house. Hopefully we will be able to see them before we go and have traditional Argentina food and good conversations!

Wednesday we got back to BA. Dave (Jen’s dad) sent out a money wire on Monday to pay for our Kangoo! We can only hope that the Renault dealership receives the money by Friday. If not, we will have to stay in BA for a couple more days :( This is the first time in my life I have put one of these sad faces on any form of email/blog. I think it is pretty lame, but everyone seems to do it so why not me.