Oorooguay

Hola, ¿qué tal chicos?

So we've been busy with the usual stuff, Spanish classes, work and now for me (Oscar), uni. But last Saturday we got up early, jumped in a taxi and headed to  Puedo Madero to head to Uruguay for the weekend. There's a few reasons..firstly, because we needed to stock up on US dollars.

If this seems unusual you're right, it is. You cannot get US dollars in Argentina, so expats go to Uruguay where the atms allow you to select either Uruguayan pesos or US dollars, but you are limited to $300 per withdrawl.

Secondly, I needed to renew my 90 day tourist visa in order to avoid an overstaying fine - this is not unusual either, we recently saw a post on a forum from a guy claiming to have recently done his 46th 'visa run' to Uruguay.

Finally, Colonia is a beautiful place, so why not go there?

The ferry there is just a quick 1 hour trip, when we arrived at the port we hired a petrol powered golf buggy, it had been limited to slightly less than 30km an hour, but it was perfect for cruising around the beautiful little town of Colonia del Sacremento. I even let Heather drive.

Note this distinct underlying hint of fear in my eyes

Thrifty didn't go very swiftly

Of course, we immediately became lost as I blindly steered our buggy into what seemed like the right direction. And, as expected during my first time driving in America I did end up driving into oncoming traffic... I'll say no more.

Breaking every law Australia has for driving - no doors, no seatbelt and no hands!

There is a small area of the town that is heritage listed and has been protected for a long time, as a result, is it now listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. The cobblestone streets, traditional style architecture and beautiful setting has uniquely preserved the past which is hardly lost except for the presence of a few hundred tourists paying too much for coffee whilst soaking up the interesting layout, textures and history of the place.

So after checking into our beautiful little b'n'b (Nova Posada), we took to the street in search of an ATM that would satisfy our green papery needs, of course it took a few tries, but eventually we had a machine that would (disappointingly) spit out $200 dollars at a time instead of the promised $300, but what the hell, we won't be back for more until November and they are worth a fortune back in Argentina.

Afterwards, we took a trip into old town and did what every other tourist was doing, capturing hundreds of pictures of this incredibly photogenic location. Strangely enough, we were particularly attracted to the doors, so here is a series of door pictures.

Unfortunately. there were no physical geocaches within reach, we did take a highway out of town and found a beautiful old abandoned theme park and stadium.

Of course Heather has to have a jumping photo whenever possible

Unfortunately, whilst in search of a geocache we ended up at the Sheraton Hotel golf course, which wasn't so bad considering we were already driving a golf buggy. After vowing to return with scooters or a dune buggy (which unfortunately, are only available for hire in summer) we returned to Colonia as little frozen ice blocks, i.e. It was cold, like really cold, but beautiful.

We also really loved the dogs, so here is a series of dog photos.

We had some super delish Chocolate Caliente at a nice little cafe.

Uruguay has apparently a higher per capital beef consumption rate than Argentina, it is also cheaper, and apparently better quality, but are they better cooks??? I think not. We went to a parilla called Parrillada el Porton, it was recommended by a guy at our hotel and it was just around the corner. It was actually pretty good, Heather had her constant cravings for pimienta (pepper) satisfied while I ordered a ridiculously large Vacio steak (aka Rump). Heather had bife de lomo (fillet) with pepper sauce and I was finally able to convince her that different cuts of beef really do taste significantly different. Her lomo fell to peices in your mouth and, whilst slightly more cooked than 'a punto', was a pleasure to consume. My Vacio, also slightly overcooked, could be pulled to peices with a fork, but required some serious chewing. It was super juicy and packed full of beefy flavour. Accompanied by giant glass of Cabernet Sauvignon it really hit the spot.

El Porton

Mmmmm

The following day we rose and had a beautiful breakfast consisting of coffee, juice, medialunas, cake, toast with dulce de leche, bread rolls with cheese, ham, pancetta and some kind of delicious jam slice. Then we returned our golf buggy to the port, and proceeded to wonder around the town until the afternoon. Colonia del Sacramento is definitely a place that you can cover in just one day. Then, we went back to the port and sat around for a couple of hours, chatted to a nice German fellow from Mexico who was traveling around South America and jumped on the ferry back to BA. Upon arrival we got an uneasy feeling about the taxi drivers waiting for ignorant tourists and walked up Calle Córdoba towards Ave 9 de Julio to grab a less dodgy taxi home. Successful, yes, although he actually hit 100km per hour  on Ave 9 de Julio on the way home, but thankfully, no turbo meter :)

Overall, I was distinctly reminded of Denmark, in Southern Western Australia. Friendly people cruising along in life at a very country town type slow pace. The speed limit along the main street was 45 km per hour but everybody was driving at a lazy 25 km per hour.

They say a picture tells a 1000 words so I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures.

Thanks for reading!

If you look really really super close, you can see Buenos Aires in the distance. 

Found this beautiful girl hiding behind a stone wall, I picked her up and sat her on top of it and she smiled.