If you get tired of the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, Colónia is a good choice for one-day noise detox. It’s a tiny city in Uruguay, just over an hour away from Buenos Aires on a ferry. There are several companies that offer the ferry ride, Colónia Express being the cheapest. And you get a walking tour for the same price, with an option to choose between a Spanish- and English-peaking guide. Not a bad deal at all!
Colónia Express has a whole day and half-day option. For the whole day one, you leave at 8.30 in the morning and return at 6 o’clock in the afternoon. The half day is from 12.30 to 10 pm. Half day is a better option for several reasons: you don’t have to wake up early, it’s cheaper, there’s plenty of time to see ALL of Colónia (several times), and you get to see the sunset.
Colónia del Sacramento, or, more precisely its historic quarter, is a World Heritage Site. The old city center is very well preserved, and makes it very easy to imagine what life used to look like here. In its past, the city changed ‘ownership’ between the Portuguese and the Spanish several times, until it finally became part of Uruguay. There are a few places to visit outside the historic downtown (like the bull-fighting arena that is now sitting unused), and there is plenty of time to do that, even on the half-day tour, but I just didn’t feel adventurous enough this time. I decided to just enjoy the quiet and slow pace of life there, and get ready for more days in not-so-quiet Buenos Aires.
There are also several museums in Colónia, each one requiring under five minutes to visit. Since I am not a museum kind of person anyways, I decided to enjoy their museum in the open and just walk the stone-cobbled streets. Especially interesting is the ‘Street of Sighs’ (Calle de los suspiros), which used to be the red-light district of Colónia. The ‘workers’ used to live there also, which made their daily commute very convenient.
After walking the downtown several times, eating lunch and waiting for the rain to stop (it was more a fine mist than rain), it was time for sunset. This part is, obviously, more enjoyable if you are in a couple, but, nevertheless, as a solo backpacker I still enjoyed it, and took a lot of nice pictures (to be enjoyed later, when I’m part of a couple). That was also the end of my visit to Colónia, so I slowly walked to the ferry terminal, ready to go back to the big city waiting on the other side.
