Costs pp: Colonial Express ferry from Buenos Aires 41.5 Arg p (special price usually is 135p). Bus from Colonia to km189 approx 15km 27 Urugauy pesos. NZ$1 = 15.3 Uruguay pesos
Took a bus to a neighbourhood near the ferry terminal and a taxi from there as we had been warned that it was a dangerous area but it was the middle of the day and all looked ok. The taxi driver said there is no problem there. Carol worried that they might find there was a mistake with our tickets and we would have to pay more but no, we went through unmolested. In fact they took away our tickets and gave us a boarding pass which stated we had paid 110p. The trip was bouncy although the river wasn't that rough we were in a catamaran and the wind picked it up a bit, Carol had no problem and even fell asleep most of the way.
Our first impressions of Uruguay are great, traffic is slower and people actually stop for you if you are on a crossing (this is a marvellous new thing), very friendly and helpful people, feels relaxed and looks very green.
We had to contact our couch Cesar and were directed by the tourist info to the Plaza which has free WI-FI. Carol wasn't excited about having to phone Cesar, who only speaks spanish, on Skype so went across to a nearby hotel and enlisted the help of the young receptionist there. She was so helpful and sorted us out with Cesar and the bus and even wrote a note to give to the driver to say where and when to let us off the bus. We felt like happy little children again, very nice.
The bus went at 8pm, plenty of time? No, the time has changed by one hour from Buenos Aires. We found an ATM in the town but it only gave out a small amount, this is difficult for us as each time we withdraw there are fees so it is better to get one bigger amount altho as is usual with ATMs there is always a limit. Later we found an ATM at the bus terminal that possibly would have been better. Did some shopping at the supermarket so that we can cook for Cesar and boarded the bus.
Cesar was waiting on the road to pick us up and after dropping our bags at his place we went thru the paddock to his parents house for dinner and had a lovely evening with them all, they had had a kiwi girl stay for 3 months some time ago so are well versed in Kiwi culture. Cesar and his dad are agricultural machinery mechanics. A storm started as we headed back to the house, we heard a few rolls of thunder. By the time we hit the sack the lightning was almost continuous and sometimes the thunder cracked so loud we thought it was opening up the roof! It continued all night and was magnificent!
We discovered that part of the workshop next door has been made into a museum, it is full of things from the past, bottles, coins, machinery, an old tractor... It is very interesting and made us feel reminiscent of the old days in New Zealand. We are finding that Uruguay is quite similar to home about 20 or so years ago.
Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and has a fortified wall surrounding the old town which is on the point facing the river towards Buenos Aires. There are beaches but the river water is brown from travelling through all the countries from Bolivia on down. We got to walk around the town, including the old part, and climbed the lighthouse which gave a great view of the surrounding area and we could see Buenos Aires in the distance across the river too.
Next stop Montevideo, a city we have heard of before but didn't know it was in Uruguay.
