We
awoke before the alarm despite it being set alarmingly early (!) as we had to
get to the ferry terminal for our boat to Uruguay. Now you know Steve loves to add to that list
of countries so there was no way he was going to look past the opportunity to
sneak another one onto the list! We’d
specifically chosen a weekday to go as we’d heard the ferry gets mobbed of a
weekend but little did we know we would be landing in Argentina for the school
holidays! So yes the terminal was packed
and once again immigration proved to be less than efficient. We eventually got through but there were
lines of people behind us so we knew the ferry wouldn’t be leaving on time. Against the odds it was only 30mins late in
departing.
We’d
gone for the 3-hour slow boat as; a) it was a lot cheaper & b) we thought
it would be nice to sit out on deck and take in the views. Hmm….. what views? As we left port we got great views of the
city but as soon as the city as disappeared into the layer of haze hanging over
the city we couldn’t see a thing. Well
that’s not quite true there was lots of sky and water. It turns out that the River Plate boasts the
widest river delta in the world and we’re not going to argue with them. We kept having to remind ourselves that we
were just crossing a river as it really did feel like we were way out at
sea. After a couple of hours we started
to spy land again as near the Uruguayan side there are islands dotted along the
coast.
I
still haven’t explained what had tempted us to pop over the water. We landed in Colonia del Sacramento which is
not only a nice, quiet town in its own right but boasts an old walled city that
has been awarded UNESCO heritage status.
All the queuing and going through the hassle of immigration again so
soon proved to be worth it. Colonia is
all old world, squat cottages, prominent lighthouse, cobbled traffic free
streets and claims the oldest church in Uruguay. The weather was glorious again and we
thoroughly enjoyed pottering around. We decided
to treat ourselves to a meal out and found a traditional, alfresco style café
with tables scattered under the trees, parakeets fluttering about and the sun
beaming down keeping us nice and warm.
The food was very tasty and we just couldn’t resist washing it down with
a glass of the local vino blanco. All
very refined and not something the year out budget will allow us to do very
often this trip. I reckon I deserved
after working hard for the last 7 years!
