Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay

Chris's Note: Need to upload photos, hopefully tonight (Friday)

We took a day off from BA to do a day trip to Uruguay:

There is a very convenient ferry that goes between Buenos Aires and Colonia, Uruguay.  The fast ferry option takes about an hour to cover the 50 km across the river delta between the two countries.  Because you are entering a new country, even just for a day trip, you have to go through customs, immigration and passport control both ways.  My brand new passport now has 5 stamps, four just from this day trip to Uruguay.  This must be what it used to be like in Europe before the EU.

Hydrofoi.

That's me waving.

Colonia is a really cute little city.  But the key word is little.  One of the highlights is climbing this lighthouse:

Spiral Staircase up the middle & 85 degrees outside makes for a very sweaty veranda.

The view from the lighthouse takes in the entire city, a small downtown area and a crescent beach around the bay.

The city itself is a photographer’s dream.  Character abounds and the colors are glorious.

We had lunch at El Buen Suspiro.  This was another tripadvisor find.  I haven’t talked much about tripadvisor, but we use it constantly while traveling to find the best spots that likeminded travelers have recommended.  Highly recommended to find the best spots for food/tours/boutique hotels/etc.  We tried Uruguay wine for the first time there.  Honestly I never knew that Uruguay produced wine, but we had a unique red wine called Tannat.  It was good, but the atmosphere was excellent so I might have been biased.

Our little cave.

This was the small shared plate, it cost about $19 US.  Good values in Uruguay.

To get around the city and the surrounding area, we rented a golf cart for the day.  It was only $35 and worth it to just cruise around all day.

Look closely, that is the ONLY person laying out on the entire crescent of beach the day we were there.

One of the only attractions outside the city is the old bull ring.  Apparently it was built by an eccentric guy that thought Colonia was going to be the next big thing.  It was only used once.  This is it, you cannot go inside.

Fun to drive out there in the golf cart, glad we did not walk as this is all there was to see.

If you have time in Buenos Aires, I highly recommend a day trip to Colonia.  You could spend the night as well if you are ambitious but it’s not necessary.