Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay)

On Saturday it was time for me to extend my tourist visa. For this I simply needed to leave the country; so I went to Uruguay. There is this company called Buquebus that has some boats/ships to bring you (and your vehicle) to the other side of the Rio de la Plata. My boat left at 8.30am and you needed to be there two hours earlier. That’s why I had to to get up at 5.30am. I just went down the Lavalle Street and at its end along the Puerto Madero. And there I was, at Buquebus. I entered the main hall  Everything looked like a little airport. With my e-ticket and my passport I went to the check-in to get my final ticket. The entire hall was full of passengers from all over the world lining up with their suitcases . When I received my ticket I had to go to the security check. After passing it I got my new stamps into my passport. Now I could line up for boarding. My ferry had the name Silvia Ana. You didn’t notice when you’ve already entered the boat ‘cos it had comfortable new armchairs and seating corner with little round tables, monitors, elevators and a big dutyfree-shop. It took us “just” one hour to cross the river (with a speed of 23 knots).

When I arrived at the harbor of Colonia del Sacramento, the oldest city of Uruguay, it began to rain very heavily. At the mainhall I asked for the guided city tour. I booked a promo that included the transportation by boat from harbor to harbor, the bus from harbor to the old city, to a “ranch” and back to the city, and then back to the harbor again. The bus ride to the Barrio Real (the historic city) was just bad. It was raining, the windows were misted from inside and they were covered by big raindrops from outside, and María, our guide, showed us all the 5*-Hotels.

The Barrio Real was quite interesting; all the colorful little houses, uneven streets and alleys of cobblestones, very old cars from the early 20th century and the old historic buildings (from the Portugueses) from the 18th century. The town is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1995.

First, we went to the old gate of the town (at least what’s left). There you could see what the Portugueses built and where the Spanisch conquistadors continued. We followed the ‘Holy Pedro’ Street (Calle de San Pedro) and then the Streets of the Sights (Calle de los Suspiros) to get to the Main Square (Plaza Mayor). There we saw the ruins of the San Francisco Convent and the new  lighthouse (Ruinas del Convento de San Francisco, faro). After this we visited the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament (Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento). There they have some original sculptures, for example,  from 1777. While we were inside this Basilica, another guy from Buquebus was looking for me to pick me up for lunch.

Some of us had booked lunch outside of Colonia, at some kind of “ranch” called Arena Granja Colonia. We were eleven people from the USA, a couple from Buenos Aires and me. I shared a table with the porteño couple. We got to know each other and him I’ll see again this weekend at Pepsi Music Concert. We had a buffet of asado of chicken, beef and some innards, some empanadas, salads, fresh homemade salami and cheese and for dessert cakes, Dulce de Leche, fruits and creams. We had a bottle of Patricia beer and at the end a coffee. After lunch we tasted some selfmade jam (of pepperbells, tomatos, strawberries, plums, onions, etc.), salami and cheese in the next room. They were also producing/selling different licors. At the end the Argentinian couple and I had a look at its museum. It is a huge collection of key fobs, ashtrays, bank notes, telephone cards, steins, and the world’s biggest pencil collection beeing in the Book Of World Records. Finally the bus picked us up again to bring us back to town. Back there it was raining so heavily that the streets turned into dangerous torrents. My boat back to Buenos Aires was supposed to leave at 9.30pm but I decided to leave with the Argentinian couple at 6pm, especially as there would be nobody left and as it was raining like hell. After this day I was quite tired.