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Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
34° 28' S 57° 50' W
Mar 05, 2006 21:21
Distance 339km

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Other entries in Colonia del Sacramento

Colonised

Text written in: English

Leaving La Paloma was not straightforward. Ben's belief that "there's a bus to Montevideo every hour" was not borne out by fact and, to the amusement of those to whom we had just bade farewell, we returned to the hostel to kick our heels for a couple of hours. When we later set off, we were forced to endure a lengthy stop at the bus station in San Carlos. After the new passengers had boarded and the empanada salesman had long since sold all from his hermetically sealed box of snacks, we were still waiting to move on. Ben commented that had we known it would be this long, we could have had an hour's use of the station's cheap internet. He needn't have worried, as an hour and a half later, the bus that had been called out to replace our broken down bus had still not arrived.

We eventually made it to Montevideo and spent the night in an 8-bed dorm with only us in it. The next morning we had another poor breakfast, that is depressingly looking like the norm from now on, and then used the couple of hours available to us to see the city centre and the Sunday market. Montevideo was pleasant enough, though it seemed to me to be a smaller, less vibrant Buenos Aires. This may appear to be a slightly bizarre thought, given that I am currently on my way to the Argentine capital for the first time, but that was the impression I got. The market, a cluttered collection of maté sets and car boot sale junk, held my interest for little time, however, our collective lack of cash was just as responsible as the quality of the products. Besides, we had little time before our bus to the port town, Colonia del Sacramento, from where we intended to get a ferry to Buenos Aires later that evening.

Leaving Colonia was not straightforward. My belief that "it will make more sense to take money out in Colonia, when we'll know how much the ferry costs" was cruelly undone by the scarcity of cash machines at either the bus station or the ferry terminal. That, added to the unwillingness to accept our backpacks by every left luggage room we found, meaning one of us would have to stay with the bags, and the fact that it was a Sunday, had us well and truly over a barrel. With my superior language skills, the group of 2 unanimously elected me to forage for cash in the town - a mission from which I returned successfully. Leaving Ben with half a bottle of coke, I then bought our ferry tickets and on my return, a couple of luggage lockers became available to us. We somehow forced our bags into the impossibly small space and then used the time before our departure to get a meal and explore the town.

Colonia is unquestionably beautiful. Its cobbled streets, picturesque squares, churches and fountains offer a view of a simple, but charming way of life. The laid-back feel of the town suggested that this was the ideal place to unwind and recharge after Carnaval. However, the lure of Buenos Aires was too strong and we had spent our last Uruguayan pesos on ice cream, so it was time to leave.