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Other entries in Colonia del Sacramento

Back in Time

Today we woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs, and hopped the Buquebus ferry to Colonia, Uruguay - an old (17th century) beach town on the west coast of Uruguay.  The old city is still made of the same stones as when the Portuguese built it up.  The streets are lined with charming stone houses, many of which have been transformed into museums about the city's heritage and history.  We stopped for lunch at Don Pablo's, whose food was ok but whose bathrooms were icky.  We walked around for a bit, touring the Portuguese museum and several little shops.  We saw some dudes riding around in a golf cart and decided that would be a much better way to see the city (which extends beyond the old town) so we went to Thrifty and rented a golf cart for the day.  We drove all around the town, stopping every few minutes to see an art gallery here, a 17th century fortress there, and then we drove all along the shore to the Sheraton resort, where we used the awesomely clean bathrooms and sat in the sun drinking water and coke.  I have to remember to return here someday when I have lots of money to stay at this resort and make use of its spa facilities. 

Then we stopped at the beach and I walked around on the extremely soft and wet sand (it was low, low tide).  It was an extraordinarily clean beach, though it becomes less so in Jan. and Feb. when the Argentines come over on their summer vacation and litter the beach with trash and cigarettes and whatnot.

We toured the town a bit more and then returned the car and sat outside at a cafe watching the town's teenagers gather in San martin Square, where they sat in groups, shared mate with one another and listened to American hip hop on a single radio.  The sunset was pretty awesome, and the weather all day was beautiful beach weather.  We hopped the ferry back to BA and were in bed by midnight, only slightly sunburned.

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