Visiting Uruguay was always a dream of mine. Talk to any South American and they will likely tell you that this is one of, if not the best country to live in in South America. Low corruption, safe, good economy and of course beautiful as well. At our start of the journey we didn’t have enough time to visit it as we had to make our way up to Colombia but now we had a week.
After our nice few days in Buenos Aires, we headed to the ferry terminal in Puerto Madero to catch our ferry over to Colonia. We took the evening ferry as it was the cheapest option and arrived late in Colonia. We stayed two nights here but could have easily added a few days, such a beautiful spot! Our small art hostel was nice and even better included breakfast. We met an older German couple in the hostel, they rented a car and spend a few weeks in the country, very jealous – that’s the way to do it.
We spend our day in Colonia exploring the historic part of town with very nice cobble stone streets, historic buildings and churches to then head to the nearby port and pier. All very picturesque really, so we stopped for lunch in a small park to recharge, to then explore further for the rest of the afternoon. We even had a few hummingbirds zooming around us, so definitely a good day! Added bonus was that some beautifully restored old vintage cars were still driving around in the village, very nice touch and very good fit indeed. In the evening we bought a nice healthy dinner from the super market (bread, cheese and ham but also some veggies) and headed to the quite famous view point at the sea to watch the sunset. I think there were a few jealous people seeing us munching away whilst waiting for the sunset. The kids played around in some rock pools and only came back when they were hungry. The sunset was pretty good and got better and better until the sky was dark red. Wrapped up the day with a nice craft beer whilst seeing the end of the sunset, very nice and relaxing day indeed!
After breakfast the next day we headed down to the bus station to get our bus to Montevideo. The trip was about three hours and overall pretty unexciting. On the way back I saw a large storage shed of my previous employer, that was as exciting as it got. Montevideo itself didn’t greet us very nicely, it was very windy. Our apartment was right on a main pedestrian shopping street in the historic centre, so we walked along it for a bit and then got stuff for dinner at home. Not very much we did do the next day as it was still very windy. We headed to a viewpoint at the harbour and nearly got blown away, so enough of that. Tried to do some shopping but were not very successful, so had a rest day at home in the end.
The next day we could finally do what I was really looking for, rent a bike and drive along the beach promenade which goes on for ages. The bikes were ok and we took off. I had Jella on an extension to my bike, she couldn’t steer but pedal. Very nice getting pushed along by her, didn’t have to do much for quite some time. The promenade is popular and busy but very wide for most of the way, so it was easy riding whilst enjoying the nice sea views. What a contrast to the busy city! Hard to imagine it’s busy behind you whilst enjoying the quiet scenery in front of you. We stopped a few times, and of course took a picture at the Montevideo letter sign, to then have a picnic whilst taking pictures of some birds, some even new ones.
Later in the afternoon we headed to the Mercado del Puerto which was crowded with visitors of a cruise ship but still interesting to visit. Lots of local craft on offer and even more food, most of it coming from large BBQs. Right next to the market was a local brewery, so hard not to stop by. Interestingly right next door was a pot shop, hard choice really! Marijuana was legalised a few years back in Uruguay and it seems to go pretty well from what we could see. When we come back to NZ later in the year, we might have the same situation as well, let’s see. Anyway, that’s it really. Didn’t have enough time and would have liked to explore other parts of Uruguay but we had to head back to BA the next day to then fly straight to Puerto Iguazu. Last week in South America 🙁
