Uruguay is just a hop, skip, and a ferry ride away from Buenos Aires.
The South American's have the coolest flags
A smallish sort of country, sometimes called "The Switzerland of South America," Uruguay has a lot going for it:
Uruguay is one of the most economically developed countries in South America, with a high GDP per capita ... Uruguay is also noted for its low levels of corruption, ... and its political and labor conditions are among the freest on the continent. It was the highest rated country in Latin America on Legatum's 2010 Prosperity Index ... and Reader's Digest ranked Uruguay as the ninth "most livable and greenest" country in the world, and first in all the Americas. Uruguay is ranked highest in Latin America on the Global Peace Index. (Wiki!)
All that, and they have great beaches. Makes me wonder why in the heck we didn't just to go Uruguay for our holiday.
Anyway, Jeff was pretty adamant that he wanted to head across the Rio de Plata for a little look see. Given the sheer volume of travel that was planned during the following weeks, much of which was up in the air given Aerolineas Aregntinas abrupt rescheduling of huge chunks of our trip, others of us were more inclined to just drive to the airport and wait for our flight out to Usuhaia.
Common sense won out, and we headed for the ferry. The seriously fancy schmancy ferry.
It takes about 50 minutes to get from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, the oldest town in Uruguay. And it is worth every second of travel time. The town is old style charming, serene, and it smelled fabulous. It was early summer, every flower in the place had seen fit to bloom, and everywhere you walked you were surrounded by gently wafting floral fragrances. Authors Note: I also think Buenos Aires smelled incredible, but the smell was "sizzling meat," not "wafting wisteria."
Hydrangeas: they don't have much fragrance, but are a fan favorite flower
The Barrio Histórico (historic quarter) section of Colonia del Sacramento is designated a World Heritage UNESCO site.
The town oozes charm. We had lunch at a lovely little outdoor cafe.
This is not the cafe. It's a random beauty shot. Jeff probably took a lot of great photos, but for some reason the only photos I have of the day are mine. So, you're stuck with my crappy snappies.
The children played while Jeff and I ate. That's a recorder, if you are wondering what it is he is playing. The child took the thing with him everywhere we went. The rules were no playing in the morning - we did not specify a time zone, so we used that to our advantage (hey, it's 5 o'clock in the morning somewhere).
His repertoire consisted of Happy Birthday, Old MacDonald, Eine Kleine Nacktmusik and Ode to Joy. Some of these are more popular than others. There is a song we refer to as "Gently Yellow Sheep," but I suspect we don't have that quite right and since I have no idea what it is really called, you are saved from that particular ear worm.
Us? We all hum Eine Kleine Nacktmusik all. day. long. Better than Old MacDonald, I suppose, but I confess I am looking forward to some new music. Anything, really.
There are many interesting sights in this UNESCO World Heritage town, of which, we saw none. Really, the day was too lovely, the flowers too beautiful and the seascapes too breathtaking to even consider going inside.
We did see this, though. It's a small blue whale skeleton. Closest thing we got to a "museum" for three weeks.
Colonia: the town that time forgot.
Totally groovy, man.
At the end of the day, we headed back to bustling Buenos Aires.
The next morning we were up at four (am! yeah!) to catch our flight to Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego! Land of Fire! Charles Darwin! Gateway to Antarctica!). In the interests of full disclosure, I had booked this particular early morning flight. Hey it was significantly less expensive than the flight two hours later, and since I figured we would not have adjusted to the time difference, why not get up at 4am. It's not like the rest of Buenos Aires had gone to sleep yet, anyway.
Tomorrow: Ushuaia - Simply Fabulous
Uruguay, also home of Malabrigo.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 16, 2012 at 06:05 AM
Ah...the infamous recorder. Both my kids had to learn to play it for school. There were days when I thought my ears would bleed.
Posted by: Debbie Hanson | January 27, 2012 at 09:35 PM