When I was small, I grew up with my mother's stories of Uruguay. When she was 3-5 years old, my grandfather was transferred Montevideo for work. Her stories include the memories of a little girl: a house by the beach with a tiled roof, planting eggs in hope of growing chicken trees, her pet hens that would tolerate being dressed up in bonnets, and sailing 'Veloz,' the toy sailboat that she and my uncle shared, in the fountain in the plaza .
Therefore, visiting Uruguay was very special for me.
Me, Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay 2015
As the sun rise over the Rio de la Plata, I left Buenos Aires by ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. After the one hour journey over the water, I was then transferred to a bus that would take me to Montevideo.
The view from the bus was beautiful. The countryside reminded me of France with its soft, rolling hills, crops and laundry drying in the sun. We passed every kind of animal you could think of: fluffy cows, silky horses, donkeys, wooly sheep, pigs snuffling about in the earth, chickens, ducks pottering about, dogs, cats snoozing in the sun... It was a wonderful introduction to Uruguay.
In Montevideo, I stayed in a charming little place in the Cuidad Antigua ( old city). The Old City is very small but full of little plazas, cathedrals and old mansions. As it was still winter, the air was crisp and the plane trees were still loosing their leaves.
Iglesia Matriz
The following day, I explored the city by visiting the Museo romantico ( filled with interesting things from the romantic period) the Mercado del Puerto for lunch ( which was packed with people enjoying their asados), Museo del Carnaval and the Casa Rivera (which houses lots of historical artifacts and paintings).
Lovely mansion in the Plaza Zabala
Mercado del Puerto
Asados ( bbqs)
I then made my way back
to picturesque Colonia del Sacramento. Commonly called Colonia, this lovely little town was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 as a way to smuggle goods to Buenos Aires. It is charming with its twisting cobblestone streets, bougenvillas and lanterns (which remind me of Salamanca in Spain). It was fun to watch the other people enjoy the town by walking around and hugging their 1 liter thermoses of hot water to their chests for large cups of mate. The Uruguayans ( or, as they pronounce, Uro-wa-chos) are known to drink even more mate than the Argentinians!
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