A hop to Uruguay - Colonia & Montevideo

We decided to take a little mini break over to Uruguay as it is only about an hour away from Argentina by boat. We ended up getting the ridiculously early 7.30am fast boat to make the most of our time there as we were only going to spend one night. At 8.30am we arrived at a little place called Colonia del Sacramento. We walked up the hill and into the quaint little village - it was beautiful - made even better by the fact that there were only about 2 other people walking about. The village itself is on the sea and really small with a beautiful lighthouse to the left of it. We found out about it from our Spanish teacher Pau who said it's great but after 20 times he's a bit fed up of it! After checking out the sights, gawping at all the 'vintage' cars about and grabbing a beer in the sun, the tourists started to really arrive for lunch and we decided it was time to get out of there. We grabbed some empanadas and ate them on what was truely the wrong side of the tracks (an abandoned railway line with just a doggy for company) and then headed off to catch a four hour bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay and where we were staying for the night. 

We're here!

I want this car!

The beautiful lighthouse:

We arrived at Montevideo and checked in to our hostel - not bad but not great! After chilling out for a bit we were ready for dinner but turns out 7.30pm is way to early and the restaurant we chose wasn't open yet (just chefs having a chat) so we headed to a little place next door for a litre of pilsen. An hour later the restaurant was open and we were glad we waited. We had an asado - a traditional dish of Uruguay (which also means bbq in Argentina) and a pizza but I think we'd ordered enough food for four people - oops! The food was excellent and we went home with full bellies. The next day we ventured out to explore Montevideo - turns out there isn't really much to do. Sorry to anyone who is Uruguayan or a fan of Montevideo but we really found it a poor man's buenos aires. The best thing we did, however, was find an amazing little lunch place called Estrecho. It was basically a long bar that you sit along to eat right in front of all the chefs cooking for you - amazing to see! We shared a caesar salad and the special of the day which was this chicken and mushroom roulade wrapped in parma ham with pimento - mmmmmm! 

Estrecho:

Montevideo:

Later that day we got the bus back to Colonia and we had first class tickets on the fast boat home which meant a couple of glasses of champagne - travelling in style. When we got back to our apartment in BA we were so happy - we were home! 

Exciting news - the next blog post is by Joel...