Weekend in Uruguay!

This weekend, my roommate and I traveled to Uruguay: first to Colonia, then to Montevideo. Colonia is a historic town established by the Portuguese in 1680. It’s super quaint and has loads of restaurants and cafes along the coast, cute cobble-stone streets and a couple small beaches. We arrived around 1pm after taking a boat from Buenos Aires and walked around the historic district and all along the coast. It’s a very small town and you really don’t need more than a day to get the full picture of Colonia. We climbed up the lighthouse, ate delicious food and watched the sunset over the river. I’m pretty sure I want to return to Colonia for a day during my (recently decided) South American honeymoon. Pictures are from the historic gate of the city, and watching the sunset over the river, and at the top of the lighthouse.

We stayed in a hostel in Colonia and the next day took a three-hour bus to Montevideo. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and it’s a pretty big city but definitely not as touristy as Buenos Aires. We walked from the bus terminal to our hostel in the Centro/Ciudad Vieja part of the city down the main street 18 de Julio. On Sunday, most shops and lots of museums were closed but we still checked out lots of the historic part. In La Plaza Independencia we saw the mausoleum of Jose Artigas, the father of independence of Uruguay. The mausoleum was super erie but definitely memorable. We then met a girl from Colombia, Andrea, who is studying in La Plata (small world!) and decided to spend the rest of the day checking out Montevideo together. She was super nice and it made us speak Spanish almost the entire weekend. We toured El Teatro Solis, the oldest theater in Uruguay (established in 1856)—it was GORGEOUS. We then walked down to the Rambla, the long road that goes all along the coast of Montevideo (I think about 22km). Later that night, we walked to the Palacio Legislativa and took a bus to Punto Carretas (kind of a nicer part of the city with beautiful apartments and an enormous mall). Pictures are from Plaza de Independencia, Teatro Solis, and La Rambla with Ruth Ann.

The next morning I rented a bike a rode all along La Rambla. I could have done this all day (it felt so good to ride a bike again) but we had to check out of our hostel. We walked back to Plaza Constitución and looked inside the Cathedral there. It was built in 1804 and is absolutely beautiful. We made our way over to Mercado del Puerto, a super classy food court with lots of parillas (South American barbeque with every type of meat imaginable plus a few that I’ve never heard of). I had an awesome chorizo and salchicha (both kind of sausages) and Ruth Ann and I shared some medio y medio, a Uruguayan drink that is a mix between wine and champagne. After this enormous lunch we made our way to the bus station and a bus, boat, another bus, and taxi later we finally returned home.

I really enjoyed Uruguay. The sense in Argentina is that Uruguay is just another province of Argentina and in Uruguay that Argentines are arrogant and think too highly of themselves. I loved seeing both Colonia & Montevideo and it was absolutely perfect weather all weekend. I really enjoyed the change of pace of Montevideo (much slower and more polite than Buenos Aires) and I’m glad that we were able to explore both cities.

Back in La Plata we have a normal week of classes before Semana Santa. I’ve narrowed my classes down to three choices: Sociology of Culture in Latin America, History of Culture and Political Communication and a seminar in the history department called “Far From God: The U.S. and its neighbors from 1776-1929.” Needless to say, the last one is definitely a different prospective than what I learned about U.S. history and foreign relations in high school. They are all about three hours once a week and basically have weekly reading with a project at the end of the semester for a final grade. I’ll hopefully figure things out in the next couple weeks (you can drop classes at any point in the semester so I really don’t have a time limit).

MY MOM AND AUNTS ARE COMING THIS WEEKEND AND I AM SO EXCITED! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and keep a hidden camera handy for the hilarity that I’m sure will ensue with the Clancy women invasion.

Lots of Love,
Caroline