We raced to the corner to see a bus on its way but we were too late to get to the stop. Mere minutes later another bus arrived, and we were on our way. Today we were going to Uruguay!
The bus journey was uneventful, Altho I think we may have gotten off a stop early. At w quick pace we walked the last distance to the Colonia express ferry terminal, following others with luggage. We were in the right place. Once inside we joined the queue as the sign above the self service said “foreigners must join queue”. At the front we were waved over to a self service. “We are foreigners,” I said, and she smiled and waved and it was all ok. She entered our booking number, peeked at our passports and handed us each a few pieces of paper with no explanation. She pointed to Boarding, where we went to queue again.
All in all the queuing and the waiting took no time at all! At time of writing it’s 730, the time we were originally going to get here, and we are waiting to board. Through Boarding, we threw our bags on a scanner and picked them up again ten seconds later. We joined the immigration queue, and Once at the front, Dan and I had to go to separate windows. The man disinterestedly looked at my passport, took my photo and finger print and pointed me to a single window that said URUGUAY above it. I see - I’ve done Argentina immigration, now I’m walking five steps and doing Uruguan immigration. The lady took my passport then, starting at the front, began flipping the pages. She hit the middle and had to keep flipping. Her eyes growing wide at all the stamps, she made a celebratory sound when she found a blank page. We had a laugh. In English she said thank you!
I realised Dan was still waiting to be processed by Uruguay so I asked the lady if he could come to her window to which she said yes. I called him over so he managed to skip the queue he was in.
Through, up some stairs and as of time of writing, we are sitting in the waiting area!
4:55pm On the ferry back to Buenos aires. What a lovely day we had!
Once we were on the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, we sat and sat and sat. People were streaming on, struggling to find seats (there were still plenty but the groups would have had to split up). About 15 minutes after scheduled departure we started moving backwards out of the dock. Then slightly sideways. Then mostly backwards. Eventually we were in the open ocean and we were at proper speed.
After a short while we stopped in the open ocean. And started to reverse. Then slightly sideways. There weren’t any boats that we could see. After a little while of this, we started straight again, and off we went. A mystery we will never solve!
I basically fell asleep again for most of the journey (damn transport!). We managed to pick the correct exit and were one of the first off. We joined w queue at the top of an escalator to have our bags scanned (or collect luggage and scan for those people who needed it). Like everyone coming down the stairs, we joined the closest queue. I got an angry tap on the shoulder and some harsh words in Spanish. I eventually realised she was shitty with me for jumping the queue, but we had done exactly what those in front of us and those behind us were doing - blending from the escalators.
No drinkbottles outside the bag, we threw them in, got through customs and burst into the sunshine outside. We started walked leftish and soon we were in the outskirts of the town.
The average housing area is leafy green and beautiful, eith the occasional painted colour house and cobblestones, but as we continued through it we came across the historical centre. Being some of the first there, it was stunning to walk the streets and find different beautiful buildings covered in different coloured and carefully trained bougainvilleas. Some were so big the door was almost non-existent! We saw a many of the gorgeous streets, took too many photos and before long the streets were swarming with people who hadn’t managed to run out of customs as quickly as we had!
Happy with the photos we had taken, we decided to have an early lunch. I had done some research and found a cute little place that was off the beaten track a little called Calms Coco. The lady greeted us with a big smile and a little bit of English, and we sat outside at upcycled tables made of singer sewing with a painted blue door as the table top. The place had gotten many great reviews but I couldn’t remember exactly what was on the menu, and we weren’t super hungry, so we order 1L of fresh lemonade (non fizzy, fresh squeezed! So refreshing!). We also got a serve of handmade spring rolls with mango dipping sauce, a bruschetta and croquettes (risotto) to share. It. Was. Delicious. Especially the spring rolls. Just wow! And enough food for us.
I had looked up local Uruguayan fare but the main thing I found was the chivito , the National food of Uruguay , which was essentially a beef burger. We gave it a miss.
The lady introduced us to Coco, who the restaurant was named after; a slightly shabby golden retriever type doggo with a sore foot. Once we had paid up (1100 U pesos) we decided to walk to the water front. I started down the jetty and didn’t notice a security man shouting at me. Eventually Dan and I realised and wandered off the pier, and stared at the do not enter sign we had completely walked past (to be fair it was in… Spanish or Portuguese). Near here we picked up a magnet for me. $50 U pesos, about Au$2. She only accepted card for $100 U pesos. We enquired about Argentinian pesos and American dollars but the exchange rate she quoted was ridiculous, so we bought another magnet for $50 U pesos and I’ll turn it into a Christmas ornament (yet another thing I collect).
We continued along the foreshore, stopping for Dan to replace cambers batteries and making our way down to the waters edge. What’s a Sasha and Dan adventure without some rock scrambling? As usual we dipped a finger in - the water was kind of brown so neither of us were keen for a swim. The beach has very little sand, a lot of rock, and a lot of grass, plants and trees! It was very odd. The rocks looked like the tessellated pavement in Tasmania.
We made our way back to the old town gate, where we were blocked by a mime. That kept wolfwhistling. Not only are wolfwhistles just horribly infuriating - but from a MIME? Did he miss the brief? Mimes are silent! Anyway. Across the road was an icecream store where we stumbled our way through with minimal Spanish to order. While we were eating, I noticed some of the local parrots in the distance, above the old city wall line. We finished the icecream and climbed the wall to take closer photos.
From here we meandered our way back to the ferry. We had mostly exhausted what we could do in the town - we had wanted to climb the lighthouse for a view but it was shut, and I’m sure you can hire boats or kayaks that would be fun. For us tho, the town had done exactly what we had set out for it to do, and it was time to head off.
We found ourselves in the main town centre with modern shops. Once inside the terminal, we found our way through security exceptionally easily - had my passport stamped for the second time for exiting Uruguay (yes! Stamps!) and Dan and I entered the waiting space.
We chilled here for a while until an announcement was made and while we didn’t know what it said, we saw people make for the boarding queue. We joined the snaking line. And waited. And waited. And waited. After standing for about half an hour, the queue finally started to move forward and at a snails pace, we boarded. I spent some time writing this post and then - you guessed it - I fell asleep.
Getting through Argentina security was a bit of a faff. Thankfully we got off near the front of the queue, which was snaked through the ferry terminal blocking passengers from boarding other boats. This queue was SLOW. It meandered around, disappeared around a few dark corners before finally popping out in a dismal customs room. I was directed to a lady who took my picture (again) and my thumb print (again) and we were finally allowed to leave.
I literally snorted with laughter when we walked through the customs gate. We didnt majestically enter a big room filled with waiting families -no, we were unceremoniously expelled directly onto the street into oncoming traffic.
We reversed the journey of 12 hours prior - walk to the bus stop, catch the bus, desposit at accommodation. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the buses yet. I think I mentioned we had to tap on twice, once for Dan once for me. But as I usually board second I have to scoot right in because before Dan has finished booping the card, the bus is away and the doors are shutting on my backpack. The doors of the bus seem to be able to remain open even when the bus is in motion. There is no waiting until the elderly reach a seat or people are ready and hanging on. It’s PAY AND GO NOW.
After a swim, the rest of the night was spent packing as we are sadly leaving our well-used pool tomorrow. But onto bigger and better things! Tomorrow we shoulder our backpacks, walk to our new accommodation and before long we will be in Ushuaia.
xx
The National bird of Uruguay is the southern lapwing and this fella wasn’t at all shy:
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