Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay

Today was a lovely day. I woke up refreshed after nearly falling asleep on the ferry last night and walking in the dark to our hostel. Pasada de la Flor is painted pink with the second storey balustrades covered in jasmine and vines. There are free vintage cruiser bikes and a roof top terrace overlooking the water.

We had breakfast in the cute lunchroom with lots of other oldies, then went to do some admin on our laptops. At midday we walked around the old town, it has cobbled streets and all the colonial houses are painted different colours. It’s so quiet, and safe to get your cameras out here, a really nice contrast to Buenos Aires.

We got money out of an ATM, but it came out in $1000 peso notes. So then we had to wait for the banks to open (at 1pm), only to be told to go to a cambio. Then we had to ask to exchange the money into smaller notes, all completely in Spanish. It was definitely a test!

We stopped at El Drugstore, a cool cafe for some lunch. I had un cafe sin leche and a chicken salad (the most vegetables I’ve had all trip). Susie ordered a small fillet of fish and potatoes, she got a bowl of fried sardines and deep fried potatoes. It was quite funny because it was so different to what the menu said. Hardly anyone speaks English here apart from our hotel receptionist who maybe hates us because she complained that we made her wait last night, so we’re really forced to practise our Spanish now.

We went back to our hotel because it was hot and sunny, then out again to buy red wine and water. We had a wine on the rooftop while watching the pink sunset over the River Plata. Dinner was toasted sandwiches at a little cafe. The food here is really expensive, much more than Buenos Aires and almost more than New Zealand! So we got a cheap Dulce du Leche yoghurt from the dairy and ate it in the breakfast room, where tea and board games were out for people to use. It is so relaxing here.

Day 2 - Posada de la Flor

I didn’t have a great sleep last night, but I got about 5 hours. We both were tired this morning. Breakfast was the same in the cute tearoom. We then walked to the bus terminal and booked our ticket to Montevideo. We tried to get a coffee but the shop we wanted was shut. We visited a lighthouse where tourists where queuing outside. I used up my last Argnetine pesos and it had a great view at the top.

After we ended up going to this cute little pink tearoom near the main road. The lady was nice and didn’t mind our broken Spanish as we tried to order. She pointed out the post office on the map for Susie.

I exchanged more money at the Cambio because food is so expensive in Uruguay, we had almost spent as much in Buenos Aires for 5 days! We found the post office after asking directions that we couldn’t understand from two ladies on the street, then had a conversation with the teller, I successfully understood at least two questions he asked.

We went home again. At lunch time we went for a bike ride on the vintage cruisers down Las Ramblas a las Americas. It was a well paved promenade that stretched the length of the town. It was nice to mix up the pace from walking. We saw the old bull fighting ring in a random roundabout at the far end.

Then we biked back and had lunch at El Drugstore. I had a hamburgeusa – which turned out to be just a patty with a huge amount of potatoes. I also had a huge cupa of wine, because it was basically the same price as water and cheaper than coffee. It was the tannoc rosado that the region is famous for – a light orange hued wine. We popped into the supermarket and headed back home for tea and cakes in the tearoom