Uruguay (Colonia del Sacremento)
- Keegan Tudehope
- Feb 15, 2017
- 3 min read
Day 10
Today we started and ended the day on Argentinian soil, however we would spend most the day in Uruguay. Travelling by boat that Ellie had booked, we crossed the river Rio de la Plata, which opens to the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Colonia (del Sacramento). A very pretty and peaceful town on the coast of the river with old colonial houses, cobblestone roads and a very rustic appearance. There was nothing too significant to note as far as landmarks, however, the old town is very beautiful and we found many places to take some hipster photos, even mocking some of the young girls poses in 'the street of sighs'. The street of sighs was named after its use in the colonial times as it was where the ladies of the night worked and sighs would be made or heard when walking past it. You can see from our modelling shoot who is the better model between Ellie and I, a no brainier.
Ok, she is much prettier than I am, moving on. I do find myself pointing and shooting landmarks and old, grand buildings but here there was nothing taller than the light house. Still, I took a bunch of photos because we just found so many of the houses and scenery beautiful. Unfortunately, the river is brown so it doesn't contrast as well as some beautiful blue water and in the morning, it was overcast, but it got much better after lunch when we got some clearer skies.
Speaking of lunch, one of my favourite parts of the day, we decided to have traditional Uruguayan food given we only had the day there. Seeking the advice of the very nice man in the tourist information center, we were told traditional food is called parrilla, a wood fired barbecue opposed to the coal fired barbecues in Argentina. We were also told the El Porton, was the best place in town for parrilla, so we made our way there and ordered the barbecue for 2. This included, beef short ribs, crispy skin chicken breast, pork sausage, blood sausage and wait for it... intestines. Yep. Intestines. Just like the chicken heart in Rio, my approach was the same - if it's traditional, you must try it. I can now knock it because I tried it. It tasted a bit like pork crackling, only it was chewier and it left a dry after taste in your mouth from the 'pate' that lines the intestine. I know, it's disgusting. Without revealing my distaste for the coiled meet product, I encouraged Ellie to try some using many persuasive techniques that she saw straight through. Nevertheless, she sucked it up, not the food but her fears and bit on a small piece of intestine. Here is how it went down in a series of photos I captured.
Do you think she liked it? Do you think she ate it? Do you think I laughed a little? One of the answers is yes. Safe to say she used a napkin and washed away the flavour and then became a vegetarian. It's also safe to say we left most of it on the platter, everything else was good, short ribs a little chewy and El didn't love the blood sausage but I enjoyed it all. Especially in comparison to the intestines. I can't wait to cook it for everyone back home to try some day. The barbecue for 2 cost us 790 Uruguayan Pesos, which is slightly weaker than Argentinian Pesos so it cost us around 43 Australian dollars.
With lunch in the books, we carried on exploring the old town, viewing the distant beaches and shore line, the small port, shopping streets, cafe, church, former governor’s residence and the light house. We went to the top to take in the ''fantastic panoramic views of the river and old town'' (tourist information man, 2017), only to find we could see the brown water and a few rooftops. Not very exciting, but we contributed to the tourism industry in Colonial before taking a stroll along the river banks to eventually return the ferry terminal.
The passenger and car ferry took 1 hour between destinations and even had duty free shopping on board. It was a pretty big vessel, a little older but it would have been nice when it was new. The trip cost us around 1000 Uruguayan Pesos each (return), which is not bad to get to another country. Following our return to Buenos Aires we ended our time in Uruguay. It's difficult to give a summary of a country based off a 9-5 experience spent in one town. I can say that Colonia del Sacramento is a nice place to visit, even more so if you're a hipster, photographer, Instagram model or all the above. There are plenty of you out there so head across the brown river to Colonia someday and treat yourself.
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