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Anna S. E. Lundberg

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Colonia del Sacramento: A short post about old towns and tango

11 August, 2013 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

From Montevideo, it’s a short bus ride (3-4 hours – no 2-hour delay this time, just half an hour late) to Colonia, from where it’s just a 1-hour ferry ride across the Río de la Plata to Buenos Aires. I was in a four-bed dorm with two Argentinean girls (in their thirties, hallelujah! and incidentally both called Mariana, so that was easy to remember) and we had dinner and spent the next day together, exploring the city.

By the way, my Swedish friends will understand that I spent the entire time I was by the Río de la Plata, on both the Uruguayan and the Argentinean side, singing to myself:
Samborombon, en liten by förutan gata,
den ligger inte långt från Rio de la Plata,
nästan i kanten av den blåa Atlanten och med
pampas bakom sej många hundra gröna mil,
dit kom jag ridande en afton i april
för jag ville dansa tango.

This is part of a song by the much-loved Swedish singer Evert Taube about Fritjof who comes to the small village of Samborombon in Argentina to propose to the beautiful Carmencita, who unfortunately instead favours a rich man with a big estancia and 20,000 cows.

Colonia is described by the Lonely Planet as “an irresistibly picturesque town”, and its Barrio Histórico is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. On arriving from Montevideo, I had spent my first grey afternoon wandering around the old town taking pictures of the streets, the buildings, the ocean… The next morning, the clouds had cleared and the sky was blue so of course I had to go round with the two Marianas to all the same places and re-take all the photos! The old town is a lovely little area, and I can imagine it’s even nicer when it comes to life in the summer and you can sit outside the little cafés on the cobbled streets. Same for the beaches, which would be much more useful in the hot summers!

20130811-140136.jpgCloudy day

20130811-140427.jpgSunny day

20130811-140654.jpgThe lighthouse, El Faro, was built in 1857 on top of the ruins of the San Francisco convent

20130811-140833.jpgClimbing to the top, you get a 360 degree view over town and out over the ocean

20130811-140956.jpg

20130811-141417.jpgThis old street, Calle de los Suspiros (the ‘street of sighs’), retains its Portuguese houses and cobbled surface, with a drain running through the middle instead of down the side as is more common

20130811-141909.jpgThe streets of Colonia are lined with vintage cars, and in fact some will tell you that visiting this city is like going back in time to how Buenos Aires used to be…

20130811-142127.jpgWalking along the Río de la Plata (Samborombon, en liten by förutan gata…)

20130811-142313.jpg

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20130811-142410.jpgIt may have been sunny, but it was still pretty cold!

20130811-142506.jpgAnother beach, another missed opportunity for a swim

20130811-142619.jpgIglesia Matriz on the Plaza de Armas is Uruguay’s oldest church. I stood for several minutes in front of the church waiting patiently for the tourists to clear so that I could take a good picture; when they finally left, a big truck pulled up and parked right in front of the entrance…

The practical bit
For boats between Colonia (also Montevideo) and Buenos Aires:
-I took the Colonia Express, very convenient, with immigration handled smoothly, though a very long way to walk down from the terminal to the boat!
-There is also the Buquebus (sounds in English like ‘book a bus’ in a French accent…), which has both 1-hour and 3-hour boats to Montevideo.

Filed Under: Travel, Uruguay Tagged With: Buquebus, Carmencita, Colonia del Sacramento, Colonia Express, Evert Taube, Montevideo, Rio de la Plata, South America, travel, Uruguay

Coming to Uruguay: Markets, mate and Mexicans in Montevideo

9 August, 2013 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

Another night bus, another two hours more than advertised. But this time it was a blessing: had I arrived in Montevideo on a Sunday at 5am as we were supposed to, I would have had to wait outside for hours in the cold and the dark until the hostel opened at 8am. As it was, I managed to persuade them to let me in when I arrived at 7.30am.

I decided not to go to bed, as having a nap after a night bus tends to confuse my body clock, but I did take it easy with a long breakfast and a nice hot shower. I was pointed in the direction of two outdoor markets and I headed out into town to first one then the other. The first ‘feria’ was huge, filling the main street of Tristán Narvaja and many side streets, with everything from antiques to electrical parts to animals (I hate seeing dogs in particular in tiny boxes and cages, but it would be impossible to adopt them all!). The second market in the Parque Rodó was smaller and mainly had clothes. (One top said “Don’t worry, be sexy” – a great idea that sadly would not be achieved with the baggy black top on which it was written.) From there, I wandered through the fun fair (unfortunately closed) and down to the beach, though any sunbathing or swimming was out of the question at this time of year.

Now there’s a strange habit in some countries of South America, mainly Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina – very strange to those of us not used to it, though incredibly commonplace for those who are. It’s drinking mate: well, not really the drinking of the tea itself, but the act of carrying it around with you everywhere you go. Men and women on the street, on the bus, at the national park, will be holding the typical gourd in one hand, periodically sucking through the metal straw, while clutching a big thermos under the other arm. Others carry special cases to hold both the thermos and a big bag of the yerba mate for continuous refills throughout the day. The closest parallel would be if Brits started carrying around thermos flasks with Earl Grey tea; but I also have visions of The French carrying bottles and glasses of wine, Germans with barrels of beer, Russians with bottles of vodka… Not that mate is alcoholic or even particularly stimulating. In the cold of the winter months I can definitely understand the appeal, but otherwise I’m at a loss to understand the addiction.

Anyway, on the bus on the way back into town, I was accosted by a student from Mexico who had recognised my foreigner status (what gave me away?!) and asked if he could join me. So we had lunch together – ‘chivito’, a national dish of Uruguay that consists of meat with bacon, cheese, egg and mayonnaise on a pile of fries, a veritable health bomb; went for a guided tour at the Teatro Solís; and finally wandered down the Rambla all the way back to the fun fair and took the same bus back into town again. Montevideo is packed with beautiful architecture including many gorgeous art deco buildings from the 1920s, and its location just across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires makes it an appealing and accessible destination both for ‘porteños’ (the residents of Buenos Aires) and for us tourists who have come to Argentina.

Back at the hostel, the usual eclectic mix of people: a German woman (we spoke Spanish!) who had just moved to Montevideo for work, her husband arriving later that evening; a couple visiting from Chile; and José from the north of Spain. After twelve years as a social worker in Spain, José had quit his job and spent two years volunteering in Asia. Now he’ll do the same in South America, after which he plans to go to Africa. He spoke incredibly passionately about his work and the people he got to know as he worked on different projects; and he advocated the importance of being grateful for what you have and living in the moment.

And that’s pretty good advice, I think!

20130809-190957.jpgMarket day in Montevideo

20130809-191110.jpgA castle in Parque Rodó

20130809-191206.jpgThe fun fair was not so fun…

20130809-191241.jpg…but the dulce de leche-filled churros made it all the more fun!

20130809-191458.jpgFancy a swim?

20130809-191555.jpgGourds and straws for mate drinking

20130809-191714.jpgThe Teatro Solís is Uruguay’s oldest theatre, built in 1856

20130809-191909.jpg

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20130809-192045.jpgOops

20130809-192313.jpgSome of the architecture in the Old Town

20130809-192457.jpgWalking along the Rambla

Filed Under: Travel, Uruguay Tagged With: mate, Montevideo, South America, Teatro Solís, travel, Uruguay, yerba mate

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