Uruguay!

While Nick and I were staying in Buenos Aires, we learnt how easy it was to go to Uruguay. There is a ferry that you can take over to Colonia that only takes one hour. Uruguay wasn't on our list, but it seemed silly not to go there while we had the chance. Colonia was one of the first colonist settlements, as it was a place the Portuguese would use to rest after crossing the sea.

So we set sail from Buenos Aires and an hour later it felt like we had landed in a small, Carribean town. The sky was bright blue, there were hundreds of big flowers everywhere and small parrots in the trees. The streets were all cobbled and all the cars were really old but lovingly taken care of.





We stopped at a little cafe for some breakfast where the girl behind the counter got really excited as she had worked in London before.


It seems to be a running theme at the moment that where ever we go, we hire a bike, so following our new tradition we hopped on a bike.

Nick's parents had been to Colonia when they travelled South America when they were younger and mentioned an old bullring they saw while they were there. We cycled out of town to find it.



The bullring had been built by someone in the early 1900s, just a short time before bull fighting was made illegal in Uruguay, and since then it has fallen into disrepair. People can't go inside now, so we just had to peer into it from the road, but the sound of so many birds suggests that they have claimed it for their home now. I kind of felt sorry for the builder, as very close by there was another dilapidated old building, which turned out to be a casino that he built before gambling was outlawed! Oh dear!

We relaxed on the beach for a little while, and climbed the old lighthouse before grabbing an amazing slice of peach cake before we headed back to the madness of BA.





This was the perfect day to get a taste of a different country, without the expense of staying there. The people were all so laid back and relaxed, and Colonia was really charming.

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