Uruguay, a suprising relaxed and pleasant
country
After one week with less good weather in Buenos
Aires and relatively a lot of working, tango and Spanish lessons we left by boat
for Uruguay on Sunday October 30. Our first destination was
Colonia del Sacramento. A ferry ride of
3 hours on the Rio de la Plata with a very luxurious ferry.
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Street in Colonia
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Old timers in C. del
Sacramento
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Children
celebrating
Halloween in
Colonia
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Colonia is a nice small town
on the South East coast of Uruguay with a beautiful historic centre near the port. In the weekend and
in summer loads of day tourists from
Buenos Aires
and Montevideo visit the place. Indeed, this Sunday it was quite busy but
not too much. Despite the fact that many tourists visit the town, it was able to
keep some of the authentic atmosphere and the street don't have too much ugly tourist stores.
When the day visitors had left, the tranquility returned and the mate
drinking youths came in large numbers to the boulevard in the west for a
beautiful sunset.
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Sunset in Colonia
The small spots on the horizon are Buenos Aires around 50 km away
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On Tuesday we went to the
capital Montevideo by bus, a enormous wide city
where around 1,5 million people live (about 1/3 of the total population in Uruguay).
Since the city is very large, even in the centre streets are not that crowded
and the large number of students create a lifely buzz, especially in the old
centre (La Ciudad Vieja). Here you'll find besides many beautiful old building
also many trendy restaurants, bars and night clubs. Along the Rio de
la Plata Montevideo has a boulevard of more than 20 km with many large beaches.
On November 2 Uruguay
celebrates All Saints day. It is excellent weather and many people go to these
beaches, which are still not too crowded because they are so large. Even though
temperature reaches more than 30 degrees, the Uruguayans still carry their hot
water and mate cups. Along the beaches there are remarkely few restaurants and
bars. The Uruguayans apparently prefer their national drink far above a nice
cold beer.
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Parilla caravans found everywhere
in
Uruguay
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Plaza Fabini
Montevideo
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Beach of
Montevideo
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In general Uruguayans are
very friendly and relaxed: the servants are also very helpful and friendly and in
traffic people are very kind and patient, even in a big city like
Montevideo. In Colonia they are just amazing. As soon as you put one foot on the
road, all cars in the surrounding stop and drivers start gesturing that you can
go. A strange experience. The frequency and the way many people say “Muy bien”
makes you happy right away.
On Friday 5 November we
finally move into the direction of our next destination in the North of
Argentina (the Iguazu falls / Caratacas in Spanish) and we leave Montevideo in
the direction of
Durazno in the middle of the country. We planned a
couple of more days in Uruguay because we are surprised by its relaxed
atmosphere and we like to spend a some more time in this country. Duranzo is a
relatively small town (only around 30.000 people) and is situated in the heart
of a agricultural area. The bus ride takes us through the vineyards of
Canelones.
In Durazno we stayed on an
estancia of a very sweet old aged couple. An estancia is a small kind of farm.
The couple Helena and Julio keep some cattle (Normando cows) and horses and grow
some vegetables and receive tourists every now and then. Unfortenately the
afternoon of our arrival it rains a lot, but in the evening the weather is
getting better and the whole Saturday and Sunday is was beautiful weather.
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Estancia in Durazno
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Horse back riding in
Uruguay
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We spend our time on the
estancia with reading, starring at the surroundings, drinking Uruguayan wine,
talking with the owners and some horseback riding. On Saturday we were
accompanied by a friendly couple with lovely children who normally live in
Montevideo. Together with the owners we share some information about The
Netherlands/Europe and Uruguay/South America. Both couples have been to Europe.
As a souvenir they brought a couple of extreme high European bills of
restaurants. They still looked a bit shocked by the awkward price level in
Europe.
On Sunday we left for Salto
in a bus full of youths just returning from a big rock event near Durazno. Salto
is a bordercrossing town on the river "Rio Uruguay" near Concordia in Argentina.
It is well known for its orange trees and termal springs in the surroundings. We
spend our time with exploring the relaxed town, do some work for our company,
arranging our trip to the Iguazu waterfalls and a visit to Parque Aquatico
– Termas de Salto Grande. This is a large swimming paradise with only termal
baths. From the pools you have a splendid view on the Rio Uruguay and the green
surroundings. It was a Tuesday afternoon outside the holiday period and we were
there with only around 20 others and we able to enjoy the space and tranquility.
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Street in Salto
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School children
often wear a white skirt
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Plaza Treinta y
tres orientales Salto
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Today, Wednesday November 8,
we leave by boat to Concordia where we will take the nightbus to Puerto
Iguazu. We had a very nice time in Uruguay. The country is not really a
excellent holiday destination with great highlights, but just a relaxed
(actually a very special and relaxed) country, especially because of its very
friendly inhabitants. Very nice as a side trip from Argentina or Brazil or on
your way from one of these countries to the other.
After Iguazu we will continu to Salta in
Argentina. From there we will explore the North West from Argentina a couple of
weeks and then go back to Buenos Aires via Cordoba and Rosario.
Soon more information
Note: the number of visitors
on our website is on the rise the last couple of weeks and with that also the
revenues for Stichting Veldwerk in Nepal
(a charity foundation). This is partly due to the fact that also
Arjen &
Ingrid (who recently left for Nepal, Cambodja,
Myanmar, Laos and Thailand) now also report through this webiste.
Click here for their
travel report
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