Dave & Claire´s Travels: Colonial Colonia!

Colonia, Uruguay, 25 January 2008
Montevideo, Uruguay, 26 and 27 January 2008

Uruguay is close to Buenos Aires so we took the ferry across the Rio de la Plata to the town of Colonia first before taking the bus south to Montevideo.

Colonia was a beautiful little town with many historic buildings (dated from the Portuguese occupation), narrow passageways, plaza´s, and even sandy beaches. We spent the evening exploring the old town and the next morning we took a local bus out to the huge, run-down, bull ring. The bull ring is in a state of complete disrepair now but it is not difficult to see how this was a serious sports venue in its day. There was a old lady selling souvenirs & I (Claire) bought a heart pendant chain (I didnt want to buy it but I wanted to purchase something from her as she was so nice). From here we strolled back along the beach with our feet in the warm water.

Once back in town it was time for food. What is hugely popular here, as well as in Argentina, is the Parilla. This is a barbecue of, no, not steak and chicken breast, but of all the yucky parts of an animal, tripe, guts, tongue, liver, kidneys, blood sausage, etc. Amazingly I (Claire), the quasi-vegetarian, suggested we try it. Well, when in Rome and all that then feelings of what have I let myself in for, eeek. The whole thing came out on one plate with everything piled on top of each other. Without going into too much detail it wasn´t as bad as we had envisaged....it wasn´t good either though. I requested that we just eat & don't discuss what was on our plates. Dave thought the blood sausage was the best as it was reminiscent of haggis or black pudding. The rest doesn´t bare talking about but I sure was glad I´d ordered the litre of beer.

Later that afternoon we caught the bus to the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, a quick 2 hour jaunt down the road. We were most pleasantly surprised by our accommodation. We had a double room on the top floor of the Palacio Hotel right in the center of town. There was a large private terrace offering views in all directions, an ensuite with bathtub (always puts a smile on my face), a fridge and cable TV. All for only 24 US dollars per night. If only Montevideo itself could have been equally as pleasant. Some places you can´t speak highly enough about, well, Montevideo is a place we can´t speak lowly enough about. There were more weird hawks in this city than we've encountered in all of South America, yes, including infamous Chiloe or Bogota. It is, put simply, a dump. During our 2 day stay we did the whole tourist bit and really struggled to find any redeeming qualities. We visited the Mercado del Puerto, which houses a number of different Parilla estaurants. We went for the safe option this time (or so we thought), BBQ chicken, pepper, potato & onion and a litre of beer. We also tried the Grappamiel, an alcoholic drink made from alcohol & honey.

The one thing that will seriously stick out in my mind about Uruguay was the number of people we passed with Mate cup in hand and thermo flask for refill. Unbelieveable. Hoards of people, mostly men. People say that Argentina has the mate culture but you don't see half as many people on the street hermetically sealed to the bomba (metal straw). Just to explain Mate is a tea-like beverage consumed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of the perennial tree Ilex paraguarensis ("Yerba Mate").

Mmmm, this tastes good!