So I took a day trip out to Colonia with two Canadian guys I met in my hostel, Mike and Blair (I actually totally forgot their names and called them "Mate" for two days before finding out their names again after seeing their passports on the way to Uruguay).
The 6am start was brutal, but I managed to get some sleep on the slow boat to China, I mean Uruguay, that we took. Got there at about lunchtime and spent a couple of hours walking around. It's a charming little town on a strategic point on the Rio de la Plata, which incidentally is the widest river in the world.
The Spanish and the Portuguese battled over the town throughout colonial times due to its strategic position on the river and the town is a mixture of these architectural styles (central drainage in some streets that the Portuguese liked, and kerbside drainage in others that the Spaniards liked). The oldest church in Uruguay is there as well as a pretty cool lighthouse and fortifications. And that's about it. It is a UNESCO site though.
The town is a getaway for Porteños (the inhabitants of BA) in the summer, but in winter it's pretty much dead.
So what do two Canadian´s and an Aussie do in a one horse Uruguayan town? Rent scooters and drive around like we were possessed obviously.
The locals must be starved for tourism in winter as we were welcomed like a trio of green helmeted gods as we rolled around, with the locals waving, cheering, throwing flowers, bringing us gifts, trying to get us to marry their daughters...well, maybe not the throwing flowers bit.
That killed time until we got the fast boat back to BA that evening, all persons intact and no injuries or new Uruguayan brides, despite our best off-road efforts on the scooters.
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