From Buenos Aires, one of the easiest and most popular excursions is to cross the Rio de la Plata by ferry over to Uruguay to access Montevideo or another adorable little touristy town, Colonia de Sacramento. When one imagines crossing a river, you probably don't imagine a river that is up to about 200 km wide. If you want to get technical, it's an estuary formed by the Uruguay Parana rivers that creates the border between Argentina and Uruguay and connects all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Because of sediments entering from the other rivers, the water is a nice murky brown color.
There is the option for the super fast 1 hour ferry to Colonia or the more affordable 3 hour trip which has you there in time to walk around, grab some lunch, snap photos of the historical area of the city, and with the 1 hour time change be back in Buenos Aires by 10pm.
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| Leaving Buenos Aires behind |
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| Big river, right? |
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| Brown water noted |
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| Approaching Colonia |
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| This is what the ferry looks like |
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| Don't worry, this guy is going to catch a boat that big and tie us up |
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| Here's to visiting another country in one day |
Colonia de Sacramento was founded originally by Portugal in 1680 and over the years had also been under Spanish and Brazilian control. It's now a part of Uruguay and it's best known for its historic district, a World Heritage Site, that was built by the Portuguese.
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| It also had a tropical island feel |
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| I loved all of the different colored hibiscus everywhere |
You know it's a small world when you run into two of your good friends from Santiago in Uruguay. We forgot to snap a picture as proof of our coincidental meeting, but they were really there, I swear.
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| Back to Buenos Aires! |
Colonia de Sacramento is the cutest place. The three hundred years of history is evident everywhere and the houses are soooo tiny. Each house has a back yard with a well and a bar-b-q cooking area. Nost of the homes are privately owned and are really expensive to buy. Around $us800.00 and my guide said you can easily spend that again renovating them to become livable. She said that over the years it has become more and more fashionable to live here and the prices are climbing. I then went to Argentina and I liked it even better. I got one of those Buenos Aires apartments in La Boca, which also has a very colonial style. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteKim
Kim-
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it's the cutest! When I was there it felt so tropical, so different than what I'm used to here in Santiago. I can imagine that it will eventually be one of those places where foreigners will begin to buy more and more property and open businesses, etc.
Thanks for commenting!