Friday, March 28, 2014

Why Don't We Go to Uruguay Too?!

When we planned our trip with Mariah and Chris, Joe said the one thing he really wanted to do in Buenos Aires was not in BA at all!  He wanted to take the ferry across the bay to Colonia, Uruguay for the day.  "You can do that?!"  I asked.  This was getting more exciting by the second!  So, when we were doing our city tour, we stopped in to see if we could get tickets. Mariah and Chris were at the total liberty of us.  They have French and German under their belts, but not Spanish.  They were able to figure out though (probably through my facials) that there were no seats left on the ferry.  We had built this up so much and I knew that Joe really wanted to do this.  Everyone was a bit quiet and then after much conversing with the lady behind the desk, Joe stood up, thanked her, and announced, "We are all set."  With just a hint of a smile.  Confused, they looked at him and all he said was, "Looks like we'll be traveling first class."    
 I was howling.  That is so unlike Joe.  He bought the last 4 tickets in 1st class on the ferry so we could get to Uruguay.  Can you tell he really wanted to check it out?  So that was that.
 The next day we got our passports stamped, headed through customs, waited at the terminal and then were shown up to the second level where the extra comfy seats and "free drinks" were.  
 This was going to be a lot of fun :)

 We were ready for our Uruguay experience.

 First class, we found out, not only included the nice seats on the boat, but a tour of the town as well as lunch.  Not half bad...
 When we got on the bus, there were only 2 other people already on board.  One of them was passed out with his mouth wide open, fast asleep.  I guess that was a good indicator that this wasn't going to be super thrilling.  We made the most of it, and possibly even got a few seconds of shut-eye in as well, but were definitely ready to get out and walk around when it was over.  
The Coliseum in Colonia
 A little of the terrain

 Time to check out the downtown.
 There were no expectations on my end when it came to what this would be like.  I knew nothing about the town, and that added to the excitement when we made it to the main square and found it to be quiet, colorful and extremely quaint.  It was an artists dream.  I'm no artist, but I had plenty of fun with my camera.  Welcome to Colonia:





 The tires of this oldie but goody have actually become one with the pebble stone road, and plants claimed it as their own.



 Our stop for lunch.  The freshest, most thirst quenching lemonade in my lifetime.





 The lighthouse was a must.
Wow was it windy, but what a view!


























 This was a shot purely to check out the shirtless, hairy man on the right, who was all over that girl of his.  It was a little much if you asked us.



We loved Uruguay!  At the end of the day, we hopped on the ferry again and made our way back to Argentina.  Wednesday:  Chile.  Thursday:  Argentina.  Friday:  Uruguay.  Three countries in three days for the Robins.  That is pretty, darn, good.

2 comments:

Carrie said...

I love it...brings back so many memories!!! We went to colonia too when we lived in buenos aires and loved it. Can't believe I walked across that huge street in BA every day when I was 7 months pregnant with Nicholas. Definitely beautiful places, soo thrilled you're getting to see them!!! And you took much better pics than we did : )

Debra said...

We went to Colonia, Uruguay a few years ago... Loved it! So fun to see your pics from that awesome place!