Uruguay, Colonia del Sacramento

Arriving in Colonia was rather underwhelming as the weather was grey and the place didn’t really look like it had much to offer with plain buildings and quiet streets, it really didn’t seem like much happened round here.

Since we didn’t have a hostel, we walked to the tourist office and booked one of the ones we’d found on the website called Hostel Espanol. This was a far from impressive hostel as it was a little on the dirty side, the beds were damp and we were sharing with 4 other complete strangers so there were 7 of us sharing one tiny bathroom and two electricity sockets. We were all so tired by this point that we didn’t really care and after dumping our bags we went to find lunch, book the ferry to Buenos Aires, do a little sightseeing and then watch the Chelsea game. After an average lunch consisting of burgers chips and pizza between us we got the ferry tickets and had a walk around town.

This was a more pleasant experience than I had imagined and there were some attractive sights including some nice vistas of the sea, a nice old lighthouse, some picturesque old colonial streets, an old fort and portcullis equipped with cannons in the walls and some nice Spanish style architecture including a grand old building that looked like it could be the town hall. All in all it was quite a pleasant walk and we were now geared up to go and watch Chelsea beat Hull although we ended up drawing the game which put a downer on the rest of the day!

Back at the hostel I just wanted to upload my pictures, catch up on e-mails and get an early night but this wasn’t as simple as it seemed. The wifi connection in the room was poor so I had to go to the main communal area. Even here it seemed to take an age although I was pleasantly surprised to find myself serenaded by a guy with a guitar and a girl with a double bass playing some beautiful harmonies. I was very impressed! Then they moved outside and attracted quite an audience of people from the hostel who were applauding at the end of each song. I thought to myself I have to get this recorded so I recorded a few of their songs although you can’t see them due to the darkness outside, you can hear them and that’s what matters. This was a nice treat and I finally got my photos up and now was ready for sleep with 7 in a damp bed! Oh joy! Trying hard not to wake people up too much I climbed into my damp bed and faded into a light but pleasant sleep dreaming of pastures green and countries new in the morning. I was going to miss Uruguay as it has been a very pleasant country with many nice people but it was now time to move on to Argentina, a country I have longed to go to for a very long time!

Now on the ferry waiting to go we are full of expectancy and cannot wait to reach Buenos Aires.