It has been two days so it must be time to head somewhere new; this time no planes are required since we're on a day trip via boat to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. We traveled via Colonia Express and the trip took a little longer than the hour we were told. They actually took care of both Argentine and Uruguayan customs and entry/exit right together before we boarded, so there was nothing to take care of on the other end. Interesting and efficient process for sure-- handing a passenger and their passport from one agent to the next certainly beats waiting in two lines.
We grabbed a map from one of the many tourist offices and set to wandering about this tiny, charming town. We saw everything marked on the map including the city gate, the bastions, the lighthiuse, the san francisco ruins, the plaza de.armes, the church, and the ruins of the governor's house. We also honestly walked on every street in the barrio historico- it's really that small.
One of the highlights was going down the Calle de Suspiros (street of sighs), which is a beautiful narrow cobble stoned street right after the city gate. Brennan's classmate is from Uruguay, and his cousin is actually the painter for a gallery owner by their family on this street (the artist's name is Fernando Fraga). Didn't get to meet any of his family, but had a great time walking through as well as seeing the beautiful garden space in the back.
Rounding out our awesome day date that was lighter on the site-seeing, we had lunch at a tiny spot with nine seats that was run by the owner (he cooked, served etc). A glass of wine, a little more dulce de leche ice cream tasting, and a cool necklace purchase at a small art gallery rounded out the afternoon before we were back on the boat.
Our day wasn't over yet as that night we went to the landmark Café Tortoni which has been around for over 150 years and is an institution (there was a picture of HRC in the lobby circa 1997 and a much earlier haircut!) We knew we wanted to do something tango oriented while we were here, and decided that this more intimate brick-basement show was more our speed than one of the huge dinner and a show options that are found throughout the city and last several hours. We were definitely right and had a great time at the show! We then walked through the historic center home, passing the lit up casa rosada, and since we had a bit of a hankering still (we only had munchies at the show), totally indulged on our last evening and tried yet another dulce de leche ice cream via room service (please don't judge, it's absolutely addictive and we travel by stomach!)
No comments:
Post a Comment