Day 314
Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay POPULATION: 22,000 Temp: 34C
The comfortable airconditioned tour bus picked us up this morning at 8am and we took off to the most gorgeous, old fashioned (felt like we were back in the 19C!) cobblestoned town of ¨Colonia¨! (As the locals shorten it to!)
This town is in the Eastern part of Uruguay and is 177 km´s away..so it was a pretty long drive....
The ¨Collector¨...or is he obsessed?!
As we travelled along we saw little river towns and lots of cows pampas and wheat farms.
On the way we stopped off at a couple of really interesting places. One was a Jam factory called Granja Colonia where a Uruguan guy, Emilio Arenas is an obsessive collector of pencils (7420) Key rings (more than 25000) ash trays (3500) and the 1500perfume bottles his wife collects!
He´s been in the Guiness Book of Records twice. In 2001 for collecting the most pencils and in 2006 for his keyrings! Cooky hey. But very interesting! His son collects phone cards! A family of true collectors!
Once we arrived in Colonia del Sacramento we ate lunch, a buffet with a main of beautiful fresh fish, overlooking the Colonia Yacht Club on the river port, called the puerto viejo. So beautiful and so picturesque.
Then we were treated to a stroll around a true Old Town the people call Barrio Historica. It´s situated on a little pennisula. In the middle of town there is a PLaza de Armas which has the quaintest and most gorgeous old church. And other old buildings on portuguese cobblestone streets overlooking the Rio de la Plata.
See the cobblestones..these are what the Portuguese paved the streets with. When the Spanish came they put down brick paving..which is still there in the newer part of the town, but it´s not as rustic and quaint..
We saw Uruguay´s oldest church, Iglesia Matriz, built in 1680 in Plaza de Armas..which was nearly destroyed by fire. It now has a lighthouse built on the sea side of it..but it´s a gorgeous old ruin. See the group of policia protecting it! (!)
Here are a few cars we saw outside this restaurant..check out the tree growing out of the one Greg is going to drive...hehe
And the dinner set up in the one i´m hopping into!
The town has a sense of humour! ha! Which we loved!
The portuguese originally founded Colonia in 1680 to smuggle goods across the Rio de la Plata into Buenos Aires! The Spanish then took it over in 1762 until 1777. Then there was a British takeover..and fights with Argentina and Brazil..until finally the Spanish took it over again..and finally Uruguay became independent in 1815 when Uruguayan national hero Jose Gervasio Artigas, declared Uruguay independency.
He has a statue in Montevideo as well as one in Colonia del Sacramento. He´s considered such a hero in Uruguay. (And so he should be...they battled hard for their independency!)
Colonia del Sacramento has about 22,000 people and throughout the day...we saw what we could only call MATE MADNESS! So many people were out and about with their Mate cups and metal straws. And all ages too..men and women and teens. It´s a national past time i´m sure of it!!!!
This is what it looks like...
Here are a couple of Mate Tea Lovers we saw..
We saw a heap more old local´s cars too.....(see below!)
This little town of ¨colonia´ was a treat anyway..and it was worth the 21/2 there and 21/2 hours back to Montevideo again! (Got a good sleep in..just as well, because it´s after midnight here and we´ve got another long day tomorrow!!!)
Off to a couple of other little Uruguayan towns for the next 3 nights...and will be out of range..so will let you know if we survived when we come back to Montevideo!
By the way...we´ve acquired more Spanish words other than just ´hola´(hello) ´gracias´ (thankyou) and adios (bye!) lately!! Pity we only have another couple of weeks here in South America! And just when we are setting into being able to communicate a little more!!!!!
Although, as i was saying to mum..now that we´re on our home straight..we´re starting to visualise being home again..and best of all, we´re looking forward to being back in our own home!!!! WhhooHoooo...our own bathroom...all the time! :-) Luxury!
Buenos Noches! (Goodnight!) xxx
