3 Cities in URUGUAY

MON, OCT 27 - COLONA DEL SACRAMENTO, URUGUAY

I got up early to get to the ferry docks.  Took 1 ½ hours from Argentina to Uruguay, crossed customs.  Took a taxi to my most pleasant hostel in the center of the town square.  The ferry crosses a RIVER, fresh water brown water for 1h 15m – and the ferry is packed each day.  It is the widest river in the world called Rio De La Plata – The River of Silver – because it used the be the most important exit of silver on the continent from Bolivia.  Colonia is considered a ‘day’ city.. where most people visit and leave again the same day

Colonia has a population of 10K.  You will easily recognize the era in which the buildings were constructed.  The Portuguese built with irregular stones, as the Spanish took over the country and forced the Portuguese to live within their own 4 walls they constructed with any rocks they could find.  They build thick walls, tiled roof lines and small windows and doors.  They were forced to survive with only what they had in their 4 walls, they grew gardens, but eventually were starved out.  They ate dogs and cats and rats to stay alive but eventually the Spanish took over completely.  The Spanish buildings have flat roofs, large windows and doors, and thin walls.  There are original roads left in Colonia built by the Portuguese with very uneven rock. 

See my video explanation of Sigh Street.  It is still original on both sides of the street.  In the 1970’s this street was still a brothel.  If you watch my video, I did walk it 3X from supposed superstition haha..

There are no skyscrapers.  The lighthouse and the 2 church towers are the tallest in the city.  You will see blue and white tiles all over the city to represent Portugal, the first settlers. 

The Bugambelia trees are incredible.  The leaves turn purple, pink or orange and the flower is the tiny part in the center.  The Amethyst (my birthstone) is the national stone of Uruguay, they export 20 Million tonnes of it per year, mostly to China. 

They are building a NEW COLONIA in the next 10-15 years.. I will watch for it.  It is meant to be fully green.  This city will be 3X or more the size of Colonia and ultra modern.  This concept is essentially for Argentinians who want to live there on the weekends, and work in Buenos Aires during the week.  They will rent out their places during the week for income – or it may be a ghost town during the weekdays.  This is really not a great thing for Uruguayans as their economy is already holding its’ own.  This initiative is more for Argentinians.  This city will be built like an Apple Plus city. 

I loved Colonia Del Sacramento.  I didn’t love the greater city on the bus I took, but the downtown core area is quiet, quaint, original, and totally stunning.  You can sit and hear the birds sing in this town.  The people were lovely.  The food was good.  I would give this little town a 8.5/10. 

TUES, OCT 28 - MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

I hopped on a bus in Colonia Del Sacramento and made my way to Montevideo.  This is a 3 hour bus ride through Uruguay.  The ride felt much like I was back in Manitoba.  I can see how my ancestors chose Paraguay.  The landscape is so similar – flat with trees, cows and farms everywhere.  Nothing spectacular on the drive, only simple living.  And likely hard living – people here work for their money in every country I visited so far – the economy is tough. 

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay, largest city in Uruguay with a population of 1.4M people. The downtown is beautiful, my hostel again is incredible.  I was trying to save a bit of cash so on these one nighters, I have been taking hostels.  I have been either upgrading to my own room or getting lucky.  Last night in Colonia, I had only one roomie… she was a mature woman – an employee of the port.  She went to sleep at 9pm so my room was silent. 

In Montevideo, I was in a room with 6 females – ugh.  I always choose female rooms.  I arrived in the morning and asked for a bottom bunk.  I do not feel like wrangling my way down the skinny painful metal rungs to go pee at midnight.  The girl promised me a bottom bunk but I was too early to take the room so we locked up my bags and I went on my way.  I explored the city – it is beautiful – but for me it felt fairly unimpressive coming from the cities I have already been to.  I decided to check in early and work tonight. 

When I got back, they told me they had decided to give up my bottom bunk to someone who needed it more than I did, she was older and had some disabilities.  OK, I understood.  When I got to my room, there were 2 young English girls who just checked in 10 minutes before I did.  One of them had the bottom bunk.  We chatted about it… so I showered and settled in.  I went down to cook some noodles, and mentioned to the guy as I was leaving, that the girl in a bottom bunk checked in after me and was young, curious about why they gave up my bottom bunk.  He said,.. wait here. ..

He came back and gave me a different key.  He said, here take this room.  I entered my new room.. OMG.. It sleeps a minimum of 4.  It is a 2 story room with my own patio, my own huge washroom, my very own massive suite.  WOW.  Well I feel grateful as I hang out in my suite working tonight.  Funny how things work out!

I didn’t feel fully safe in this city.  More homeless, more drugs.. and oddly I saw quite a few people here walking with canes too. 

This city sits on the coast, which is beautiful.  The downtown is full of history. 

I rate Montevideo 5/10.  This city didn’t do it for me. 

WEDN, OCT 29 - PUNTA DEL ESTE, URUGUAY

We pulled into Punta Del Este and wow.  Just wow.  I could sense immediately this was a wealthy town.  Punta Del Este is Uruguay’s wealthiest city with only 18,000 people living there year round and reaches 450,000 during peak season. This city is filled with summer homes for the wealthy from Argentina and Brazil.

It is a peninsula – something I have never seen before.  You can walk from one side to the other in 2 minutes.  One side is the ocean.  The other side is the the Rio Del Plata river, the widest river in the world! 

You walk to one side and it is calm as anything.  You walk to the other side and you see roaring waves from the ocean.  I walked around the entire peninsula walking from river, to the joint point of river meets ocean, to ocean.  All of this at sunset.  What an experience!

A condo here costs $1-1.5M U.S.!  Shocking.  I do not know who can afford these places.  Houses, however are $2M U.S. – so actually not much more.  And if you go out of the downtown area 10 minutes, the price decreases substantially. 

I visited a Uruguayan artists’ home as a museum – his art was liberal and unusual – and global. 

I hung out here with Cindy from Taiwan and Kristine from Norway.  We chatted for a few hours and at midnight decided to head out for dinner, found a live band and had a great night.  The first night I was out past midnight.  We caught a sunset, caught some sunshine by the pool the next day, and I headed to the airport.  The bus dropped me on the major highway!  I had to walk with all my bags to the airport – crazy!

Punta Del Este was a WOW for me. What an incredibly cool city. This city was an 8.5/10 for me.

At 2am I landed in Asuncion, Paraguay!!  Most excited for this stop. 

RECAP OF URUGUAY

The country has a nickname in Spanish,  El Paisito – The Little Country.  Uruguay has a population of 3.5M people, half of that is in Montevideo – the only big city.  The same population that Buenos Aires has in only it’s core downtown area.  Uruguay has 12M cows, almost 4X as many cows as people.

Uruguay does not associate with any religion and therefore gets no Government funding as all other countries do for churches.  However, the economy is much more stable than Argentina.  Over the past decade, as Argentinian currency continues to plummet, the Uruguayan currency has remained the same. 

Uruguay considers itself a secular country.  They call Christmas – Family Day.  Easter is called Tourism Day.  This was the first country in South America where women were allowed to vote.  The first country that allowed divorce due to the president in 1911 loving his cousin’s wife – self serving.  First country to legalize abortion, gay marriage, and be lenient with marijuana. 

While Chile is known for their cabernet sauvignon, Argentina known for their Malbec, Uruguay is known for their Tannat.  I have tried each in each respective country.  Chile was my favorite, Uruguay 2nd, and Argentina Malbec was definitely not bold enough for my liking.

I learned that Tango dance is a mix of African, Italian and Spanish music influence from all the immigrants. 

People do not drink coffee in Uruguay.  Only mate – and the addiction is real.  Almost every single person carries around their own thermos – as it was explained to me that people get headaches without it from the withdrawal.

Overall, Uruguay was a complete surprise to me in terms of the sheer beauty and strong economy. For me, the fact they do not honour any religion, that piece felt void for me. As a spiritual and Christian person, I felt the lack of this spirit in this country. For this reason, this country rates lower for me. Despite the absolutely stunning coastline and absolute beauty, Uruguay overall rates as a 6 for me - only due to the void of Christian spirit - there was more of an occult feel in this country. A beautiful place to visit.

PICS BELOW:

1- My tour group in Colonia.. great group!!

2-5 my ferry leaving buenos aires

all pics until the Montevideo sign are me walking around Colonia

then the pics until me holding a starbucks are around Montevideo

the next one after starbucks in my hostel. my room is not even visible, above the top row of windows, it’s amazing

The last batch of pics is Punta Del Este, a total WOW city. Very wealthy, posh city for the upper scale of Brazil and Argentina, this city houses their summer homes.