Uruguay

Colonia Doorway

Uruguay was never in the plan. During my first pass through Buenos Aires, I could have made it happen, but I chose not to. It's not that it wouldn't have been easy. The town of Colonia del Sacramento is a short, one-hour ferry ride across the Rio Plata estuary -- easy enough for a day trip. But, given that I only had five days in BsAs before I had to make my mad dash down to Patagonia, I didn't want to give up a day in the Argentine capital and make a run across the river just to get little more than another stamp in my passport.

Old Colonia Lighthouse

A month later, Aerolineas Argentinas screwed the pooch and I found myself with eleven extra days in Buenos Aires. This meant that I had plenty of time to make more than a cursory trip over to Uruguay. As it was, my trip to Uruguay was still pretty cursory, but the extra time meant that, in addition to exploring Colonia, I was able to fit in a night in Montevideo.

The historical quarter of Colonia del Sacramento is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The strategic position of the city, on the shores of the Rio Plata, had control flipping black and forth between the Spanish and Portuguese (and later, the Brazilians) before the Oriental Republic of Uruguay was finally established in 1828. 

Interior of the Montevideo Post Office

To tell you the truth, Colonia underwhelmed me. As interesting as the vestiges of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism are, the historical sites can all be seen in about two hours. I was a little underwhelmed. There are a lot of quaint little shops and cafés, but I was a lot more interested in the tourists cruising the streets in rented dune buggies -- an activity I was unfortunately unable to partake in, given that I stupidly misplaced my driver's license in a taxi in Peru.

I was much more taken with Montevideo. A three-hour bus ride along the Atlantic Coast from Colonia, the capital of Uruguay is the only city in the country with a population exceeding one million. And, unlike Colonia, it felt like a city.

Maybe it's because I'm a city boy at heart. Maybe it's because I felt like I left things on the table -- that feeling that I rushed through Montevideo, which an extra hour or two might have solved. Maybe it was the great steak I had at the Mercado Central; or my introduction to the scrumptiousness that is the chivito (a Uruguayan sandwich of thinly-sliced beef, fried-egg, olives, tomato, mozzarella, mayonnaise -- oh, just look at the Wikipedia link, I'm too busy drooling) at a fry-up at my hostel in Pocitos. All I know is that Montevideo is easily worth a second look when I'm back in the area.

Montevideo Architecture

When it was all said and done, what I experienced of Uruguay was not that much different from my time in Argentina. Argentinians like to joke that Uruguay is really just a province of Argentina, just with different money. You can never say that to a Uruguayan, but it's kind of true. As a matter of fact -- and this is probably ass-backwards thinking -- Uruguay seemed more Argentinian to me. I saw more people carrying around mate flasks in Montevideo and Colonia, than I did anywhere in Argentina.

Their beef is just as good. And one could argue that they might be better -- per capita -- at football, given that they've won just as many World Cups as a country over ten times their size in population.

I should probably stop now lest the Argentine national authorities catch wind of this and bar me from ever visiting Argentina again.

Left for Dead

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