Today, Friday we took an overnight detour into Uruguay, to the World Heritage site of Colonia del Sacramento, 50km across the great estuary of the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Traffic was pretty bad from our hotel to the port and it took 40 minutes but we arrived with an hour and ten minutes to spare. Check in was easy and we had paid for the business class ticket as was on offer for a few dollars more. Upon reflection wouldn’t bother with that as really not a great advantage, Passport control, one booth, two blonde women side by side, one was for Argentina, the other Uruguay, so stamped out and in, within a matter of seconds. We only took backpacks (I know impressed right, me traveling super light), so on arrival just had to put all bags through a X-ray machine for customs control.
The walk from the ferry to the old city was only about 300 metres. We booked at the hotel Charco within the old town. A small boutique hotel of only eight en-suite rooms, delightful, highly recommended. Having checked in felt the need for a light snack and some liquid refreshment, fizzy water for me and amber liquid for Hesk. Despite the weather App telling us it was sunny, a large dark cloud was approaching from the west. Moments later a massive ‘summer storm’, as the locals called it, descended. What a wind, was quite something. We all raced in to a more sheltered area but chaos ensued. I left David settling the bill and raced to our room. I was very cold and we have no jumpers. The room had robes so having switched off the aircon, opened the shutters and wrapped myself up. David was an age, the young lady suggested he pay by credit card now as he would pay no tax of 18%. If he added it to the room, tax would be applied. However as he pointed out on payment the Amex tab showed tax was applied. She said later when it goes through it will come off – will let you know! Looked this up, it applies to foreigners. Apparently with Amex a refund of around 18% will show on your credit card, but if you use Visa, it’s applied straight away. The thought is to encourage Argentine’s to come to Uruguay and help them out a bit as their currency is so weak compared to that of Uruguay.
Having taken advantage of the inclement weather to take a rest in this delightful hotel, one of us completely sparko, we stirred ourselves. The rain having cleared we explored Colonia before dinner. A pretty 17th century heritage village that has morphed beautifully into modern day Colonia. Masses of Portuguese influence in evidence and that of course of the eventual conquering Spanish. Many serious Photographers lined key spots along the river wall monitoring a rather glorious sunset that displayed many different colours over about an hour and a half.
We enjoyed a light dinner at the hotels bistro and only a couple of glasses of wine. Feeling a tad bit drained at the end of a busy day on the move, hoping for a good nights sleep!
Argentina Travel Log 2019 
Loving the photos from this visit, x
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