Day 36: Buenos Aires to Uruguay

Today was the first full day of independent travel. It was so nice to wake up and plan our own day. While it was great having everything planned out for us on the group trip, I had missed the part of travelling that requires you to engage your brain and figure things out for yourself.

We cooked breakfast in the apartment, checked out and then brought our bags across town to another hostel, who obviously had an agreement with the B&B. With our ferry due to depart for Uruguay that night at 6pm, we only had a few hours to take in Buenos Aires. And we made it count.

We walked all morning long, going from one side of town to another. Down at Retiro, where the bus station was, were nothing but big avenues, and not a lot of life. We came to a park with a giant flower statue (which opens and closes) by Eduardo Catalana, and chilled out there for a while, before walking around Placa Francia and then looking for the entrance to Cemeterio de Recoleta.

After walking around the entire block, we were obviously right beside the entrance in the first place, we found it and entered. It was incredible. And so unexpected! Laid out like a miniature city with radial paths extending from the heart of the cemetery I was astounded by these elaborate tombs, more like small model buildings than a grave. Some were decorated with classic detailing and others slick and modern - not a relic or a ruin but an active, living (irony intended) cemetery. Truly fascinating.

Conscious of the time, we made the long walk back to our hostel, walking from the very ostentatiously wealthy part of town to the poorer. We reached Avenida de Mayo, took a quick photo stop at Plaza Congresso, to see some rather unexciting government buildings and headed to the hostel where I could do nothing more than flop on the couch. My legs were ready to fall off. The plan to walk to the ferry terminal all of a sudden seemed a lot more of a struggle than originally planned. Taxi!

A short and cheap taxi ride later (it would have been a long, painful walk) and we were at a very lovely and new ferry terminal where we had the most hassle free check in ever. Passports stamped out of Argentina and into Uruguay (one official for each country) we chilled out with a coffee before boarding the SeaCat Ferry for Colonia del Sacramento.

When we did, we found a seat at a table in a cafe upstairs and with my head in my hands, I went fast asleep. A lovely, sleepy hour later, we arrived into Uruguay! The poor couple sat beside me and Anja...

Off the ferry and in a new country, we were disappointed to discover it was even colder than Buenos Aires! The downside of travelling in the low season... It was a quiet and sleepy place. We walked up a tree lined Avenue, positively suburban, with not a soul in sight. You'd have never known it was Saturday night. We arrived at our hostel where a chipper young girl, couldn't have been more than 16, greeted us and we checked in. This was to be my first dorm room of the trip... but we had it all to ourselves! The upside in travelling in the low season!

Anja and I went exploring and discovered Colonia del Sacramento was very pretty. A hilly little peninsula with cobbled streets, yet more colonial architecture and beautiful squares - but no life! Where was everyone?! With the exception of a Brazilian Samba band that enthusiastically, if slowly, made their way around the town, we didn't really come across many other people. And the restaurant prices weren't working out very cheap either... so we took the receptionists restaurant recommendation. We went to the tacky diner with life size cut outs of Luís Suarez guarding the entrance and asked for a menu: if we took it to go, we got our meal half price! Hard to argue with that! We were led to the counter behind which there was a huge coal fired grill cooking vast quantities of steak, sausages and chicken - actually, this was looking pretty bloody good now!

While we waited we picked up a bottle of wine in the supermarket and then took our cheap, cheap steak dinner home with us to the hostel. Not a bad evening!

Rather pathetically we couldn't muster the energy to venture out after that. But sure the place was dead!... that's my excuse anyway...

Accommodation: El Viajero Hostel
Weather: 23 degrees and bright in BA but chilly; easily 10 degrees in Colonia del Sacramento