Weekend Getaways - Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

As mentioned in previous posts one of the weekend getaways in Buenos Aires is to visit Colonia del Sacramento in neighbouring Uruguay.

The quickest way is to grab the Ferry in Downtown BA and do the hour trip, you have several ferry lines but the best one in Buquebus that has modern and spacious boats.

I went there recently for a weekend in early fall and it was great

Besides visiting the city there are nearby beaches to go for a dip and of course good food.

Actually the Argentine peso is depreciated towards the Uruguayan peso so there are much less people visiting an therefore it is less crowded.

From the Past - Rusty Studebaker

A homage to all Uruguayans that keep their vintage trucks

this Stud from the 50´s still runs in Jose Ignacio, maldonado, Uruguay

A perfect subject for great pics.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - La casa del Sol - Nueva Palmira

Ending this series, If you decide to come this way anytime and your looking for a place to stay in Nueva Palmira, May I suggest, "La casa del Sol" Hostel, located on 25 de Mayo facing the river (bring bug repellent). It has space for bikes and cars and the Lady that owns the place is most charming.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - Nueva Palmira

Nueva Palmira is a small city located NW of Carmelo, heading opposite to Colonia which is where everybody generally goes.

Its located facing the Parana River and its main activity is its port where they load mostly grains for export.

I said it was a city cuz you can find most of the amenities like restaurants and lodging of different price ranges.

This is a tranquil spot where you can spend one or two days in a very calm and relaxed ambiance, with friendly folks. We spend the night here and biked back to Carmelo to catch the evening boat.

The city can be accessed by road and there are regular bus services which take you to Carmelo and Colonia.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The Road to Nueva Palmira

We biked from carmelo to Nueva palmira, which is the nearest city heading North-East on Road 21. The ride is quite nice with a one lane two way road, in decent condition.

There are some uphills that are a bit steep, but can be handled if you´re in good shape, there are several place of interest along the way like beaches and wineries to stop and relax.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The Beaches

Well one of the ideas of going over to Uruguay from Buenos Aries is that you can access riverside beaches in one or two hours (depending on which route you take).

Most of the beaches from Carmelo to Colonia are nice and clean and not crowded most of the time.
Another plus is taking your bike along and being able to hit the road and stop at the different  beach resorts along the way.

In Passing snapshot - The Bike shop

Everyone loves vintage stuff, now in Uruguay all the retro and vintage stuff is original, no one renovated this bike shop, so as to look retro, all the furniture and even the goods are originally old, and are kept without any shame or pretencion.
Uruguay is packed with places like this bicycle shop in Carmelo, and make excellent pic material.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - Visiting Carmelo

Carmelo, which is part of the Colonia Department is quite a picturesque place, very calm and easy going as most Uruguayan cities.

It is actually the closest point across the Parana River to Argentina. It certainly is an excellent place to do a Day trip, many people used to come here when u couldn't buy dollars in Argentina, cuz here they even come out of the ATMs.

It has a handful of tourist attractions, but it also has some nice riverside beaches that are great an not that frequented, even in the summer.

The trip to Carmelo, Uruguay - The crossing

You probably heard that it is very easy to hop over to Uruguay from Buenos Aires, and it really is, going from Puerto Madero to Colonia or Montevideo.

There is however another route that brings you to a smaller city in Uruguay that is Called Carmelo.
For that you have to go to the city of Tigre in the Buenos Aires province. You can make it there by car or train in around 45 Min's.

From Tigre you can take "La Cacciola" ferry, which I mentioned in another post, and do a two and a half hour boat trip on the Parana River Delta, which lands you in Carmelo, roughly 90 clicks from the more famous Colonia.

The boats are quite stable and comfy, and they will even take your bike at no extra cost.
You can buy the tickets in Tigre or on line, and they will set u back 75 U$ back and forth, depending on the time of the year.

Sea Food paradise

One of my strict travel rules is not to eat fish or seafood unless its really fresh, and also to eat seafood and fish when at seaside cities, specially in the southern Atlantic or Pacific where the sea food tends to be bigger and tastier.






















It came to my knowledge that José Ignacio has one of the 10 best restaurants to eat seafood worldwide, according to T& L magazine. Ofcourse that comes with a price tag attached that exceeds my modest travel budget, and also my aversion to expensive restaurants.
So come lunch time I asked around and was referred to a discreet restaurant called "La Farola", in Jose Ignacio, BTW, the town is 10 by ten blocks , so you´ll find it.
















The place is owned and run by people born and raised "in Town", it began as a grocery store, with a cafe attached and became a full fledged restaurant.
I ordered the "Tallarines con mariscos" which is spaghetti with seafood, that is best had with white wine, but I had to condescend to my company and share a beer.

The Lighthouse at Jose Ignacio

José ignacio is a very exclusive resort town located 20 minutes away from Punta del Este. If you are able to stay here it means you are pretty wealthy, or maybe you will just visit like myself.
Its lighthouse is more interesting than the one in Punta, cuz its located right smack on the beach, and besides that and the beach itself, there isn´t much else to see.
















nevertheless it has some very nice panoramas and a picturesque fishermen's cove. An ideal place to meditate and relax

In Passing snapshot - Sunset at the Port

Photographers are atracted to sunsets like mice to peanut butter, yeah maybe in france they like cheese...Anyway I would like to share a pic thet I took close to the montevideo port, with the help of "the photographers ephemeris" an app that helps you pinpoint the sunrises and sunsets exact vantage point. which comes very handy when you are around bays and peninsulas.

In passing snapshot - The urban tree lane

This pic was definitely taken in passing, hence its blurriness. The point is that cities with trees tend to give its inhabitants a certain serenity, something I´ve noticed in Montevideo.
In any case I found this stretch of Paraguay street very picturesque, adorned with a type of tree that here they call "Platano", found all over the city.

A canadian relic - the Toronto made Overland

As funny as it may sound, in all my years living in Toronto, I never heard bout an overland car factory that had operated in the city. To my surprise when going over some shots I took at the old car show I covered in La Floresta, i saw that one of the early 1920's models was actually made in T.O.

It seems that overland was a division of Willys, later bought by jeep and GM, that had a factory located in Toronto the good. Funny that i came all the way to Uruguay to see one of these beauties for the first time.

Colonia del Sacramento

 
Colonia del Sacramento is located roughly 200 clicks southwest of Montevideo, by the River Plate facing Buenos Aires, and also closer to it than Montevideo. Being one of the oldest towns in Uruguay, I was surprised by the small size of the original Portuguese settlement, since according to the tordecillas treaty, signed by Portugal and Spain, this town was founded by the Portuguese and later handed over to the Spanish.

The cobblestone streets are adorned by stategically placed old cars like this 48´Studebaker champion coupe, that reminds me of a composition I made in grade school that was titled " the Little red Broom Broom car.
Be advised that this is probably the most photographed car in the town, Ive seen it even in a bill board in Buenos Aires.
See the PDF

El Jardin Japones

Come springtime in Montevideo its nice to get out and about. A nice place to visit on the weekends is the Japanese Garden, located on the grounds of the "Museo Juan Manuel Blanes" on Avenida Millan 4015 .
Even dough it is´nt very big its a nice place to chill out.

Punta del Este

Not more than 2hrs away from Montevideo sits Punta del este, Uruguay and Argentina´s top seaside city, with the best resorts and fine beachfront apartments. This place becomes the playground of the wealthy people of the region during the summer.

I came here out of season and it was deserted. besides fine beaches, the port is small but interesting with the odd sea Lion sitting on the docks.

The lighthouse is another favourite place for nice pics, and  of course do not miss the sunsets.

Piriapolis

About 100 clics East of Montevideo you´ll find the city of piriapolis, named after its creator Piria, its an interesting stop if your going to Punta del este, or just for a day trip. One of its attractions is Piria´s castle, that was built as his residence.
Francisco Piria was a wealthy man of his time that bought some land in the 1890s and decided to create a Summer resort to entice the locals and nearby argies. The place had  a big hotel,casino and all the necessary tourist trap attractions of the time.

On the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Piria built a church for the ceremony, but was never consecrated as a Catholic Temple, cuz of his a affiliation with masons and alchemists, and unfortunately is now in ruins.

Needless to say that the place has very nice beaches, and a breathtaking view of the whole city from the cerro San Antonio.