Colonia Del Sacramento, Uruguay

 

After our short visit to Guayaquil, we caught the flight to Montevideo, Uruaguay. Then, off on a 3 hour bus ride along the coast to the historic Colonia. 

We passed countryside and many ranches and farms.  The cattle population of Uruguay is about 4 times as large as the human count!  Beautiful and green. 

Portugal and Spain, and even the Brits, took turns conquering Colonia in the early days.  It is an important port city and just across the River Plate from Argentina.

We could see the Portuguese influence in the Old Town.  Different architecture and cobblestone street styles than we see in Cuenca. We can see why Colonia is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This town offered our first taste of excellent Uruguayan beef and lamb!  Both are major exports, along with leather and wool.  Their livestock is grass fed, very tender and traditionally cooked to perfection over wood fires.  Yum!

To get around and see the sights, we rented golf carts...very fun.  George was our expert driver.

 

 

 

 

 

Colonia is big enough for fairly large supermarkets and a compact shopping mall (where Nancy found her favorite Sketcher Brand shoes that fit!)  Colonia's population is aboout 27,000, so there are some services here.

Uruguay is fairly flat, no Andes-like mountains here.  The River Plate is so large it feels (and acts) like an ocean.  Folks are more Éuropean in culture and looks.  The native populations are long gone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Street art.

An old bull ring.

After a few fun-filled, relaxing days, we headed to the dock for the boat ride to Buenos Aires, about an hour's ride.