Antarctic Cruise: Colonia del Sacramento (3.3.24)

We docked at Montivideo, Uruguay, on March 3, 2024 and hopped onto a bus for Colonia del Sacramento, a UNESCO heritage site two hours away.  Colonia was settled in the 1500s, and it still had the original city wall and many colonial buildings.  

Colonia is a picturesque time warp across the Rio del Plata from Buenos Aires, Argentina.  It is filled with tourists from Argentina, who walk its cobblestone streets and lounge on the patios of its restaurants, listening to live musicians.

We ate lunch in an upscale restaurant located in a house from the 1600s, with dark ceiling beams and an interior garden.  We could easily imagine we were prosperous Spanish settlers, relaxing during an evening in town.

We visited Colonia's historic sites, including a large bull ring renovated as an events center.

We wandered past the old town wall, protecting the city from attacks during the skirmishes between Argentina and Brazil and past the lighthouse, guiding ships up the Rio del Plata and into port.  Uruguay, a small country of 3 million people, was part of both Brazil and Argentina before gaining its own independence.  Uruguay has a large middle class--80% of the population.  It has a democratic government and is prosperous.  To have all those characteristics is unusual in South America.  We were impressed.

The past was everywhere, in old stone buildings which had been added onto and repurposed as houses and shops.

Brilliantly colored bouganvillea cascaded over buildings and reminded us that we were in the tropics.

We wandered through art galleries and souvenir shops often draped with Uruguay's flag.

And of course this Spanish colonial city was built around a Catholic cathedral.

We drove out of town past the port, where ships loaded with containers prepared to cross the Rio Del Plata to Buenos Aires, or to travel out to sea.