Kiribu

As Semana Santa was approaching the following weekend people had booked the previous week as a holiday. I hadn’t booked in advance and was fast regretting it as I struggled past all the main hostels and hotels to find they were all fully booked. I eventually found the Hotel La Cuitadela that only had a double room so i took it, and it was nice to have a huge bed and tv in the room to relax with.

Colonia del Sacramento, or just Colonia for short, is a lovely old sea port town with cobbled streets and old fort with a nice lighthouse and pretty buildings. It is nothing special really and a bit overhyped, but it’s a great place to visit for a day or weekend trip, or when just passing through. It is only an hour on the SeaCat ferry to Buenos Aires so it’s a handy stop over. It offers a welcome break from the typical South American cities and the busy atmosphere you find around normally.

I only spent a day here as I was desperate to get to Buenos Aires. It was a great sunny day to walk around the port and around the old cobbled streets of Colonia. The old town has an old wall going around it and a lovely gateway into what was the traditional town. There is some beautiful architecture and a nice white lighthouse in the centre of the town. I ate some great seafood at a traditional old style restaurant by the harbour and sunk down some local wine to finish things off. Colonia is a good place to relax and there are actually some great views accross the Rio del Plata towards Argentina.

Colonia is listed as a World Heritage site by the UNESCO and is actually the oldest settlement in Uruguay. There is a really nice white wall that stretches around the River side of the town where you can hang out and take in the view. I was only staying one day and had to book my SeaCat for the next day so spent the late afternoon doing that before heading back to a nice cosy restuarant for dinner. Colonia was definitely worth heading to as a stop-over.