Submitted by Jennifer Bachner on the 2012 fall semester program in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
Finally to catch up, this past weekend of the 28th-30th we had a group excursion to Uruguay. Everyone was pretty excited to get out of the city, to see a new country, and especially to get a new stamp in our passports!
We woke up really early Friday morning (5:30 for some of us) and met at the university to start our journey. We then took a 45 minute ferry ride from Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. Colonia is a little old town right across Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. It is a large tourist attraction for Argentines, or tourists in Argentina looking to take a short and cheap day trip to Uruguay. Once in Colonia, we walked down the old cobblestone streets towards the water. We relaxed and enjoyed the view from the beach and from the port. It is a pretty little town so we just moseyed around enjoying the little cafes and restaurants scattered along the streets. Finally, we all went to a little restaurant to have lunch together. I had to try something traditional of Uruguay. Chivito is the national and traditional beef sandwich of Uruguay and usually consists of thinly sliced steak, fried eggs, bacon, ham, lettuce, tomato, olives, and mayonnaise (definitely not kosher or for anyone on a diet, however it was delicious!) After lunch, part of the group continued to walk around the town and then returned to Buenos Aires, while a group of 8 of us went to catch a bus to Montevideo and then to Punta del Este to stay the weekend in Uruguay.
The bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo was about 2 ½ hours through country which reminded me of Pennsylvania with all of its farms and hills. In Montevideo we had a 30 minute wait for the bus to Punta del Este…this is were things get interesting. All of us went to grab food quickly and then planned to go back to the bus, however with 5 minutes until the bus left one girl decided she really wanted some ice cream and decided she had time to go to the second story of the mall/terminal to get it. Needless to say she missed the bus and there was nothing we could do about it. She ending up chasing the bus in a taxi and she arrived in Punta about an hour after we arrived.
Unfortunately for us it rained all day Saturday, forcing us to change our plans. We were going to rent scooters for the day and drive along the coast. Instead we started the day by walking around town and along the beach which were still beautiful in the rain. We visited the famous ‘La Mano’ or hand on the beach.
Next, we decided to take a bus tour of Punta and the surrounding areas. We drove by all the mansions of Punta and found out that most of the houses in Punta itself are seasonal and are owned by celebrities and the wealthy. There aren’t many ‘locals’ in Punta and most people from the area are from the neighboring city of Maldonado. Finally towards the end of the day, it stopped raining and the clouds began to clear just in time for sunset. We went to Casapueblo which is the eclectic house of the writer/artist Carlos Páez Vilaró. He built his huge house by the sea without the help of any architects.
Sunday ended up being a beautiful sunny day, which was kind of sad because we had to do a lot of traveling. We woke up early and caught our first bus to Montevideo. There we had a few hours so we explored the town and got lunch. Montevideo for the most part is a smaller version of Buenos Aires but with nicer beaches along Rio de la Plata. After a few hours of speed tourism, we rushed back to the bus terminal, caught our bus to Colonia, and from there caught our ferry back to Buenos Aires.
