Uruguay
I visited Uruguay twice, the first time was in February as a weekend trip between my first and second month of class (and well before I started traveling through Argentina and Chile). This was the height of summer, and so myself and a few classmates went to Punta del Diablo to visit the beach.
Buquebus Ferry
A visit to Buenos Aires can easily include a visit to Uruguay, you just need to take a 1 hour ferry from downtown across the river. There are very few departures to the capital city of Montevideo (which takes several hours), instead it’s common to take the 1-hour fast-ferry to Colonia del Sacramento and then connect on a 3-hour bus. Most people are happy to do this, since Colonia is a nice place to visit. Most people would probably use clichéd terms like picturesque, quaint, or sleepy. Many people stop to enjoy a restaurant, or stay the night in a bed and breakfast and zoom around the town on cheap rented scooters (if the 10 minute walk from one end to the other sounds too taxing). It’s a small town with an interesting historic quarter, which includes some original structures from the 1700s. A couple of hours is probably all that’s really needed here though.
Historic Colonia
East of Montevideo is Punta del Este, the famous beach town that attracts South America’s rich and famous. Steven, Nicki, Shelby and I decided to go farther east, almost to the border with Brazil to a beach town called Punta del Diablo. This place was amazing, and exactly what what a small little beach down to be: a patchwork of cabanas, cabins, and houses; stretches of bright white sand with the ocean rolling in; a few outdoor bars with raeggetone bands playing at night; decaying fishing boats winched up onto the sand; dirt streets with stray dogs and dune buggies roaming around; and an isolated feel despite the crowds of vacationers.
Boats, buggies, sand, sun, beer....what more could you want?
When we visited it was the height of vacation season for Argentina and Uruguay, and this town of 500 fisherman that just recently scored its first ATM was packed with 15,000 visitors clutching their thermoses and maté gourds. Still, it seemed like there was plenty of beach available and we took full advantage of the ocean and the sun, in the end getting terrible sunburns after falling asleep on the beach.
My next trip was very different. I wanted to visit Montevideo before I left, so I returned in May. By this time it was cold, rainy, and a bit miserable overall. Montevideo is an oddly dead city on the weekends, but interesting to see. I walked through the downtown area and then out to the Rambla, a path that skirts the coast and the various beaches of Montevideo out to the suburbs. I managed to bring two cameras with dead batteries, so below I present my only photo of Montevideo:
The other main thing people tend to do in Uruguay is visit a cattle estancia (ranch), for some country life and good steak dinners. Maybe I’ll have time on my next visit…
