Buenos Aires and Colonia Day 6: 23rd October

We struggled to get going this morning despite both settling alarms as today we are off to Colonia. Colonia is a small city in Uruguay across the river from Buenos Aires. The River Plate is the worlds widest river at this point being about 100km across. You are crossing to a new country so have to check in 90 minutes before departure, which was 12.30. I was getting pretty anxious in our Uber as thought the boat left at noon and we were clearly not going to get ther much before 11am but all was fine. We had about a 20 minute wait in the queue to check in then again at immigration. There are these 4 rows of immigration booths. First you go to one where your passport is stamped to leave Argentina and then you go straight to the one across the aisle and get stamped to enter Uruguay. I. Sure many of the foreigners missed the Uruguay bit but maybe that’s an option on the other side also.

Not many photos today so some random shots to follow!

It’s a beautiful day today. Much warmer than yesterday with blue skies. I’ve been checking the weather and it’s going to be 26C in BA on the weekend but in the mid to low teens in Galapagos. I can’t work out why it is forecast to be so cold there when it is so far north. Oh well.

Waterfront at Colonia

It’s a good thing we are not here in the weekend as it’s Election Day on Saturday. I’ve seen these giant billboards everywhere with this guy for president and this lady as vice president but thought they were advertising some company and not the actual presidential candidate and running mate.

Have googled these two. She is the former President, kicked out for gross corruption but now standing as Vice President with one of her former ministers. Evidently the new President is both boring and useless as well as a misogynist so she has been able to use her populist charisma and social media so they are likely to be re-elected. The corruption law suits seem to have disappeared ?

Evidently everything closes on Election Day and it is hard to get food and you can’t drink alcohol except in your home/room. Voting is compulsory here so it’s all treated as a local weekend off. We shall be on the boat by Saturday and oblivious to world events. (We have seen the Sky convention centre fire on the Herald and Stuff news. Goodness it almost competes for coverage with speculation on the rugby!)

I began this post on the ferry across the river and continue as we wait to go back. What a lovely, relaxing day. It’s beautifully sunny and warm but not hot.

We rented this little golf cart that travels slightly faster than a normal (not specially sporty) cyclist. It has a brake and an accelerator and goes forward or back. That’s it. Turns out it has a light also, which I left turned on but the street security man told me that a lady turned it off so the battery wouldn’t go flat.

We parked in the Main Street and wandered along the cobbled lanes by the coast/river. It’s actually a bit nerve wracking driving this thing along the streets in traffic especially as they drive on the right side. The locals are pretty used to them and very tolerant and they don’t have much of a top speed.

Natalie Amos (lawyer for NZTA) gave me some dining recommendations for BA and Colonia as her and her partner were here last year. She said the Charco Hotel and bistro had great food so we checked it out, given it was by now after 2pm and we hadn’t had anything to eat all day. Well she didn’t exaggerate. The bistro is behind an old hotel right on the coast and the food is equal to anything we’d find in a top winerie-style restaurant in NZ. We got a table on the terrace facing the water and enjoyed some Uruguayan Viognier with tapas followed by steak (Mike) and fish (me). Yum.

After breakfast/lunch/dinner we had a wander through the town. It has a historic centre with archeological workings here and there and then a newer area further up shore. It feels like a coastal town, complete with offshore islands, but of course is really beside a river. There are lots of commuters who work in BA and off course plenty of holiday homes.

This is the Main Street in Colonia. Not exactly heaving with tourists while we were there, which was great for us.

We reclaimed the golf cart and headed along the coastal road as far as we could go (the Sheraton Hotel and golf course, then back again. We aren’t allowed on either of the state highways ( one leads north and the other west for 200km until the first bridge across to Argentina.) so tootled around the town then sat in a cafe overlooking the water and had a coffee as we watched the sun starting to go down.

The ferry back left at 8.15pm so it seemed like a long wait until we could board but were quickly underway after the ferry arrived. Again we had to walk from the Uruguay customs then across to Argentina customs to get our passports stamped. No fingerprints or photos at either customs on the way back!