Hot Days, Colonia Nights

21-2-09 10:02
Hostel El Español en Colonia, Uruguay

Last night was probably one of the best nights of my life. Every moment about it was just perfect and Colonia is an absolutely gorgeous, quaint little town. It was also a great excuse to leave the heat of Buenos Aires, which reached over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Farhenheit) yesterday. I didn´t realize the temperature would be so much cooler in Uruguay, so we will see how my resfusal to bring any warm clothes plays out (AN: bad idea, it got so chilly!). When Amanda and I first got off the boat, we were excited to start a crazy adventure figuring out where to stay. However, the first thing we saw was a sign for the Hostelling International (HI) affiliate in Colonia (the chain has hostels all over the world, easy on the budget yet high on quality) declaring that the hostel was 600 meters (yes, they use metric here) away. So, we just followed the breadcrumb signs to the hostel, thinking that it was way too easy. Well, it turned out there was no vacancy, so we did manage to have a mini-adventure finding another hostel, El Español, a few blocks away. It gives off the feel of a very authentic Argentine home, and, for $8 a night, we shared a sparse but clean room to ourselves.

We then took to walking around Colonia and exclaiming how cute or amazing everything was. The town was so quiet, with very few people out, and we just felt extremely happy and excited walking through the cobblestone streets flanked by sycamore trees and old-fashioned street lamps. We also prattled on about the vintage cars from the 1930s and 1940s that we saw everywhere. Uruguay experienced an economic boom during this period and imported a lot of American and European cars, but when the economy declined during the subsequent decades, they couldn’t afford to import new cars and had to make do with repairing the Model T’s they already had. As a result, antique car dealers are going crazy at present and buying up these vintage cars. I hope they all don’t disappear, because they add great character to the town.

We managed to catch the sunset on the pier, all the while just appreciating the moment and feeling completely at peace with the world. It just felt great to be living. Once the sun had gone down, we headed to an outdoor café for a delicious dinner and had an ‘It’s a small world moment’ when we ran into a woman that Amanda had met in her hostel in BA at the restaurant…after seeing her at the HI hostel as well.

As we sat at our umbrella-covered table looking out over the main cobble-stoned road, we continued to marvel at the quiet and peaceful atmosphere. There wasn’t a single traffic light, but all cars stopped for pedestrians, a world of a difference from BA. Once we had eaten out fill of our huge chivitos (Uruguayan sandwich of thin flank steak) with egg, cheese, bacon, etc, we hit the streets. As we approached one restaurant, our ears were treated to the sounds of a murga, so we popped in for a bit to enjoy this unique aspect of the Uruguayan carnival. Murgas are music theatre groups that perform original songs during Carnival, generally consisting of a small percussion band containing a bombo (bass drum), redoblante (snare drum), and platillos (cymbals), as well as about fifteen singers (usually male) who wear really fun, colorful costumes and face paint. It’s a great, energetic atmosphere.

Amanda and I then continued to wander, and we weaved our way through the center of the old town as we made our way to the water’s edge. After enjoying the sight of the moon and the dark waves crashing against the breaking wall, we let our ears lead us again to a live band playing outside a cafe and we joined the locals sitting on the nearby grass. When the band finished playing, we followed the crowd as it migrated to the cafe next door and discovered...KARAOKE! Of course, we couldn’t turn down spontaneously singing in front of a group that certainly did not include any Americans. So what other song would we sing but ‘Living La Vida Loca’ by Ricky Martin? This was in part due to the fact that we were, in fact, living la vida loca and also that there were very few songs that both Amanda and I knew well enough to sing. Although I joked with the crowd about us singing such a cliché song, they were very encouraging and cheered us on the whole time. It was very memorable and gave us quite the adrenaline rush.

After we made our grand exit off the stage, we resumed our habit of walking and headed to the club to which our hostel had given us free tickets. However, it was only one am when we arrived, so the club wasn’t even open. Colonia had a habit of “ask and ye shall receive.” When in need of both something to drink and something to do, we looked across the street and found both a kiosco and a park with a playground and carnival rides. We whittled away the time playing on monkey bars and sitting with some locals as we watched the end of King Kong on a little TV on the kiosco counter.

Finally, the club tr3s cu4rto opened and we headed to the outside lounge in to get a good spot to watch the murga that was performing there that night. They began their performance around 3 am, parading in with costumes that were even more elaborate than the first group we saw. The music was a blast to listen to, like a very upbeat music theater, and it was overall an incredible and unique experience. The premise of the performance was of a man who was down on his luck, but aided by “Suerte” (“Luck,” a man complete with a cape and S on the chest), he was able to turn it around for him and his son. Although all the songs are original, sometimes the murga would take popular songs and make their own lyrics to fit the song, many which were very catchy. They even played the Barney song at one point!

When the murga finished, we headed back to the club area and were ecstatic to discover a club that played reggaton and other non-techno music, and was populated not only by people our age, but also by guys that did not act like those in BA (ie, aggressive and touchy-feely, see previous post)! So although we were very tired, we swayed our hips to the music for a bit before retiring to our hostel around 5. And now after a few hours sleep, we are off for another beautiful day in Colonia! Can’t wait to see what’s in store!

Coli