I´d Like to Own Ya, Colonia

21-2-09 19:24
Hostel en Colonia

After checking out this morning, Amanda and I left our bags at the hostel (so grateful they let you do that down here) and headed out to grab breakfast in the old part of town. We settled into a cute and colorful café with brick walls and lots of old windows looking out onto the plaza as we each feasted on four thick sandwiches smothered in cheese and other goodness (usually sandwiches here are tiny, thin, and crustless). During our gigantic meal, we were serenaded by the voice of Frank Sinatra, so, really, it couldn’t get any better than that. Well, besides the fact that they overcharged us with the exchange rate when we paid in Argentine pesos (they accept them everywhere in Colonia because the town is so dependent on porteño tourists – FYI, the Uruguayan peso is about 22.5 pesos to $1 USD).

Amanda and I then headed to a little beach to lie out and relax since we hadn’t slept much the night before. Although it was really cloudy out, we somehow got pretty burned (the sun down here is so crazy, at this rate I’m going to have to buy a darker shade of makeup foundation to balance spending so many hours outside every day)

After we rested up a bit, we decided to head back to the bus station to buy tickets to Montevideo to make sure they didn’t run out. On our way, we paused at the old wall that surrounded the original part of Colonia and were taking pictures of the original canons and the ocean when Amanda said, “Look at that group of people, they are so obviously American, that one guy is even wearing a neon ‘Party with [insert fraternity name here].” So, of course, I turn around and realize that I in fact knew the group evidently made up of Americans because they were all my friends on the ISA excursion to Colonia. After a quick reunion, the twelve of us that were going to continue on the Montevideo later that night headed to the bus station to discover they had exactly twelve tickets left (again, everything about Colonia was perfect).

We then headed back to the old town and Amanda and I toured to collection of small museums they had there. My favorites were a reproduction of a Portuguese home from the 18c and the old map collections they had in the Portuguese Museum. I still am amazed at how these ancient explorers could have such accurate maps as early as the 1500´s...they didn´t even have Google Maps to help them out. The superlative for most random museum goes to the Municipal Museum. After walking through a taxidermy room with tons of birds that looked ready to peck at my face and creepy looking bugs, we headed to a fossil room with large skeletons and shells of dinosaurs (Many dinosaur bones have been discovered recently in the River Plata area – that is, Argentina and Uruguay – recently), followed by old period-furniture from the 18c, followed by religious reliquaries…you get the idea. I also went up the old lighthouse and had a windy view of the city.

After grabbing my first chicken burger at a small stand with my last seven pesos (my poor empty wallet), we stopped by the hostel here to pick up our bags and now we are off to the bus station. Although I absolutely adored Colonia, I’m excited to head to Montevideo!

¡Hasta llego a la capital! (Until I arrive at the capital!)
Coli