ARGENTINA #5 . . . SIDETRIP TO URUGUAY . . . Last week, we spent some time in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, which is one hour by hydrofoil from Buenos Aires. The Wikipedia entry on Colonia begins like this--

Colonia del Sacramento (formerly the Portuguese Colônia do Sacramento) is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the oldest town in Uruguay and capital of the departamento of Colonia. It has a population of 21,714 (2004 census).

Here's a look at a lighthouse in the old part of town. It's open as a museum but unfortunately for Sam, children under 8 weren't allowed inside. He wasn't happy.

More photos of Colonia after the jump--

Here's our hotel, a Sheraton about ten minutes from downtown--

Here's what the view looked like in back of the hotel. The water in the distance is the Rio de la Plata, the large body of water that separates Buenos Aires from Uruguay and empties eventually into the Atlantic Ocean--

A little lagoon on the golf course behind our hotel--

Sam on the beach in front of the Rio de la Plata--

Sam with the hotel in the background--

Sam and me on the beach--

Later, we left the hotel and spent the day in Colonia--

A old colonial street, sloping down to the Rio de la Plata--

Another old building--

The church in the old part of town--

Another view of the church--

Some nuns, possibly tourists, possibly not--

Schoolchildren from Uruguay. In Argentina, the public schoolkids where little white smocks that look like lab coats. It's the same thing in Uruguay, except the uniform also has a blue bow--

Residents fishing in the Rio de la Plata--

Andrea and Sam on a boardwalk--

Andrea and me, photo by Sam--

Walking down the street at the end of the day--

Comments

[williams]

enjoyed these pictures and I also have a lot of them lived not far from there a place called Mercedes for over 20 about an hour away or so and visited Colon Uruguay often.
Brings back many good memories.
The only things that is not mentioned is in your blog is how friendly the people are and how you where treated. I never while I leaved there had a problem with the way the people of Uruguay very friendly and helpful.

[Evan]

williams: To answer your question, the people were great and we were treated very well. Thanks for the comment.

[Virgin in the Volcano]

I liked Colonia too. They treated their dogs there better than we treat most people.