Uruguay: Chasing that Money in Colonia

This had to be what we were looking for. There was a line at the front of the door with 8-10 people waiting to use it, and it looked like something important was going down. The picture of the building matched the one we read in the blog a couple days ago, and we seemed to be at the right address. We felt on edge as we anxiously took our place in the back of the line. After 20 long minutes we made it to the front, and it was finally our turn. We hoped for the best as we stepped forward and put our debit card into the machine. Would we get what we needed here? I thought anxiously as Marissa moved toward me, covering the screen so no one could see what we were doing. I was quickly disappointed in finding out that I could only take out a max of two, crisp $100 bills at a time. This would mean many transactions in a row, but it had to be done.

As a continuing theme in Argentina, we were once again on the mission of getting as much US green as possible. Because of the black market in Argentina, we needed more US dollars for the several weeks we had left in the country. Since you can’t take US dollars out anywhere in Argentina, we decided to do a little recon about Uruguay. We found out from some helpful blogs that you could cross the border and head into Uruguay to solve the problem.

Before a few months back, we didn’t know anything about Uruguay as a country. We learned from other travelers that taking a day trip over to Uruguay was an easy, fun thing to do from Buenos Aires. The most popular spot is the town of Colonia del Sacramento, which lies a mere 50 km from Buenos Aires. It is filled with rich history and their Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. You can take a ferry across the river in under an hour, and land into a completely different world. We thought this sounded like an interesting place to check out, and when we realized we could get US dollars there legally, it made us happy we could kill two birds with one stone.

Colonia was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese and was an important port with its strategic position opposite of Spanish occupied Buenos Aires. Over the years it was the site of many battles between the Portuguese and Spanish, until Portugal conceded Uruguay to Spain in 1750. Years later in 1828, Uruguay received its independence. Today, Colonia is a picturesque town on the west end of this small country. It’s famous for its compact old town area known as Barrio Historico. The rough, narrow, cobblestone roads are lined with historic homes, storefronts and museums dating back to the prosperous 17^th century.

We really enjoyed Colonia, and getting away from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires for a weekend. We didn’t do anything particularly crazy, we just had a great time walking the streets and taking in the old town. There are a surprising amount of unique wining and dining options for such a small town. After walking for a few hours, we found a great waterfront spot to relax . We enjoyed some locally brewed beers, and watched the perfect sunset in front of us.

 Afterward the sun went down, we still had time to kill before dinner since locals don’t even think about dinner until after 9:00 pm. We decided to duck into an interesting and cozy wine cellar called Buen Suspiro. We tried a glass of locally produced wine as well as a cheese platter with various Colonia cheeses. The cellar was in one of the 17^th century buildings and felt old world. It was a great spot to try some Uruguayan specialties.

After a glass of wine it was finally time to think about dinner. We already knew where we wanted to eat so we headed to El Drugstore, a restaurant we spotted earlier that day. We were instantly drawn to it because it of its eclectic style (Marissa) and its two vintage cars out front (Josh). Both cars were restored and converted into dining cars as part of the restaurant. For some reason Colonia has an obsession with vintage cars. They’re parked all around town. I didn’t really understand the connection between the town and the cars (maybe there was none), but I loved it anyway. Some weren’t in the best of shape but others were fully restored. We were lucky enough to score a table sitting inside a 1920’s Ford Model A! One side of the car had been cut open with a table inserted into the cabin. It wasn’t the most functional dining spot ever but definitely one of the most unique! It was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me.

We stayed the night at a basic hostel in town, then headed back to Buenos Aires the next morning. Colonia was a great weekend retreat for us, and it was definitely worth the effort.