Trends

Debates, discussions, news articles, cultural differences stories and everyday life blah blah.

On The Road

Follow me in China, in Central and in South America, in Australia, in South-East Asia or in Europe. Enjoy the pictures and some crazy travel stories!

Immigration

How to immigrate to Canada, how to apply for Canadian citizenship, and how to tackle the challenges newcomers face.

Just Blogging

Blog contests, memes, interviews, photography hunts, random facts… Let’s connect, share some blogging fun and some little snippets of life.

The Saturday Series

The ten post Saturday series: how to immigrate to Canada, how to find a job, interviews with immigrants… and more!

Home » Próxima Estación - Esperanza

Crossing To Uruguay

Written by on February 19, 2009 – 5:22 pm13 Comments
Buenos Aires Harbor

Buenos Aires Harbor

Not yet tired of Buenos Aires, its huge steaks and great nigtlife, we nonethe­less decided to travel fur­ther, to Uruguay, a coun­try we had never been to. Mon­te­v­ideo was sup­posed to be a great cap­i­tal, small and safe enough to be trav­eled eas­ily, yet very nice to visit.

Uruguay is right across the Rio De La Plata, a short three hours boat ride from Buenos Aires. We boarded the Ela­dia Isabel ferry with about 2,000 other peo­ple (or so it seemed) and watched Argentina´s cap­i­tale fad­ing away in the glar­ing sun.

I soon real­ized that the Rio De La Plata wasn´t your usual bor­ing blue river. It was a nice bronze color, rich of the cop­per flow­ing from the Ama­zon. The resu­lat was a cocoa-colored water – not muddy, just creamy. It con­trasted deeply with the green deck of the boat and the deep blue sky, mak­ing us feel like we were nav­i­gat­ing a giant cap­pu­cino. Yummy.

Uruguay, on the other side, looked much greener than Buenos Aires. We passed small bushy island and we saw colo­nial build­ings, far away. A peace­ful view.

We jumped on the bus, barely out of the boat, and dozed off on our way to the capitale.

On The Boat

On The Boat

Leaving Argentina

Leav­ing Argentina

Going Away

Going Away

Bronze Water

Bronze Water

Looking Through The Buoy

Look­ing Through The Buoy

Proxima Estacíon: Uruguay

Prox­ima Estacíon: Uruguay

Oh So Colorful

Oh So Colorful

Uruguay´s Lighthouse

Uruguay´s Light­house

Related posts:

  1. The Food Saga: The Feast Era
  2. Old Mon­te­v­ideo
  3. Buenos Aires By Night
  4. Argen­tinidad
  5. The Food Saga: The Drinks

Tagged with:

13 Comments »

  • Uruguay! What’s to be seen? The thing is, I don’t see any guide­books for that coun­try. No Lonely Planet Uruguay, just per­haps a chap­ter on the South Amer­ica on a Shoe­string book. Let us know!

  • The Lonely Planet’s Argentina guide includes a short chap­ter on Uruguay (and a chap­ter on Paraguay). I just returned to the U.S. after a year liv­ing in Mon­te­v­ideo, and I def­i­nitely rec­om­mend Uruguay as a destination.

    Most Argen­tines only visit Uruguay’s beach resorts at Punta del Este, or stop over in Colo­nia, just across the river. But Mon­te­v­ideo, among its many under­stated charms, has an incred­i­ble water­front worth sev­eral days of sim­ply strolling, sip­ping mate and napping.

  • Zhu says:

    @Seraphine — I agree, three hours is per­fect, espe­cially we are used to 10+ hours bus rides. It was a nice wel­come change!

    @DianeCA — No, it is really free time! We do take back­pack­ing seri­ously :-) We saved up the money before we left and I´m hop­ing to use some of my travel mate­r­ial (like pics) in the future.

    @Sidney — I just needed to escape the winter!

    @Linguist-in-Waiting — It is part of the South Amer­ica on a shoe­string. Most trav­eler just go to Colo­nial for the day (the first city is right where the boat stops from Argentina) but Mon­te­v­ideo is a awe­some cap­i­tal. We missed the coun­try the first time and I don´t regret vis­it­ing this time.

    @Benjamin Gedan -

    The Lonely Planet’s Argentina guide includes a short chap­ter on Uruguay (and a chap­ter on Paraguay). I just returned to the U.S. after a year liv­ing in Mon­te­v­ideo, and I def­i­nitely rec­om­mend Uruguay as a destination.

    Most Argen­tines only visit Uruguay’s beach resorts at Punta del Este, or stop over in Colo­nia, just across the river. But Mon­te­v­ideo, among its many under­stated charms, has an incred­i­ble water­front worth sev­eral days of sim­ply strolling, sip­ping mate and napping.

    @Seraphine -

    a three-hour boa­tride sounds like fun. it’s enough time to drink cof­fee, read a news­pa­per, talk with an inter­est­ing fel­low trav­eler. i love look­ing at the water, and see­ing inter­est­ing new things pass by. then just when you start to get sleepy, when your chin starts to drop, you’ve arrived! BRRHOHNNN goes the horn and every­one stands up.

    @DianeCA -

    I agree with the first comment…this is one heck of a long hol­i­day! Are you on assign­ment or is this really free time?? Looks totally amaz­ing though, we are all just jeal­ous! or envi­ous is prob­a­bly a bet­ter word…I am look­ing for­ward to ‘arriv­ing’ in Uruguay, I must admit I never expected to go there.

    @Sidney -

    I am jeal­ous of your trav­els… you see a lot in a short time !

    @Linguist-in-Waiting -

    Uruguay! What’s to be seen? The thing is, I don’t see any guide­books for that coun­try. No Lonely Planet Uruguay, just per­haps a chap­ter on the South Amer­ica on a Shoe­string book. Let us know!

    @Benjamin Gedan — Hi there and thanks for your com­ment! I agree, Uruguay is a great coun­try not to be missed. Too bad most peo­ple go to Brazil through Foz or just stop in Colo­nial for a day. I loved Mon­te­v­ideo, and the beaches up North are great. You must have loved it! What did you do there for a year? Just curious!

1 Pingbacks »

Leave a comment!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

All comments are welcomed!

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get yours, head to Gravatar.