Porton de Campo in Colonia del Sacramento
After clearing customs at the Colonia del Sacramento ferry landing, I made my way up to my hostel along some tree-covered cobbled streets.
When I checked into the Verjero Colonia Hostel, I learned that I would be the only person in this 4 bedroom dorm. It was a bit worn out place but the staff was friendly and courteous.
It was a short walk down to the old town where I entered it through a drawbridge and gate. All along the cobble streets there were shops and restaurants to entice the tourists. They called this historic neighborhood Barrio Historico.
Faro—19th Century Working Lighthouse
The high-end restaurants did not serve until 8 PM so I found a nearby Hoy restaurant that was open and shared my bread with some aggressive chickadees.
During my walk back to the hostel, I spotted a brewery called Bobot so stopped and sampled some of their tasty brews along with buttery popcorn.
There were few tourists here even though it was a weekend, but several shops and restaurants had shuttered as economic victims of COVID
Plaza 25 de Augusto
City Hall
When I first got to town I went to an ATM and got just 2,000 Uruguay pesos—about $50 USD. The only time I’ve been using these pesos is to give out tips since most places use credit cards. Maybe I can travel through Uruguay without hitting up another ATM for more Uruguayan pesos.
One of the Lonely Planet guide suggestions was to visit a nearby town called Nueva Helvecia about a two-hour bus ride away. This town was founded by mostly Swiss immigrants and focused on raising cows and making cheese.
On the bus ride, my seatmate was Luna who was an Intrepid tour guide who was leading a 10 days trip through Argentina, Uruguay, and ending up in Brazil. She said her group of tourists were on their way to spend a few days in an Estancia riding horses and doing ranch work with the gauchos.
We had a great time exchanging stories of our trips to Latin America, and Morocco. She encouraged me to go to Jordan and Egypt which she said was amazing.
Instead of going into town, the bus dropped me off the side of the road where I transferred into a minibus for the final trip into Nueva Helvecia. I was the only passenger and as we came into town, the driver waved to everybody along the way—this was a very small town.
None of the restaurants in Colonia were open when I had to catch the bus at 8:30, but I figured I could have breakfast once I got into Nueva Helvecia. None of the restaurants in town opened before 11 AM so I ended up having pastries and coffee at a little coffee shop.
I was planning on taking the 2 o’clock bus back to Colonia, but that scheduled departure had been canceled since the beginning of COVID-19. The next bus back was at 4:15 pm.
I ended up walking around this fairly desolate town until the restaurants opened.
3 Parroquia de la Santísima Trinidad Church
I had a lasagna meal at Don Juan restaurant and then caught the 4:15 pm bus back to Colonia.
When I returned to Colonia, I had a dinner of beef smothered in a mushroom sauce at the Mercosur restaurant. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were canned.
Afterward, I went to a comedy show consisting of drag queens—lady boys— performing songs dances, and comedy acts involving audience members. It was titled “El show incredible numero Uno de la Argentina “. It was both entertaining and sexually graphic. They picked out guys from the audience for many of their skits. I didn’t understand much of the Spanish but the movements and gestures conveyed the story pretty graphically.
It got down to 50° at night and fortunately, the room had an A/C — heater, the bathrooms and showers were unheated, but the water was hot.
I caught the 10:30am bus to Montevideo to the Tres Cruces bus terminal. From there it was a short mile walk to the Medio Mundo Hostel where stayed for two nights.
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