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Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay
Across Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires is Colonia del Sacramento, a small town in Uruguay. I couldn’t resist the urge to add one more set of stamps to my passport so we planned a day trip there.
There are three ferry operators: Buquebus, Seacat and Colonia Express. While one could purchase the tickets online, a tip on TripAdvisor revealed that it was actually cheaper to purchase the tickets at the offices.
Buquebus is the most established of the three and its ferries depart from the terminal at Puerto Madero. Seacat seems to be affiliated to Buquebus and operates from the same terminal. It put their passengers on Buquebus ferries on less busy days and it’s actually cheaper to purchase Buquebus tickets through Seacat. Colonia Express is the smaller outfit which has its own terminal in La Boca. Most reviews indicated that the terminal is quite out of the way.
Buying the ticket from Seacat in Buenos Aires
Armed with the information, we headed to Seacat on the Saturday morning. The staff informed us that the return trip on Monday would cost us 47 USD (384 ARS) each and being foreigners, we could only pay using USD or credit card. The 6 USD change were given back in ARS at the official rate of 8 ARS to 1 USD. Our ferry would depart Buenos Aires at 8.30am and return from Colonia at 4.30pm.
It meant that it was an early start for us on Monday. We found ourselves at Puerto Madero terminal after a quick taxi (48 ARS) from San Telmo.
Buquebus Ticket Office, Puerto Madero ferry terminal
The staff at Seacat had told us to check-in at the Buquebus counters and we were quickly processed. Our particulars were already printed on the entry/exit card which came together with the boarding pass.
Checking in
Immigration was pretty interesting; like the Chilean-Argentina border at Paso Jama, Argentina and Uruguayan officials sat next to each other in the booth. Somehow Ying didn’t get an Uruguayan entry stamp but we managed to spot it before heading to the holding area.
Boarding
Ro-ro
Sister ferry
The first thing that greeted us on the ferry was the duty-free shopping.
Fancy some duty-free shopping?
While first-class passengers got to go upstairs, we had to make do with the seats downstairs. Fortunately it was not crowded and one could spread around.
Bar with food for sale
Evacuation route
The experience was similar to the ferry between Hong Kong and Macau. It was a pretty calm journey and I hardly felt the waves. An hour later we arrived in Uruguay, the seventh country of this trip.
Atlantic III
Colonia Express arriving at around the same time – I prefer the bigger Buquebus anytime.
Not in operation today
Following the crowd
Checked luggage coming out
As we had passed through immigration in Buenos Aires, we only needed to go through the customs. The lines were pretty long but we passed through with no issues.
Arrivals
Ticket offices at Colonia del Sacramento
We headed out of the ferry terminal and turned left towards Colonia’s old town.
Outside ferry terminal
There was a large tourist office right outside.
Experiencia Uruguay
We come Uruguay
Information
Colonia’s history was pretty interesting; its owners had alternated between Portugal and Spain and even Brazil over several hundred years. The barrio historico was built by the Portuguese more than 300 years ago.
Yes, we knew we were in Colonia.
Fiat 500
It accompanied us for some distance
Crossing the bridge and entering the historic town centre
There wasn’t much to do beside walking around and taking photographs.
UNESCO Heritage Site
Cannon aimed at Buenos Aires?
Street of Sighs
Playing with camera
Colours
Lighthouse
Horse cart
Outdoor exhibit at a museum – is it a bear?
Road to Rio de la Plata
Graffiti
Classic cars
Cobbled stone street
Sleepy town
Trying to do an imitation
Buggies for rent
Tanning
Church
Interior
Colonia
Lighthouse again
Ruin
Freddo – 3x more expensive than BA
Cambio – note the spread of ARS
We’re not in Argentina anymore
After a couple of hours of aimless wandering, it was time for lunch. We arrived at A la Pipetua at around 12.30pm and got some nice seats in front of the TV. Germany would be playing Portugal at 1pm.
A la Pipetua
Bar area
Ying ordered chivito and I had the seafood paella. Both were yummy.
Chivito
Seafood paella
It was an exhilarating match with Germany winning 4-0. The chef would come out to catch some action from time to time, whenever the German patron shrieked in delight after each goal.
The bill was presented with the amount given in three currencies: US dollars, Argentine pesos and Uruguayan pesos. We paid the 42 USD bill with dollars and made the walk back to the ferry terminal for our 4.30pm departure.
Back at Colonia’s ferry terminal
Check-in for 4.30pm ferry
The procedures were the same as in Buenos Aires and we even had the same ferry.
Hi again
Argentines glued to Iran vs Nigeria
An hour later we were back in Buenos Aires and strangely there weren’t any cabs outside the ferry terminal. We had to walk a block away before flagging down a taxi for the short ride back to our accommodation.
Although Colonia was only an hour away from Buenos Aires, it felt a world away. It was a sleepy town and none of the sights were truly outstanding. To be honest, if it weren’t for the Uruguayan passport stamp, I doubted that I would be very interested to visit it.
Shyh + Ying RTW 2014 