We were offered the opportunity to scoot across to Uraguay today, so we booked in and left early this morning. The trip involved going out through immigration, then getting on a ferry (think inter islander) traveling the 40km across the river to Uraguay. The point between Buenos Aires and Colonia is the shortest and as the Rio De La Plata heads toward the sea, it gets huge!
The water is a grotty, dirty color, like our rivers in flood and you would swear you were heading out into the sea because you can't see the other side.
Colonia Del Sacramento is really interesting as it had been a point of conflict between Portugal and Spain for many years with both sides controlling the region at different times. The buildings in the area reflect this with both controlling groups using the others buildings, then building more or simply adding on, only for the hands of power to change - 5 times!!!! There are the remains of an old city and a fort which is now World heritage list and they are slowly repairing bits. You can tell the streets that were built by the Spanish because they have a channel up the middle where all the water etc flows and then drains away and the ones built by Portugal are humped and the channels run down the sides.
You can see in the photo how different the two types of buildings are.
The population of Colonia is only 25000 people and from what we saw, Uraguay is glaringly different to this side of the river, more gentle perhaps?
We saw the remains of the first wharf which was built by an Argentean man who then shipped heaps of stuff in, built a house and casino and bullring, then bought people from Argentina to holiday there. It was very successful until the Uraguay Government banned bull fighting and took control of gambling. The bull ring remains standing but is in need of repair. They do plan to fix it up and use it for a concert venue. They are after 30 million US if anyone is feeling flush?
We have just arrived back in Buenos Aires and it is getting on toward 7 pm. The sun is still up and the roads still choka with the traffic of people commuting home.
The water is a grotty, dirty color, like our rivers in flood and you would swear you were heading out into the sea because you can't see the other side. Colonia Del Sacramento is really interesting as it had been a point of conflict between Portugal and Spain for many years with both sides controlling the region at different times. The buildings in the area reflect this with both controlling groups using the others buildings, then building more or simply adding on, only for the hands of power to change - 5 times!!!! There are the remains of an old city and a fort which is now World heritage list and they are slowly repairing bits. You can tell the streets that were built by the Spanish because they have a channel up the middle where all the water etc flows and then drains away and the ones built by Portugal are humped and the channels run down the sides.
You can see in the photo how different the two types of buildings are.
The population of Colonia is only 25000 people and from what we saw, Uraguay is glaringly different to this side of the river, more gentle perhaps?
We saw the remains of the first wharf which was built by an Argentean man who then shipped heaps of stuff in, built a house and casino and bullring, then bought people from Argentina to holiday there. It was very successful until the Uraguay Government banned bull fighting and took control of gambling. The bull ring remains standing but is in need of repair. They do plan to fix it up and use it for a concert venue. They are after 30 million US if anyone is feeling flush?
We have just arrived back in Buenos Aires and it is getting on toward 7 pm. The sun is still up and the roads still choka with the traffic of people commuting home.
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