Aboard the Colonia Express, we took a very expensive and relatively short ferry from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. While Coons took a nap stretched out across a row of three seats, Kourtney watched the other boats going by and the rainbow that appeared before it went dark outside.
Our hostel was an eight-minute walk from the bus station — lucky again — where we would spend two nights. We dropped our big bags and went out for something to eat. We found a nice bar, Barbot, where they were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with green lights, shamrock decorations, and beer maiden costumes. We enjoyed our first pumpkin beer of the year (better later than never!) and some sandwiches.
We enjoyed another typical South American backpacker breakfast of coffee, tea, white bread, and corn flakes cereal (they’re grrrr-eat!) the next morning. We walked along the new section of town enjoying the unique trees and the way they refuse to stay underneath the earth; instead, they tear up the paved sidewalks in most sections of town.
We walked towards the water to the old section of town to take in its original Portuguese and Spanish influence. We found a lighthouse, cannons used to keep the pirates away, and the drawbridge that separates the old and new parts of the town.
We stopped for blonde ales at Bocadesanto where we enjoyed the sunshine, fresh air, and refreshments in their beer garden. For lunch, we found a small tienda well known for its chivitos which is the national dish of Uruguay. Despite the name literally meaning “little goat” the sandwich typically consists of thinly sliced beef, ham, bacon, mozzarella, tomato, mayo, olives, and a fried egg. Ours had corn and peas in it. It was huge and delicious!
Stuffed and sweaty we retreated to our hostel to cool down (didn’t happen) and work on the blog. We ate so much at lunch that we almost forgot to have dinner! But we settled on a place to enjoy a nice glass of wine and some tapas, so we wouldn’t be ravenous for our seven-hour bus ride to La Pedrera tomorrow.
La Pedrera is a small little surf town with great beaches and a quaint little downtown. We rented the most adorable little Airbnb from Sebastián who converted an old shipping container into his home. Here we would relax, surf, blog, practice Spanish, and take an online photography course for the next eight days!
One of Coons’ favorite amenities was the charcoal grill. This is the first time we’ve had a grill on the trip and while lighting charcoal sans lighter fluid isn’t the easiest thing in the world, we had a few delicious grilled meals during our stay.
On day two, we started our morning with a beach walk; we came upon a seal enjoying the sun and sand, but this little guy had a serious case of the Mondays. He looked like Kourtney trying to get out of bed early!
We walked into town every day to the small market for groceries and on day two, a little stray perro followed us all the way home. Coons didn’t want to let her into the gate (it’s not actually our home), but this little savvy lady ran around back and appeared in our front yard! We named her Paprika. She stayed with us for the next four days, enjoying daily walks to the beach where she would roll around in the sand and nightly siestas on the outdoor couch.
When we went into town to grocery shop, Paprika would wait patiently just outside of the door. When we would go surfing near town, she would wait patiently by our backpack. Kourtney even sneaked a bag of dog food into the cart for her, so she could enjoy a taste of the domestic life for a few days.
The surfing went well. We took a lesson our first day with Dado who brought us to La Aguada, a beach just north of La Paloma, about half an hour from La Pedrera where we were staying. The waves were much more manageable there and had very little current so we weren’t drifting down the beach. We got up early two other days to catch the bus to La Aguada to enjoy the waves there. On our last day, we enjoyed another session in a rainstorm! Surfing is still pretty tough for us, but we sure have enjoyed trying to ride giants on this trip.
Another big part of this eight-day stay was to take a photography course and start playing around with ISO, shutter, and aperture settings. We’re learning how to shoot in manual mode, shoot at night, achieve bokeh, and take those portrait mode close-ups with blurry backgrounds that we love so much!
Coons is really looking forward to getting a new lens for his birthday that will allow us to take close up shots of all the animals we’re going to see in Africa!
All in all our time in Uruguay was a bit calmer than some of the other countries we’ve been to, but after almost six months on the road (holy crap!!), it was nice to slow it down, get to know a little town, and focus on us for a week. Don’t worry — we’re hitting the road again shortly and foresee many night buses in our future as we cross northern Argentina on our way to Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.