It was only on the second day that we discovered the real gems of this city when we took the bus all the way through the city to Playa Pocitos. This beach can easily compete with most beaches in Rio de Janeiro like the world famous Copacabana, except that it is less crowded. It has very shallow waters for a about a hundred meters, ideal for families.

After taking photos of the mellow beach scene, we strolled back through the barrio of Villa Biarritz with its nice houses, high apartment buildings and huge palms creating a kind of “Paseo” by separating the two lane streets in the middle.

During this walk an elderly couple saw us studying our map and immediately offered their assistance. Well, we were hungry and in the midst of a residential area, which left us with little options. But the couple pointed out a huge shopping mall, Punta Carretas, right in front of us, which we would have never noticed.

There we stuffed ourselves at the all you can eat buffet at Don Peperone before we hit the movie theater and watched “Al otro lado del mundo”, the English title is quite different though: “The “Painted Veil”. We truly enjoyed this movie, maybe also because it was the first time in a real movie theater in months.

Many parts of the city we discovered on our second day could be anywhere in Europe or the US, huge shopping malls, golf club and yacht club …

After hiking through god knows how many barrios of Montevideo, we deserved a bit of a reward. So we had a drink at the rooftop restaurant of the Radisson Hotel which offers a 360 angel view of the city. With the most expensive drink for 4 Euros we even did not feel too guilty.

On Saturday morning, after two days in Colonia, we moved on to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. This meant riding through the vast Pampa plains for about 2.5 hours, nothing to see but grazing cows.

Arriving Saturday around noon, we found the city almost deserted, with most shops closed and very few people on the streets. At first, we thought that this was the usual fiesta phenomena, but we soon found out that this is just what Montevideo is like: very quiet and laid back!

Having hardly any information about his city, not even a map, we aimlessly wandered towards the Ciudad Vieja, the “old quartier”. Luckily, we came across the Hotel Palacio on Bartolomé Mitre, which has great rooms for only 24 USD or 500 Pesos Uruguayanos. It was built in 1927and has a great flair to it, rooms with very high ceilings, an antique elevator and furniture from times way back, but modern bathrooms. Another big plus is that it is situated in the very street in the historic center where “things are happening”, at least on a weekend. Luckily, we realized this soon enough and asked for a room on the quiet side of the hotel, so we could get some sleep.

Our first destination was Mercado del Puerto, since it was described in our guide as the place to eat. It turned out to be worst tourist hunt ever, with touts every five meters trying to get you into their extremely expensive Parilla. There waere huge fires in every Parilla, which made us tourists click our cameras. Yes, the meat looked great and Gilles almost felt compelled to rush in one of them, but the prices where so absurd that we decided to move on.

Naturally we took advantage of our prime location and tested three different bars that night. Two had live bands which were great. They were playing songs that we knew and the crowd was easy going and not as young as you would find in similar bars in Europe.

Our first impression of Montevideo was rather negative, a city with little to see or to do for a tourist on a weekend visit. Even the historic center, which is usually neatly restored, was rather rundown. This impression was about to change!

Our short excursion to Uruguay over the weekend was so spontaneous that we had very little information, except half a page in our travel guide.

What a great surprise when we discovered that the city’s “Barrio Viejo” is one of the most charming places we have been in Latin America so far! Truly colonial as its name suggests with abundant vegetation and a Mediterranean flair ... The tranquil and shady cobblestone streets underline the romantic ambiance. One of them, The Streets of Sighs, exhibits two houses dating back to the time when the Portuguese ruled this part of the New World. All streets are lined by gigantic plane trees. These function like an air-conditioning and provide so much shades that you can stroll around the city even in the afternoon, when the sun is burning down!

There are not many sights: a few museums and a light house to climb, which provides a great view over town. But what we definitely enjoyed most was walking the streets and absorbing this romantic atmosphere. Besides its quaint ambiance, Colonia is also known for its incredible sunsets, which are best watched from the promenade on the city’s most southern tip.

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be the most perfect place to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our first meeting in Vienna on January 10th, 1998! So we dined and wined in style at the “Pulperia de los Faroles” overlooking one of the many squares of this town, lit by the golden glow of old lanterns.

But this is only one of many excellent restaurants in this village. We were so enchanted by Colonia that we stayed another day, walking the small streets and enjoying a second night of more great food and local wine tasting. This time, at the rather elegant Mesón de la Plaza, where we were informed that Colonia has one of the most important and best wine productions in the country! These wines equal Argentinean wines in quality and price.

Of course, there is a Casino in Colonia, like in every not matter how small town in Argentina. We shortly thought about spending a little time and money there, but were so busy checking out restaurants that we forgot about it.

If you have thought of Argentina being a Mate crazy nation, you have seen nothing yet! In Uruguay, literally everybody carries a thermo and Mate gourd along, sucking the Yerba herbs through a straw called “Brombilla”. This straw, which comes in many styles and fashion, has a filter at its bottom end to keep out the leaves. Whatever the age, the location and the occasion, even people sitting in café and bars would have their Mate gear with them.

Although Colonia mainly lives off tourists, most of them Argentineans, you do not see the in-your-face tourism you see in many places in Argentina. Honestly, if there had been fewer tourists, we would have felt lonely! It was easy to find accommodation even in the midst of the summer holiday mid January and it definitely was not overrun by “Portenos”, the very people from Buenos Aires, like the Lonely Planet said.

Since our home base in Buenos Aires, the Borges Hostel, was booked over the weekend, we decided to cross the Rio de la Plata and visit Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay, before returning to Buenos Aires.

This little excursion was very badly planned! As a result, we wasted a whole afternoon, because we missed the 3 o’clock boat … Unfortunately, we had never bothered looking at the map and thus did not realize that the bus station El Retiro in Buenos Aires, where we arrived from Rosario, was only one kilometer from the Buquebus terminal, where the ferry leaves for Colonia.

So when arriving from Rosario, instead of going straight to the boat, we went to the Borges Hostel, where we left most of our luggage and played around using their fast WiFi. Finally Gilles checked the ferry schedule online and then panic: the boat leaves in 50 minutes! Well, we got there in time, but there were long lines for buying tickets and in order to cross an international border you need time. So we had to wait over four hours for the next boat, whereas the ride itself takes only 50 minutes.

The high speed catamaran linking Buenos Aires and Colonia or Montevideo is sailing at an incredible 40 knots or 76 Kph! It is a highly modern and rather comfortable boat. But it is expensive: 37 USD to Colonia and a hefty 74 USD per person to return from Montevideo! As a consequence, we decided to spend 4 whole days in Uruguay to make the most of it.

Even though this ferry navigates on what is considered a river, the estuary of the Rio de la Plata is so wide and so open to the sea that it more feels like being on the ocean. Also the waves and the rocking & rolling reminded us more of a cruise on the open sea than on a river.

So we finally arrived at 08:30 pm in Colonia and checked into the first hotel that had any vacancy and was within our price range, the Hotel Rime. Well, it was ok but surely nothing fancy or special.