Off to Colonia

For Columbus Day, we piled in the minivan and headed west to Colonia del Sacramento, in SW Uruguay just across the river from Buenos Aires. It was the only Portuguese settlement in a largely Spanish area and was used as a smuggling port to avoid Spanish trade restrictions for many years. Also, it boasts the oldest church in Uruguay! (Got that? There will be a quiz later!) The weather was gorgeous, and driving through the countryside west of Montevideo was a totally different experience than going east. Rolling green pastures dotted with sheep and cattle, and freshly planted wheat fields spread in all directions. If we'd had a peso for every time one of us said, "It looks like the Midwest," or "Ooooh, just like Ireland!", or Oregon, or Texas...well, we'd definitely have us an extra alfajor or two...Driving east of Montevideo, however, this is what we said: "Wow, sometimes in Montevideo you can almost forget you're in a third-world country, but out here..." Life looked a bit more difficult along the highway going east.

It took about 2 hours to get there, so the first order of business was letting the kiddos out to eat and play for a while. They had a blast crawling around in a grassy area on the banks of the river, chewing on sticks and laughing at some big, friendly dogs.

Then we walked around for a while in la Ciudad Vieja, the old town. It was fun and charming, with winding streets and cute houses, etc. We should've worn the babies, though, since it was VERY cobblestoney. There were museums, and old churches, and the original wall, stuff like that. In one shady courtyard, there was a large whale skeleton, and some statues of different animals. Kinda random, but interesting. Then we left. We got some empañadas on the way out, cheap and greasy, just the way we like them! Yum!!

Oh yeah, we stopped on the way to get some gas, and there at the gas station was a "Mate Amigo." Only in South America...it's a vending machine for hot

water to add to the yerba mate in your gourd, in the event that your thermos runs dry. Soooo many people walk around the streets, in the stores, wherever, clutching their mate gourd and a big thermos of hot water to keep adding to it. This is the only vending machine we've seen so far, so perhaps they are just now making their debut...we'll keep watching for them, as I'm sure all of you are dying to know whether they catch on or not!