Today we left Buenos Aires for some traveling around the region -- first up, Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. We purchased ferry tickets online ahead of time, which turned out to be a really great choice. We booked through a company called SeaCat, which, oddly enough is run by a larger company called Buquebus. Even though this is not indicated anywhere on the SeaCat tickets, and there are no signs at the Buquebus terminal indicating any relation to SeaCat, they *ARE* the same thing.
We bought our tickets through SeaCat for the fast (1-hour) ferry for about 35 USD each. Purchasing the same ticket directly through Buquebus is in the $70 price range, and opting for the slow (3-hour) ferry is still $50+, so we were pretty excited about the tickets we found.
Being the low-budget grad students we are, we hopped a city train to the Retiro station for 80 peso cents, and walked a few blocks toward the river until we saw the Buquebus terminal...easy enough!
We flew through check-in, then went through customs where we received stamps for a "salida" from Argentina and an "entrada" into Uruguay. Then we got onto a HUGE ferry - the lower level was for cars; the main level had seats for 800+, a cafeteria, and duty-free shopping; and the upper level was a fancy-pants "first class" seating area.
When we arrived, we stopped by the hostel to drop off our bags and headed out to explore the city. Colonia doesn't have a TON to see/do, but the city is on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites, and it made for a nice change of pace. We meandered around the downtown area all afternoon, had fish and pumpkin puree at El Drugstore for lunch, climbed the 118 steps to the top of the faro (light house) to look out over the city and the coastline, and peeked into a handful museums and markets/gift shops around town.
More pics as soon as I dig out my camera cord...for now, the one picture I took from my iPod will have to do -- tomorrow will be the bus trek to Punta del Este!
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| Watching the sunset from the playa urbana de rowing. |
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