Five Hours in Uruguay

One of the things that scares me a little about this trip, aside from my terrible spanish, is the fact that I really have no clue where I'm going, where I should go, how to get there, how long it takes to get there, what I should miss, what I shouldn't miss... in other words, I know nothing.

Fortunately my college room mate and his lovely girlfriend have just spent seven weeks or so touring around Argentina (you can read about their adventures here) and they are currently in Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, a lovely little cobblestone town just an hour boat ride away from Buenos Aires.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

So off I went on the ferry yesterday, in complete ignorance of the one hour time difference between Uruguay and Argentina. Not only did I get in way after 11 am (and not at 10 am as I told Rick and Sue) but I had less than five hours to hang out with them. But what a cracking five hours it was. They both gave me loads of tips, not to mention plenty of much needed laughs and great conversation.

Rick & Sue in Uruguay

After too short a visit, I got back on the boat to BA. It was early enough that I thought I'd take a quick swing by San Telmo's legendary Sunday market but I got utterly stumped on how to get there from the port. Another ferry-goer, seeing how lost I was, took pity on me and walked with me all the way to the market. We spent a couple of hours wandering San Telmo and talking in Spanish (her, fluently, me, embarrassingly bad).

San Telmo

After leaving the market, we stumbled across a crew shooting an ad on Roque Saenz Pena, one of the big diagonal streets leading away from the Plaza de Mayo. Apparently the spanish word for ad is "propaganda", which seems very appropriate!

dozens of ad extras crossing the street

Thanks to the ad, the entire street was closed to traffic. How often do you get to do this on a major thoroughfare in one of the busiest cities in the world??

one whole giant street to myself