After a several days exploring Montevideo, the capital or Uruguay, we hired a very small car to do some touring further out from the capital, seeing some of Uruguay's UNESCO sites, beaches, villages and wines routes. Our first stop was Colónia del Sacramento (Colónia) where we originally arrived into Uruguay on the ferry from Buenos Aires.
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| Marg in Colónia del Sacramento (UNESCO) |
Colónia had caught our eye when we got off the ferry, but we had no chance to look around at that time. It didn't disappoint on this second visit, being full of interesting narrow, cobbled streets and lovely colonial buildings.
The town is located on a peninsula on the Rio (river) de la Plata, around two hours west of Montevideo. It was established by the Portuguese in 1680, and is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There were a lot of tourists about when we were there. However, everyone seemed to move around easily and we had a good time exploring without it feeling crowded.
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| Us at lunch in an historic café in Colónia del Sacramento (UNESCO), Uruguay |
Later we wandered around and visited several of the grand buildings in the old town including the Basilica, and some museums. Nearby we found the Portón de Campo, the City Gate and wooden drawbridge that was once the entry to the old Portuguese fortification.
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| Street in Carmelo, Uruguay |
Leaving there later, we drove further west to Carmelo, another historic town on the river, but it was very quiet. For the rest of the day, we drove through several more villages but they were all quiet like Carmelo, so we drove home, using a different route to see more of the country.
The next day we drove east along the coast, past lots of very busy beaches. On the way, we went through the pretty beach city of Piriápolis then on to the rocky cliffs of Punta Ballena.
In Punta Ballena, we went to see Casapueblo, an amazing piece of architecture built in 1958 by Carlos Páez Vilaró, a famous Uruguayan artist.
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| Casapueblo |
He built it as his home and workshop, out of white-washed cement, without plans, and in the form of a maze with no straight lines.
Over time, it was added to in a haphazard way, and now includes a museum, art gallery, café, and hotel. Although it is a bit like a rabbit warren with its rambling layout, it feels interesting and intimate, with amazing views of the water from most rooms.
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| The art of Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró at his home, Casapueblo |
As we wandered through it, we enjoyed the fascinating art of its creator, wishing we'd had space in our suitcase to take home a piece of his original works.
Moving on, we passed through more beach towns, heading for Punta del Este, a popular beach-side holiday spot of Uruguayans. We found the place full of high-rise buildings, and overflowing cafes, and it was absolutely teeming with people.
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| Left: Rio de la Plata beach. Right: Atlantic Ocean beach, Punta del Este, Uruguay |
This city enjoys beautiful sandy beaches of the Río de la Plata on its western side, and dramatic rocky beaches of the amazing Atlantic Ocean on its eastern side.
We have followed the Atlantic on several of our travel experiences, with the northernmost point being when we were in Norway in 2013, and the southernmost being in Antarctica two weeks ago. It's the world's 2nd largest ocean after the Pacific.
Because Punta del Este was extremely hot and crowded with so many people everywhere, we didn't stop for long.
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| Typical houses at Jose Ignacio, Uruguay |
Instead, we headed further along the coast to the small attractive but touristy village of José Ignacio. It has very quaint white-washed houses built on narrow streets. Very nice, except if trying to drive down to the beach. Even with our small car, we found it hard to get through the many parked cars on either side of the road.
After that, we drove to an interesting bridge that crossed over protected wetlands at Laguna Garzón.
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| The interesting circular bridge at Laguna Garzón, Uruguay |
The bridge forms a complete circle and was designed to slow down the traffic as it passed from the highway, over the quiet and environmentally protected area of the lagoon.
It was definitely different, and we had a chance to see it properly due to the very low speed limit.
After a full-on day, we headed back to Montevideo via an inland route to try to avoid the homeward beach traffic.
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| Good use of Uruguay's roading reserve on hot days |
On the way, we saw people stopped at the side of the highway, sitting in their fold-up chairs. We have seen a lot of this in both Argentina and Uruguay - people stop anywhere there is shade, seemingly oblivious to the traffic noise, but grateful to be outside with a tree and a bit of green space.
The next day we headed north-west, on one of Uruguay’s wine routes.
We started at Bodega Bouza which is a large commercial winery set in lovely grounds. The wine tasting and food area was in a building displaying some beautiful antique cars.
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| Leigh with an antique car at Bodega Bouza, Uruguay |
After sampling some delicious wine, we drove on seeking another bodega experience.
But the next bodega was booked out, so we drove on through several attractive villages, toward the city of Canelones. There were three bodegas on the way, that we thought we could visit. However, they were either closed or booked to tour groups only, so no lunch and no wine tasting for us.
Feeling a little despondent and getting hungry, we headed back toward Montevideo. Then we found Bodega Pizzorno, a family business, where we had a lovely welcome by the winemaker, Lucio. He fed us, then told us about this boutique bodega’s history and wines.
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| Leigh tasting and Marg with Lucio at Bodega Pizzorno, Canalones, Uruguay |
We went down into the cellar where they produce, bottle and store their wines, and had several tastings. Their specialty of course being tannat, the wine of Uruguay. But they also had a wonderful merlot.
It was a great visit with a New Zealand connection as their sauvignon blanc advisor is a Kiwi wine maker! After a couple of happy hours there, we headed back to Montevideo city.
We really enjoyed our stay in Montevideo and also exploring these other parts of Uruguay. We were able to have a combination of sightseeing and also relaxation, which was great as it was very hot.
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| Rainbow on our last night in Montevideo, Uruguay |
Uruguay is the only place on this 4-month trip of South America, where we found a supermarket with a wide range of food. All other food shopping on our trip has been in towns or villages where there was a limited range of stock. Even in Buenos Aires centre, the shops were small and local.
Interestingly, the people of Uruguay seem to be addicted to drinking maté as in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It's a herbal tea, drunk out of a specially made cup through a specially made straw called a bombilla. People carry their maté cup everywhere, along with a thermos of hot water tucked under their arm to top up their maté on the go.
Now, after a short time in Uruguay but a long time travelling around South America, it was time to leave for our long trip home.
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| Coming into Buenos Aires from Colónia del Sacramento ferry on our way home |
On our last day in Uruguay, we caught a taxi to the Montevideo bus station, then a bus to Colónia, then the ferry to the port of Buenos Aires, then a taxi to the airport, then a flight to Santiago (Chile), then a flight to Auckland (New Zealand), then a fight home to Wellington - whew!
Our homeward journey was not without is problems. At the airport, we found that LATAM airlines (via Qantas codeshare) seemed not have Leigh booked on the Santiago to Auckland flight. We finally sorted it out in time for departure; although we were not seated together despite booking the flight and seats 8 months prior.
Our luggage didn’t arrive in Auckland, but as with the same LATAM flight last year from Santiago, it arrived the next day. Our advice….don’t use LATAM Airlines.
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| Crossing the Andes Mountains on our flight home |
Despite the tricky homeward flight, we loved this side of South America as much as we loved our tour of the other side last year.
We've had an amazing journey through five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay), and the Antarctic continent. We’ve seen some fabulous scenery, spotted remarkable wildlife, been in stunning (and not so stunning) cities, towns and villages, and met some really lovely people. A fond farewell South America.
We are now planning to take a short break from travel; but the next adventure is never far away.
The above blog is part of our 4-month tour of South America. The first blog on this tour is called "Buenos Aires here we come".