Day 9 - La Cuca Freaking Racha

Nov 22, 2017 Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

I didn’t sleep much, for fear of cockroaches.  I am totally ok with insects.  Insects are great.  Spiders eat mosquitos.  Bees make honey.  I can’t really think of any thing good from flies and mosquitos, but you get the picture.  I just don’t like them in my bedroom or kitchen.  So when we spotted a few cockroaches last night, I was eyes-wide, heart palpitations, on guard.  Sleep was scarce.

We woke early to leave for the bus terminal, leaving Montevideo for Colonia, Uruguay at 8:30 AM.  We were there super early, because our host freaked us out a bit.  It was pretty quick, and took about 3 minutes to drop your bags under the bus and board (no freak out necessary).  The bus was three hours, and seemed long as we stopped quite a few times to pick people up or drop them off.  The driver and his accomplice were both very kind to everyone getting on and off.  This reflects the general perception of the people we had met thus far in Uruguay.

We arrived in Colonia at about noon and only had a few block walk to our hostel.  We were too early to check in so left our bags and went to out explore.  The old city was only a few blocks away.  Colonia is an interesting place.  It’s actually called Colonia del Sacramento and it was originally settled by the Portuguese, as one of the oldest cities in Uruguay and a popular port city. Its historic quarter is a UNESCO world heritage site. Like Montevideo and Buenos Aires, the water is brown as it really is in the mouth of the river, rather than the ocean.  The town itself is quite small and there really isn’t much to do other than wonder around to little restaurants and shops.  The place appears to cater to a higher bill tourist population – everything plays up its quaint brick structure and colorful doors with overhanging plants, cute table and chair sets, and chalkboard menus.

We found a little hole in the wall outside of the touristy area that was stated to have the best “Chivito”.  A chivito is basically a heart attack on a plate – A grilled steak sandwich with mayo, cheese, bacon or ham, and whatever other toppings.  The bread was toasted, the steak was good, the cheese melted, and the toppings included an odd assortment of peas and carrots.  It was actually quite delicious.

Then we split up - Evan is teaching himself a bit of coding for his next venture, so he did that, and I walked and wrote.

We ventured back out as the light started to get really nice as the sun set.

We came back and continued on projects until dinner.  We decided to eat with the hostel – they were having a "parrilla", the term for steakhouse – salad, grilled beef, bread, wine, and Pepsi (?).   The table was approx ten single male travelers and Evan and I.  The conversation drifted languages, as we had Belgians, a French Canadian, Italians, Argentines, Brasilians.  When the conversation shifted from wine to religion, I slipped away to catch some winks.  Evan joined me much later.