Colonia del Sacramento by Granny Jo

Colonia del Sacramento by Granny Jo

Colonia del Sacramento is the jewel in the crown of Uruguay's tourist attractions, and is a World Heritage Site. It is situated in south west Uruguay on the River Plate.

The original settlement was founded by Manuel de Lobo, a Portuguese, in 1680 to enable them to smuggle goods across the Rio de la Plata into Buenos Aires. The Spanish took the town in 1762 and it remained in their hands until 1777 when tax reforms made smuggling redundant.

Today the main port is a busy terminal for the Buquebus ferry service to and from Argentina. Colonia is a popular weekend destination for Argentineans. The old port is now a favoured stopping off point for weekend sailing jaunts & races from Buenos Aires and for cruisers (the yachting variety) like us. It is ideally situated in the old part of Colonia and once off the boat you are right in the historic part of the town.

The old town is beautiful, we visited it on a weekday in winter & it was very quiet which gave it a slightly dead feel. I'm sure that it feels livlier when the summer crowds throng the streets.

The prettiest part of the old town is around the 'Plaza Mayor 25 de Mayo'. Many of the streets in Uruguay are named after significant dates '18 de Julio' is another popular choice, almost every town seems to have one of these. If it's not a date it is usually a General or a South American country.

The architecture is, unsurprisingly, typically Portuguese/Spanish. A lot of it is single storey with flat or shallow pitched terra cotta tiled roofs, with only the grander residences and some later commercial buildings such as warehouses, rising to a second floor. There are two obvious exceptions to this, the lighthouse and the windmill. The streets are all cobbled; some have a central gutter, and some have the high point in the centre of the street with a gutter on either side. I understand that one is Portuguese & one Spanish but I cannot remember which is which.

The Plaza Mayor 25 de Mayo is rectangular and generously proportioned, lined on either side with citrus trees, the central grassed area has a collection of large trees providing shade and a few tall palm trees full of noisy Parakeets. Fronting onto the square are various official buildings such as Admiral Brown's house (whoever he was); a beautifully proportioned double storey house painted white with green shutters and door; the Armada (navy) offices and a few merchants’ houses. The lighthouse stands in the southwest corner adjacent to the ruins of a monastery. At the opposite end are the remains of the original wall of the fortified settlement with a drawbridge. A huge Uruguayan flag flies in the square; the Uruguayans are proud of their flag and take every opportunity to show it off.

There are old Bougainvilleas growing throughout the old town and they add a colourful dimension to the streets and squares. Many of the wider streets are lined with trees, often Plane trees to my surprise; I always associate them with London. To add to the vintage feel of the town there are numerous old cars parked in strategic spots around the old town, we saw a Model T Ford and an ancient Citroen to name two. It is commonplace to see very old cars on the road in Uruguay as new cars are very expensive so models of thirty years old and more are unexceptional.

There are still quite a lot of old buildings that are as yet unrestored, I imagine that this is due to economic reasons as the old warehouses adjacent to the port are large and quite dilapidated and would require significant investment to bring them back into use, some of them would make amazing boutique hotels or apartments. The fact that these buildings are not in use does not really detract from the atmosphere of the old town.

The town has lots of coffee shops and restaurants, most of them a cut above the standard we have found in other parts of Uruguay. One in particular had beautiful magazines and shelves of art books plus a bookcase with most of the quality bestsellers from the last ten years or so, all in English. They were there to read in the coffee shop, not to purchase. I wish that we had stayed long enough to have read some of them. All this and great coffee, free wi-fi , an open fire and a great view too.

The greater part of Colonia is a fairly ordinary Uruguayan town, wide streets and a large attractive central square. Most buildings look a bit run down but must have been quite smart in their time; a lot of the architecture is of the Art Deco period. It is a strange contrast to the elegant historic town.

Goodbye Piriapolis, Hello Monte Video

Piriapolis 3

Paella - by Andrew

One morning, while walking Lucy along the harbour wall to feed the cats,

I noticed a shell about the size of a fist stuck to a rock about half a metre under the surface. I pulled it out, and saw it was the same as the one Paulet had shown me at the oyster farm in Florianopolis. I remembered too that he, as well as his staff, were effusive in their praise of its gastronomical value. Back on the boat, I boiled it until it frothed, then yanked it out of its shell with a screwdriver and bit into it. Not bad at all. In fact it was quite rich. So without further ado, I co-opted Rupert and together we dived off the seawall with gloves and a net bag, and harvested fifty seven more. For good measure we also collected a large pot of mussels. That afternoon, after scrubbing the shells, I boiled and cut up the whelks while Rupert cooked the mussels up with rice and some vegetables, and we all sat down to a large paella. It was delicious – and free!

Leaving - Piriapolis
So finally after 3 months, we leave Piriapolis, it was quite a strange sensation casting off, because it has become home. So strange what happens when you travel and then you stop, I can see how easy it is for people to stay in a place for long periods. We have met the most amazing people, made real friends, and experienced life in Uruguay. We had a fairly large leaving party waving us off from the port, which is quite unusual for a cruising boat! We left with mixed feelings as goodbyes are always sad, but we are definately ready to see new shores.

Isla de Las Flores (An island on the way from Piriapolis to Monte Video)
Our friend Eduardo from Monte Video who is also a sailor, has some contacts on an island just off Monte Video called Isla de Las Flores, this was an old quarantine island and political prison. One has to get special permission to visit the island, so it was great that we were able to just arrive with Eduardo. When we left Piriapolis, we planned to meet Edo there for an Assado on the boat, and then moor in the small harbour at the island, spend the night, visit the island in the morning and then leave the next morning for Monte Video. However, of course, things did not go according to the plan exactly! Now there is a suprise... We left Piriapolis later than anticipated, so after casting off at 2pm, we motored on very flat waters (no complaining from this department), and reached the island at 8pm, of course it is then dark, so it is not a great time to reach a new anchorage, and the wind was starting to pick up. The island itself looked incredibly dramatic at night, as it has a very large light house on it, which flashes it's beam strongly across the water, warning all those of it's shallows and rocks. On arriving there was no sin of Edo, which was a little dissapointing, but not suprising as we were about 4 hours later then the original plan! We peered into the diminutive harbour with our meagre flashlight, but definately no Edo inside. Edo sailed a beautiful boat that goes by the name Yamandu, who is the mistress of the sea, she was built in 1937, so is very special, and is the most sailed boat of that age in the Rio de la Plata. We decided to anchor for the night and then make our way to Buseo in the morning. Not 5 minutes later, whilst finding a suitable anchor site, the sails of Yamandu loom out of the dark! Yay, Edo made it, it seems he had as much drama leaving Buseo as we did leaving Piriapolis. He was recalled once for work, and a second time by the Prefectura for some incorrect radio protocol! So in the end, completely independently we arrive at the same place within moments of each other, which was 4 hours different from the original arrangement! Edo hopped on board, we tied Yamandu astern of Josephine, and we proceeded to have a slapup braai/assado with fantastic cativelli chorizo's and a great piece of steak.. Nyummm.

By now the wind had picked up quite a bit and we were being blown onto the island, the anchorage was really bumpy, and it was too difficult to see to get into harbour, it turns out that was the right decision, as the harbour did not have enough water for Jospehine anyway. The anchor started to drag, so we moved further off shore, where it happened again. We then moved the boat around to the lee of the island, were we managed to anchor successfully until the morning with the 3 boys doing an anchor watch to ensure we did not drift off into the deep blue sea while we were sleeping.

With the morning light, the wind dropped off competely, and we had a beautiful view of the island, the black rocks covered in gulls, the white lighthouse, derelict old buildings and grey sky making an impressive picture.



After coffee and a matte, Edo then hopped back onto Yamandu, and we motored back around the island to the harbour, where we tied up against the outside of the harbour wall, while Yamandu moored inside, her draft allowing her inside easily. We were welcomed by the 2 sole inhabitants of the island, who run the lighthouse, and take visitors around. We then toured the island, which was fascinating, with it's old buildings and stories of quarantine - the remains of most of the buildings still stand, which were built 150 years ago. The island housed all immigrants to Uruguay, both rich and poor, for a short period while they were in quarantine, so as to ensure they did not carry any foreign diseases into the country. So there is a very dramatic building, which must have been awfully posh in it's time, were all the rich stayed, and very basic housing for the poor. It also housed political prisoners, who had an apartment like 'cell' with 2 floors and a sea view. The old boilers and massive pressure cookers are still standing on the island which were used to boil and sterilise all the clothes and belongings of the immigrants. Amazing to still see these relics standing on this barren little island. The island was teeming with birds, mostly gulls, but we saw quite a few pairs of oyster catchers too, unlike our plain black oyster catchers, they were pied, but had the same distinctive beaks and calls.

On our way around the island, Lucy was doing her usual charming of the guides, who then offered us the option of having an assado on the island, which according to Edo, is completely unheard off! We gleefully took them up on their offer, and cooked up another storm of sausage and meat, luckily we had plenty left over, due to over catering the day before! So while the steak cooked on a grid that the fisherman use when stranded on the island by bad weather, the boys hoofed around a rugby ball in the court yard. Lucy discovered some toads hibernating amongst some dwarf squashes, that had never grown due to lack of water. She thought the baby squashes were more interesting than the toads thank goodness, and we even managed to frighten a rabbit across the courtyard whilst we were enjoying our meat. What an extraordinary day, we thoroughly enjoyed Piri, but it is really great to be on the road (so to speak) again, seeing fantastic new things, and experiencing these magic interludes which one could never dream up as hard as you tried!



So back on the boat, and off we head to Buseo, Monte Video. Hmmnn, technical hitch - the engine won't start! Oh blimey, now what - flat batteries? Hmmn, we did leave the fridge on throughout our assado... Thank goodness for small mercies, our dear friend Edo is an electrician! Edo to the rescue, I am sure Andrew and Rupert would have got to the bottom of the problem, but it was an awful lot quicker with Edo at hand! Great stuff.. very happy, So Monte Video here we come..

Monte Video - General
We had a very pleasant stay in Monte Video, it is quite frightening how quickly the time passes, we were there for over a week. It is also really nice to be in a place long enough to get to know it a bit. While we were there Lawerence came to visit, and we went to the Mercado del Puerto, which is a an enormous warehouse that originally housed a market, but now houses a selection of parilla style restaurants. It is very busy, with a tremendous atmosphere of food, fire, hubbub and life. We all shared a huge platter of assorted meats, ranging from sweetmeats like ..believe it or not.. salivary glands, and kidneys to sweet blood pudding and steak, And believe it or not, some of the dodgy sounding things are actually quite tasty. The staff at the restaurant were completely amazing to Lucy - again, even going to the extent of grating an apple for her, which of course, she then decided she was not very interested in unfortunately! Ungrateful girl!

The main street that runs through the centre of Monte Video, is named 18 Julio - the 18th July, they name lots of their streets after days of significant battles and events. This street has everything on it you can imagine, and culminates in a huge square, Plaza Independencia, with a huge statue of the national hero Artigas, built upon his tomb. The tomb is open to the public, and although this is not usually the sort of thing that I am that keen on, we went to have a look. I was amazed, it was absolutely astounding. The feeling of power that you experienced when you walked through the door took your breath away, and sent a shiver down your spine. The square tomb has guards attending the ashes, and all the way around this enormous black marble hall, were 6 foot high concrete letters in relief, recording the details of his battles and significant events. A truely remarkable memorial.

We went to the most extraordinary market, that covers a grid of streets about 2km squared, and is just off 18 Julio. It was absolutely heaving with people, and I think you could find just about anything that you could ever wish to find, from complete junk that you seem to be able to find the world over, to some very nice local crafts of wool, leather and silver, to vegetables and even old commemorative South African Lion beer cans, covered in gemsbok! Lucy managed to find a second hand pull along dog (we think it is a Fisher Price toy rip off), and some high quality plastic animals! We stopped for lunch at a cafe that looked invitiing, called Cafe Verde, or the Green Cafe in English, had some very nice simple food, and we promptly entertained by their in house local duo on guitar. Lucy thought they were just great, and spent the whole of lunch time charming the restaurant with her very advanced dancing skills.

Monte Video: Rodeo - by Andrew
Being very much a “country of the land”, guacho (cowboy) culture is strong and just about the biggest event on the sporting calendar is the annual rodeo in Montevideo. There are in fact two, in the same week – the upmarket one, in the city, for the rich (and the tourists); and the downmarket one, near the airport, in a somewhat dilapidated dusty stadium surrounded by the tallest eucalyptus trees I have ever seen. Of course we made for the latter.

We parked the car in the eucalyptus grove in a noisy third-world confusion of dust, busses and chivito stalls. The landscape was dotted with little encampments each with a smoky fire, a few tatty canvasses strung up for shelter, and their own circa-1950s dodge vans. Most groups also had at least one pony and cart. Each camp housed an extended family for the week; toddlers romping in the dust, Mum and daughters managing the homefront, Dad checking son’s gear and imparting final advice before the show, and toothless grandparents lounging against the Dodge sipping matte from a leather gourd.
Closer to the stadium we ran a gauntlet of stalls selling everything from roasted peanuts, leather and hot water (for matte) to replica samurai swords, colour prints of Victoria Falls, and posters of Homer Simpson alternately done up as Che Guevara, Bob Marley or Elvis Presley.

The rodeo itself was a whirlwind of thundering hooves, leather and thick dust, overlaid with the loudest public address system under which I have ever had the misfortune to stand. It was nothing if it was not exciting. Eager young men – a lot of them teenagers evidently – taking turns to see how long they could remain in the saddle on horses that looked like they would sooner go to the dentist than tolerate being sat upon. Like the American rodeo, there was an eight second cut-off, and anyone who could remain glued to his mount beyond the eight seconds would then be judged and awarded points for style. Of course a good many did not make the eight seconds, and there was plenty of excitement for the frenzied crowd as rider after rider was ignominiously hurled to the dust, and often trampled for good measure. The ambulance was kept busy, and the crowd happy.








By the end of a breathless afternoon the crowd favourite, and reigning Uruguay champion, had appropriately carried the day and done his lap of honour at full gallop with a box of the sponsor’s mate yerba held aloft in one hand, the Uruguayan flag in the other, and we joined the throng to exit the stadium.

Just outside we spotted a gaucho with a pony and Abi insisted it was time for Lucy to take her first ride. Lucy was installed in the saddle with Mum in immediate attendance, and of they went. As small as the pony was, it was far too wide for 10-month old Lucy to actually sit astride, so she sprawled forward drunkenly over its back and was held in place by her mother.

The walk lasted several minutes, and there was virtually no response from Lucy at all; she remained inanimate, but at least was not crying. I was a little disappointed, having expected her to find it at least a little exciting. Then came time to get off. What a fuss THAT was! Luckily there was another little girl waiting her turn, otherwise I fear we would have been there most of the night, until we ran out of money! All the way home in the car we were treated to pony noises by Lucy, and the next day we procured a bright green inflatable donkey for the boat.

Passage from Monte Video to Colonia
So we are on our way from Monte Video. But as usual, things are not going quite according to plan. We are on our way to Colonia, and this should take about 13 hours at about 6.5 knots, but we seem to not be able to go faster than 3.5 knots. There is a terrific current that runs in this river. We turned the boat around and we are all of a sudden doing 7 knots!! Ho humm, let's hope we have enough diesel to get there. I won't be able to write much more now, as even though I have good sea legs from being on a very bumpy mooring in Monte Video for a week, my sea legs (and stomach) do not extend to typing whilst on passage!

Andrew and Rupert are going to be sailing right the way through the night, and have been kind enough to send my Mom and I to bed. I joked earlier that this is definately the way that I like to travel, similar to a cruise ship, you go bed and wake up in a new destination. The challenge is the cabin choice. As Andrew and Rupert will be up all night doing shifts. They will just use one bunk in the saloon. So I have a choice - Lucy and I can either sleep in the aft cabin, which is extremely stable, and the least bumpy place on the boat to sleep - however there is an ambient humm from the diesel generator that is a foot away from your head, and accompanying fumes that I don't stomach too well. Alternatively there is our normal cabin, though this is the bumpiest ride in the boat, being at the front, it rocks and rolls way more than anywhere else, you also have a very definate sound of water flowing past the fibreglass, which always reminds me a little too much of how close the sea is! - OR we can sleep in the saloon, but the challenge is then the 2 hourly shift change, which would probably be a mite disturbing.. In the end I have decided on the forepeak, and we will see how things go.

Ok, it was a good decision, the wind completely died, which meant the sea, or rather the river that we are on was completely flat, which meant a very comfortable nights sleep. Andrew and Rupert have done a great job, a very cold night, they have been wrapped up to the nines. A serious job navigating this river as it is very shallow and littered with wrecks and sand banks. The GPS is certainly a useful tool to have. We are now almost at Colonia, it has just started raining. At least it saved it for the last hour, rather than the whole trip.

General: Knitting
For some or other reason, Andrew mentioned a while back that I should knit something for Lucy in a offhand, joking, not a chance type of comment. SO when we were shoppping in Devoto, and there was some beautiful handwoven pink skeins of local Uruguayan yarn, I could not help but take up the challenge (or pick up the provocation, as our German friend Werner would say). A simple project is what would be best as I have not done much knitting for about 20 years, the last knitting I did was at school with ample assistance from my mother! The next was to find simple free pattern on the internet - the chosen garment being a sleeveless jersey. Simple enough that there may be some chance of finishing these before the end of winter. Well much to my suprise and delight, I have really enjoyed knitting the jersey, and am 95% finished, with only the neck to finish off, the seams to sew together and the buttons to sew on. I am super excited, and have already taken on the next challenge of knitting a beanie for Rupert, in the style of Lucy's chicken hat, but a grown up version! And after that a sleeveless jersey follows for Andrew! You see this is why the last blog update took so long because I was getting to grips with Lucy's jersey! I will have to get faster at knitting, as we definately need the blog as well as the woolly clothes.

So now the jersey for Lucy is knitted, and Rupert needs a woolly beanie, the next project is to find the right type of needles!! Lucy was given a beautiful hand knitted Uruguayan beanie in the shape of a chicken by Alex, so I have endeavoured to try and copy this and make a similar item for Rupert! Good luck will be needed I think!