This is Uruguay?

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

I’m not sure what I expected Uruguay to be like. I had no preconceived notions of the country before I arrived since it’s not a place you normally hear about. It’s easy to overlook the small country that’s nestled between two cultural powerhouses in South America; Argentina and Brazil. What I wasn’t expecting was a country so…refined.

The buses in this country are absolutely amazing and are finest things I’ve ridden on since Mexico. Mexico has an amazing bus system but Uruguay makes Mexico seem sub-standard. The buses here are top of the line and look like they came off the production line yesterday. Plush seats, wifi on board and most important of all they leave on time and arrive early.

I moved from Montevideo to Colonia del Sacramento and found a small city that has a great colonial history that is wrapped in the power struggle between Spain and Portugal during the eighteenth century. The city has kept all of it’s colonial charm with a refined touch. Colonial houses with small boutiques and restaurants line cobble stoned streets. One look down the street shows this place is drowning in money. Yacht clubs, fine dining, strolling musicians and South American tourists with money to spend. Even with such money prices don’t approach the absurd level but you do have to be careful. Last night with dinner an additional 30 pesos for ‘cutlery’ and another 50 for the live music was added to my check.

I’ll be here for three nights and then I catch the ferry over to Buenos Aires. For whatever reason I have been exhausted ever since arriving in Uruguay and no amount of sleep seems to be relieving the situation. My afternoon siestas keep turning into three or four hour naps on top of the nine or ten hours of sleep at night. I’m not sure if I’m still adjusting to the three hour time shift but I hope by Monday that I’ll be acclimated in order to shift back an hour when entering Argentina.