My time in Uruguay was short while visiting two cities, Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo. Some impressions I made I want to share with you.
But first, how do you get there?
I found the option very convenient: either Buenos Aires to Montevideo and back or via the city of Colonia del Sacramento, which is cheaper but includes a three-hour bus ride between Colonia and Montevideo. I decided to go inbound via Colonia but back to Buenos Aires directly. The pure travel time was five hours inbound and three hours back.
(from left to right is the order I took them)
First, about Colonia:
It is a fantastic little village; rarely have I seen such a lovely place. It’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage list, and after some minutes in the old city, you immediately know why. Look at the pictures to get your impression!
I should have decided to stay a night here before traveling to Montevideo :/
Second, about Montevideo:
…and it saddens me as the city is beautiful; it has a fantastic coastline, nice green spots, and historic buildings. But the list of downsides is enormous! Here are just some examples:
- Drugs are everywhere. Either someone is trying to sell it to you or begging for money! In the middle of the shopping street, I saw guys making a bonfire and passing their crack pipe
- Old and historical buildings get rotten as no one is caring for them. The worst example is the old central station, the building is enormous, massive, beautiful… its so sad that these buildings are not saved.
- Dog landmines everywhere! It seems to be hard to collect them after the dogs are done with their business
- Cars can be loud as much as possible. Sometimes you are not able to talk because of the bypassing cars
- In the night, in the middle of the city, in front of the hotel, the car enthusiasts do a car show, with races and the game “which is the loudest “.. until 5 am
- This brings me to my last point: the presence of the police.. it seems that this city only has a few, and they are for a donut break. It’s hard to feel safe outside the main street
Montivedo is not ready (or willing) to be an attractive tourist-target. (Besides drug tourism from Argentina, it is the same as the German-Dutch border-hopping.)
Other things that annoyed me as a tourist in addition to the points above:
- Rare English speaking skills, even museum information, and other tourist information is rarely in English.
- Finding a restaurant after 4 pm, even on the weekend
- Sending a postcard is nearly impossible, as no postboxes are in the streets. You have to find a spot to hand them in… I haven’t found one!
Nevertheless, I added some pictures of the lovely places. I did not regret visiting it, and I hope the government is starting to fix some things to get tourism started!
Some of the beautiful buildings
Some very nice places in the inner city
The lovely waterfront
The southernmost point of Uruguay
The bad central station
A example, how to do it: A prison converted into an art gallery
Have a look here: http://www.eac.gub.uy/ or https://www.tripadvisor.com/. if you are interesstedThe visit is for free…
In addition, I realized a weird thing: this is the first time I have seen that much graffiti in a city. Some of them are good, and a lot of them are horrible. Please find a selection of some good ones here:
Last but not least, talking about the money. Compared to Argentina, you might be shocked, it’s rather expensive to go out for dinner. For tourists, the VAT rate will be decreased by nine points on gastronomic services, catering services for holding parties and events, services linked to holding parties and events, rentals of vehicles without drivers, and mediation services for which they use their credit cards. Last but not least, even on the ferry terminal, you could use the receipts for VAT return if you went shopping… Getting the VAT directly back to the credit card is quite convenient.
For those interested, my walks in the city 🙂 (more than 60km in 3 days)
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