We got up early to check out and explore the town. Colonia is a really old town which has been marked as a World Heritage Sight by UNESCO. It was founded in 1680 and used by the Portugese to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. The Spainish were not really happy with this and they started to attack the town regularly. The town continually changed hands between the Spainish and the Portugese for the next few years.
The historical quarter of the town is really good just to walk around and just take in the sights. There is a small pier/dock and there was a yacht race on so there was some beautiful ships moored. On the other side of the town there is a museum dedicated to Admiral Brown who is also pretty popular in Uruguay because he attacked the Spainish on numerous occasions up the Rio de Plata. The lighthouse is probably the best feature of the town and you can climb to the top for a great view of the historic quarter.
After a couple of hours of walking around we headed back to the hostel. Ro was on the computer checking times for the bus to Montevideo and I was just flicking through the channels when what did I find but the Arsenal v Blackburn game! In the courtyard of a small hostel, on the other side of the world I watched Arsenal beating Blackburn 4-0 and I was really happy with my days work. I could have stayed there for the day but we ended up having to catch a bus to Montevideo to catch our flight the next day.
The bus to Montevideo takes about two and a half hours. The countryside was really like home with huge green fields full of cattle and huge planted forests. Of course we slept for most of the journey.
We arrived in Montevideo totally lost. Seriously we had a map but we were about 2km off it. So Ronan got out his compass and using our old boys scouts training we started out for the hostel. After about 45mins we arrived at the Montevideo hostel. (Again, the amount of effort they put into naming these hostels is amazing!)
Montevideo Hostel is a huge old style town house with a 40ft spiral stair case. Montevideo (or this hostel) are not really popular with the Gringo trail so it was full of Spainish, Australians, and locals. The receptionist did not speak a word of English which was a weird experience for us! Finally we got the room and settled in for some food. Joe took to the cooking with Ro´s help and we sat into a delicious Spaghetti with over a pound of meat! You´d know Ro did the shopping. We also got a litre and a half bottle of wine to get the night going...
After dinner we got ready to go out. (See Rule 2) We got talking to two guys called Fabio and Nick. Fabio was a Brazilian who had done a couple of years in the US and he was travelling for a while through Uruguay and Argentina. Nick was a dessert farmer from outside Perth. His family have farms all over South Western Austrailia, some of which are over 600km apart. Thats a long way to go to count a few sheep!! Nick had been travelling for over two and a half years all over the US and South America.
We all headed into town and went to the Shannon Irish Bar. It was so bad we didn´t even buy a pint. So we went across to the Pony Nightclub. (Again, who the hell do they get to name these places!!!) Pony was small but there was a really cool atmosphere and a really great band. But the highlight of the night was the old guy who could balance a glass on his head while dancing to crazy music. That was until he dropped the glass over a bunch of girls and then we lost all respect for him!!!
Charlie
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