[Paisleychick-lj] Visiting Colonia del Sacramento

[Beatrice M's blog]

[![][1]][2]   
[Beatrice trying to sleep][3]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

We arrived in Uruguay on Friday evening and promptly went to sleep as we hadn't gotten much sleep on Thursday night. I, especially hadn't gotten much sleep because I was fiddling with [Digikam][5] , a program for managing photo albums on linux, like iPhoto for Mac. I eventually got everything sorted out with Kragen's help, but it was so very painful. Each package that we downloaded depended on another package that he didn't have installed and we had to build from source. The hydra's heads just kept on popping up, no matter how hard we whacked at it. It was frustrating to say the least, but I did learn a bit, but linux still has a long way to go before I'm comfortable using it on my own. Without Kragen's help I would have just cried. But, we succeeded and I was able to get stuff uploaded onto Flickr and I have a mostly usable account on his machine while mine awaits a fixed power cord in Buenos Aires. The main problem with his computer is that Kragen is using an old version of Ubuntu, (Hoary Hedgehog) from 2003 (we think?). As video acceleration is broken for his machine (IBM Thinkpad X24) on the newer versions, he hasn't updated. Anyways, back to Uruguay.  
  


[![][6]][7]   
[Old street in Colonia][8]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

Colonia del Sacramento is a small tourist town to the west of Montevideo. It was established by the Portuguese in the late 1600s to spy on trade with the British and Spanish. A lot of the old town remains, especially the old cobblestone, which I was fascinated by and took way too many photos of. We explored the town on Saturday morning, walking along the riverfront, climbing the old battlements, crossing the drawbridge over the moat and trying not to trip as we walked on the cobblestone. The town was pretty empty of tourists, which was strange as it was a summer weekend, but it meant that it was nice and quiet. The wind was a wonderful change from the oppressive heat of Buenos Aires and made it pleasant to walk around. I took a long, luxurious nap that afternoon. After I woke up, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. One of the waiters had a lot of "flair". His apron was covered in buttons from tourists (I assume) from all over the world. He ♥'d New York, San Francisco, Paris and London. He came out of the kitchen wearing a funny hat and made it his job to make people both laugh and shake their heads. He kept on going back to the kitchen and reappearing with stranger and louder hats: [a foam hot-dog][9], banana, large sombrero, etc. It was his thing.   
  


[![][10]][11]   
[By the pool][12]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

The Posada we stayed at, Posada del Angel, was charming. There were rooms to sit and relax in, a breakfast room on the bottom floor and a garden with a small pool for guests to lounge around in. There were a number of older single women guests. I don't know if they were there for extended stays or not, but they seemed to have the air of women who take what they want when they are familiar with their surroundings. I think that was less charitable than I meant it to be, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm trying to say. Sunday morning I woke up early as I'd taken a long nap on Saturday afternoon. I messed around with the photos and wrote a couple of journal entries (transcribed one and wrote another). I waited for the sun to rise and for the Posada to come to life so that I could reasonably wake up Kragen and go downstairs for breakfast together. After breakfast, we cleaned up and packed everything up to checkout around 11:00. We made it by 11:20. Not too bad. Kragen walked around and found the nearby bus station and bought us tickets for the 14:00 bus to Montevideo. We lounged around the pool for a bit and then walked to yet another, but different nearby restaurant to lunch at. We sat outside and people watched as the tourists and locals passed by. There were so many motor scooters, it reminded me of a Mediterranean island. I was surprised there weren't more bicycles, but there was an ever so slight incline to the town.  
  


[![][13]][14]   
[Uruguayan Countryside][15]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

After filling up with steak, salad, french fries and _agua mineral con gas_, we strolled back to the Posada to pick up our bags and trudge our way to the bus station. Walking through the town on a Sunday was a little freaky because it was so quiet. We didn't see one car in the street on our way to the bus station. Kragen thought it was a bit post-apocalyptic. There was a little bit more movement at the bus station, which relieved us somewhat. Boarding the bus made us both happy because we were on the move again, going to places unknown. Travelling through the countryside was a wakeup for me. Yes, we are still in Latin America. But, it also reminded me very much of West Marin (when it's green) and Idaho and Iowa. There were cows, sheep, horses, cornfields, mustard fields, swaths of grass, rows of Eucalyptus trees, Palm trees, and farmhouses made from cinder-blocks (not wood as I just normally expect in my brain) to remind me where we were. The highway was bumpy and under construction, but pretty deserted. We would stop, pick up passengers waiting by the side of the road, like buses did in Ecuador and also drop them off when they weren't going to the terminal in Montevideo. We arrived around 16:30 and took a taxi to the hotel Kragen had got for us earlier that day - Hotel Europa. It was on the expensive side, but less so than our place in Colonia. As it was Sunday, the town was pretty much closed. We tried, in vain, to find an open _locutorio_ so that Kragen could make some phone calls, but to no avail. I did find an open internet cafe though and jacked in to upload some more photos. I saw my first [horse drawn cart][16] and that messed with my head a bit. I am used to them being tourist attractions in cities, not being used by people to get their work done. Yes, we are very much in Latin America.  


   [1]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/357450637_a165705acf_m.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/357450637/ (Beatrice trying to sleep)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/357450637/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/blmurch/
   [5]: http://digikam.org/
   [6]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/359649573_6ca07f01ef_m.jpg
   [7]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/359649573/ (photo sharing)
   [8]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/359649573/
   [9]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/tags/hotdoghat/
   [10]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/359696838_0ed80c209c_m.jpg
   [11]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/359696838/ (By the pool)
   [12]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/359696838/
   [13]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/360824260_57d21bf443_m.jpg
   [14]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/360824260/ (Uruguayan Countryside)
   [15]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/360824260/
   [16]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/tags/cart

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/287481.html