Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

One of the highlights of our trip so far was hopping on a boat (aka buquebus) and heading to the sleepy and historical town of Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay. The kids loved it so much that when it was time to leave, the oldest cried. We definitely could have spent several more days there since there was plenty to see and..... eat.

We stayed in the historic district of the town at a quaint little hotel called El Capullo. It was so adorable and had the warmest people working there. We were greeted and promptly introduced to the toy chest. The girls were in heaven. I loved the giant orange tree growing in the back neighbors garden that hung over the fence.

Walking around the town you felt such a sense of history. The town had been founded by the Portuguese and, several back and forth battles later, settled by the Spanish. We took a guided tour after being there a few days and learned quite a bit of interesting information. One interesting tidbit was the Portuguese had used tiles on their roofs that were made by placing the clay over the top part of a slave's leg. Because no slave had the same size muscle, the tiles were all different sizes. You could see this on many of the original buildings. Colonia de Sacramento also had the oldest church in all of Uruguay that we were able to go into and tour.

One of the things that the girls truly loved was renting a golf car and driving around the town. It was a little scary for Mommy and Daddy because we were on the same road as many other cars, but the gorgeous view of the coast along the way made it worth it. Word to the wise- make sure you get a golf cart with seat belts.

We drove our little golf cart out to Playa Ferrando, a lovely little beach about 2 km from town. The girls enjoyed putting their toes in the water. Apparently you could walk out for 100 meters and still not have the water go above your knees. We did not test that theory though. We stopped at a local shipwreck museum. It was quite interesting to learn of all of the ships that had sunk right around the port of the town. We also drove out to a dilapidated bull ring. Apparently the bull ring was built in 1910 but bull fighting was made illegal in 1912. LOL

Drinking mate (pronounced matay) is a way of life if not an obsession in Uruguay. You would see everyone walking around with their little hollowed out gourds sipping mate tea through a bombilla (a metal straw). The guide on our tour mentioned the average person there drinks roughly 4 liters of mate a day. Whoa!!!!

Steak in Uruguay is a source of pride. According to our guide, there are three cows to every person there. We thought we would help them control the cow population by eating at the local parillas. El Porton is the one to eat at if you ever get the chance. Uh....yum!!!!

Life was relaxing in Colonia. I can still hear the bell from the church tolling while drum beats from a local drum parade marched by my window. Ahhhh....