A WEEKEND TRIP TO COLONIA DEL SACRAMENTO, URUGUAY

In contrast to my last post, I spent last weekend wandering around Colonia del Sacramento, a tranquil little town on the Uruguayan coast whose pastel buildings and intimate museums do little to reflect its bloody and contested colonial history. It will totally steal your heart – I’d decided to retire there before I’d been there even an hour. I booked this trip before I left the UK for Argentina due to a fear I might not be let on the plane without proof of onward travel, and as this particular date coincided with an event run by my company, none of my friends were able to join me. I didn’t mind, though – Colonia is the perfect place for a solo weekend or day trip as it’s totally safe and very peaceful, great for a bit of reflection and respite from busy city life across the Río de la Plata in Buenos Aires or up the coast in Montevideo. As it’s only an hour’s ferry ride from BA, it’s popular with internationals renewing tourist visas, as I was.

Trip details

Duration. Plenty of people take a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento from Buenos Aires, and while that’s perfectly possible, I’d personally recommend going for a weekend – I spent one night there but you could easily stretch it to two. The ferry itself only takes about an hour, but you’ll need at least an extra hour and a half in the ferry terminal each way, so just consider how long you want to spend sitting in the ferry port in one day on top of your sightseeing! Plus, if you go for the weekend, you’ll have more opportunities to sample the delicious Uruguayan cuisine…

Money. The currency is Uruguayan pesos, although most places I went to in Colonia would take US dollars and Argentinian pesos, and a few would accept any major world currency. I exchanged cash at the ferry port in BA, but it would’ve been a lot quicker to do it either on the ferry or by withdrawing cash straight from the central Uruguayan bank – I’d recommend the latter in order to save your Argentinian pesos (there was also no queue at all when I went into the bank). Most of the places I shopped and ate at were perfectly happy with either cash or any debit card, but a couple are cash-only, or will only take Visa cards. Also, don’t be confused by the currency switch – Uruguayan pesos are worth significantly more than Argentinian pesos!

Plugs. The plug sockets in Uruguay are different from Argentina – you’ll need a C, F or L plug. Most of Europe uses C or F (two prongs) so if you have one, bring it. If like me you didn’t think you’d be needing it across the pond, adaptors for Argentinian plugs can be bought cheaply from a supermarket called Super USA a few minutes’ walk from the old town.

What to do

Explore the ruins. I saw the ruins of the Governors’ House, the Convent of San Francisco, the Viceroy’s House, and the town drawbridge. They’re not huge – I say ‘explore’, but ‘behold’ would probably be more accurate. If you fancy a bit of a walk, the Moorish-style Plaza de Toros is about 5km from the old town. I didn’ t have time for it in the end, but it looks like a great place for photos if you get there early enough!

Tour the museums. A ticket to all the little museums in the old town cost me 50 pesos, or about £1. Score. There are the Municipal and Paleontological museums, Spanish and Portuguese museums, the tile museum, the Indigenous museum, and one called Casa Nacarello, which is a reproduction of a little house. This sounds like a lot, but none take longer than about 20 minutes to go round and they’re all close together. They touch on a bit of everything – from prehistoric times, through pre-Columbian Indigenous society and the town’s significance as a trading point during the colonial era, to independence.

Living history. There are a few intact buildings that form a link to Colonia’s history – primarily, the Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento and the Lighthouse of Colonia, which opened in 1857. Both are, again, gorgeous, if fairly basic. On a clear day, you can just see Buenos Aires from the top of the lighthouse, which has two little viewing decks. Exercise caution if you’re taller than about 5’8, as the doorways were made for slighter beings.

Shop. There are loads of cute shops in Colonia del Sacramento selling local (or relatively local) goods. Look for leather and woollen goods in Calle del Comercio, other locally designed clothes, Uruguayan art in many forms, and some edible treats. Don’t miss En Boca, a shop dedicated to olive oil, jams, chocolate, and wine. They also offer tastings of wines from the estate of Los Cerros de San Juan, which is about 30km from the town – for the true vinophile, the winery itself might be worth a visit, as it’s the oldest in Uruguay.

Chill. Colonia is a place where there’s no pressure to get much done. After an early rise to get the ferry and a stressful couple of hours spent navigating the confusion that is Argentinian border force (possibly due to unfamiliarity with my first name, my tickets stated confidently that I am a man, despite the contrasting evidence on my passport)and then exploring a new country, by early afternoon I was ready for some downtime, so I spent a happy couple of hours sat in the Plaza Mayor with my book. You could head to one of the many cafés or even go to the beach – unlike Buenos Aires, where the water is too contaminated to swim, Colonia has a couple of adorable little beaches that look perfect for a dip if the weather’s right.

Where to eat

Breakfast. If you get an early ferry, wait to have breakfast when you get there. I started my weekend with fresh orange juice and toast with plum jam, which seems to be an Uruguayan favourite, at La Bendita on the edge of the historic town center. It also served larger brunch/lunch dishes, and churros, so do with that information as you wish. Great to soak up some early rays and people watch while you recover from the ferry and prepare for the oh-so-taxing day of exploring ahead. 😉 If I were to return, I’d go to Charco Hotel for breakfast overlooking the water – they serve croissants and toast, cold meats, yogurts and fruits for breakfast.

Lunch. Again, there are plenty of restaurants serving reasonable lunch menus, so have a wander round to see which menú del día looks most appealing. I had a lovely omelette and salad at Restaurante Don Pedro, which also served lots of local food like empanadas and seafood. On my second day, I ate lunch at Pasaje las Flores, which had a slightly fancier menu, but was still not expensive! I had delicious beer-braised pork with sweet potato fries. Highly recommend.

Dinner. If you’re after somewhere lowkey, the places I mentioned for lunch would hold up well – the outdoor seating at Pasaje las Flores would be very romantic in the evening! If you’re looking for fine dining, though, the only choice is the bistro at the Charco Hotel. The food there is DELICIOUS. I had a beautifully tender ribeye steak with roasted sweet potatoes and Cabutia squash, chimichurri mayonnaise (🤤) and Criolla sauce, then dulce de leche volcano cake with white chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. I spent the rest of the evening in a happy food coma.

Where to stay

If you opt to stay a night or two, there are plenty of options for accommodation. I stayed at Posada del Virrey near the waterfront, and it was great! My room, which I’d managed to get on sale, was spacious with a huge, comfy bed, aircon, a large bathroom and a view over the river. The hotel itself only has a few rooms, so it wasn’t noisy, and the breakfast spread was of homemade, local cuisine. It also had a beautiful roof terrace. For research purposes, I also had a peek inside the charming Hostel el Español, which is in a gorgeous 19th-century building just outside the old town. It had a cat, so instant points from me.

Whose land is it anyway? A note on history

I wasn’t expecting much from Colonia other than a quaint if generic place full of tourists. What I found was a bastion of distinctively Uruguayan culture, full of tourists. The architecture, the clothes and art for sale, and the food all gave a great sense of where in the world it is. I did think, though, that its self-styled modern-day image as a quiet tourist trap does not do justice to the town’s history as one of the most important places on the map of both the Spanish and Portuguese empires – due to its location, it was a major port for the trade of both goods such as gold and silver and enslaved people, and changed hands several times before Uruguay finally achieved independence in 1828. This history is written all over the town in the colonial and nineteenth-century buildings, the tiles all over the walls, the drawbridge, even a Viceroy’s house, all coinciding with the displays of Indigenous art and prevalence of foods native to the Southern Cone such as sweet potatoes, chocolate, squashes, and mate. So if you visit, don’t let its size and tranquility lull you into thinking you’re in an insignificant place – it’s incredible to contemplate the weight this tiny town once held, and it’s important that visitors recognise the physical violence and cultural erasure inflicted by Europeans on the Indigenous nation of Charrúa that began with the arrival of Spanish colonists and continued long after Uruguay’s extremely drawn-out fight for independence was over. Only following the end of Uruguay’s civic-military dictatorship in 1985 were Charrúa descendants able to form Adench (Asociación de los descendientes de la Nación Charrúa) in order to reclaim their Indigenous heritage. As recently as 2005, the organisation CONACHA (Consejo de la Nación Charrúa) was founded to help families publicly identify as Charrúa descendants, and advocate for the recognition of Indigenous issues in Uruguay.