Little Sister to Buenos Aires

Some cities reach out and embrace you while others seduce you slowly until you become enchanted and mesmerized by their beauty and charm. Colonia is just that type of city with its cobblestoned roads, historical ruins and romanticism that blows in from the Rio de la Plata. Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay sits opposite Buenos Aires on the Rio de la Plata and originally provided a strategic smuggling point to Buenos Aires for Portugal in the late 1600's. Now, it remains a Unesco World Heritage Site.

While in Colonia, I met up with Lucas who I had met in Nicaragua. He is currently researching Uruguay for Lonely Planet and I decided to tag along for a few days. We strolled the streets together, him with his paper and pen jotting down various notes, and me with my camera taking photos like the good Japanese in me. We peered into every museum in the city with our museum pass and discovered new cafes and restaurants, although some we ate at definitely will not go in the book. At one point, we rented a buggy and sped down the highway along with the regular cars all the while trying not to get rundown.

There is more to Uruguay than I thought originally since it is often overshadowed by its big brother neighbor and I continue to enjoy exploring it.