Our Great Adventure: Colonia del Sacramento Day 229 05/05/2015

After a late leisurely breakfast that included to our delight fresh fruit, we headed out. The day was sunny, warm and whilst there were no clouds, it seemed a bit hazy which we found out later it was due to the ash clouds still emanating from the volcano that continues to erupt in Chile. After dropping off our laundry, we headed to the visitor centre to start our walking tour. We were the only 2 on the tour so we had the undivided attention of the guide, a retired lady called Veronica. She first of all gave us an interesting insight into Uruguay, including the main areas of attraction and a brief history. She was impressed we had been to Montevideo, ignoring the usual tourist route of the east coast and instead planning to head west and north up the Rio Uruguay. First stop on the tour was to the Portuguese gate, which with the surrounding wall is the last remaining section of the defences originally built. In the old town we were shown the architectural differences of the Spanish and Portuguese style houses (the former having more flat roofs and ornate fixings and the latter having tiled pointed roofs). In addition we saw the different types of cobbles laid by each country when they owned the town, as well as the many properties on both main squares. Many of these are now either restaurants, museums or private houses; the latter mainly unoccupied at the moment as the owners are the rich from Buenos Aires or Montevideo, using these houses as holiday homes. After walking around the picturesque Plaza Mayor we walked through a couple of blocks to the other square Plaza Almas. In the centre of the square were the foundations of the house of Manuel Lomo, the first Portuguese Governor, who died in Spanish hands after being sent back to Europe in 1683. The foundations are protected as part of the UNESCO heritage site, as well as the local cathedral. Whilst the main building is 17th century, the twin bell towers were only built (again as part of UNESCO) in 1995, which seemed a little strange. We entered the cathedral which was quite plain and stark for a catholic church (would have done Puritans proud) and at the alter saw the holy sacramento after which the town was named. As the tour was at an end we said our goodbyes to Veronica and walked across the square to have lunch at the funky, quirky cafe called El Drugstore. With no vegetables on the menu we had a sandwich each and people watched in the warm, pleasant autumnal sunshine. We then had another walk around town, going to the Portuguese museum and Indigenous people one which was full of stones), had a climb up the 111 steps of the lighthouse to get great views of the Rio de la Plata, with its supertankers sailing upstream and the town rooftops (we tried to get a glimpse of Buenos Aires but the hazy conditions put paid to that). We then walked down to the harbour and walked out on the pier finding a comfortable bench to sit and wile away the time. We looked into the chocolate colour water, which has occurred because of heavy rains upstream in Brazil, trying to contemplate it could look very blue from the Atlantic when the winds come in from the east. It was time for an afternoon drink, which we enjoyed back at the Plaza Mayor in one of the many cafes, enjoying the warm sunshine. All this chilling out had left us quite exhausted so we meandered back to the hotel to sort out finally our plans for the next week before heading out for dinner on the main street. Simon had another meat dish, this time beef with a thick pepper sauce and Diane plumping for pasta. Again not a vegetable in sight; we are trying not to get too obsessed about it but we both agreed we need to make a better effort to at least get a couple of portions in a day so finding a greengrocers is one of our goals for tomorrow!