Weekend getaway.

It's nice to escape to a new country for a three-day weekend. We went to Colonia, Uruguay for the last one. It was a trip inspired by the necessity to renew our 90-day visa in Argentina, and when we made plans last week it felt like more hassle than fun, but that changed as soon as we got off the ferry.

Colonia might indeed be the exact opposite of Buenos Aires. Don't get me wrong, we love our new home, but this place is chaotic. Colonia was quiet and clean with wide stone streets, well-kept buildings, and traffic that honors the pedestrian. We crossed streets whenever we wanted, danger-free!

We were thrilled to be able to buy a four-museum pass for US$2.50. We love museums, so it seemed the perfect way to spend an afternoon out of the hot, hot Uruguayan sun.

Yes and no, as it turned out. The museums weren't so much good as they were hilarious. One of them took about two-and-a-half minutes to see. Another was nothing but old stone weapons from one of the indigenous tribes that lived there long ago...and all the weapons were round gray rocks, some of them with notches if they had once served on the end of a hatchet. This place took about four minutes to go through. The other two were much better, and the workers who stamped our tickets were so friendly and welcoming, but still. Museums. Hm.

If you read a guidebook, it most likely calls Colonia a ´´day trip´´ and indeed, if you were on a tight schedule, you could easily see it in that much time. But we spread it out, walked around, lingered over fantastic meals, and could have probably spent another week there if the real world hadn't been calling us back.

The view from the sitting room above our sleeping room:

A playground. That is a barrel. You can crawl inside to swing. This is not the only place we saw them.

The Uruguayan flag also has a sun with a face.

First time in Uruguay!