Colonia, Montevideo, Punta del Este and Punto de Diablo

I decided to take a break from Buenos Aires and make a trip to Uruguay. The fast boat takes one hour or the slower cheaper boat takes about 4 hours both taking you to Colonia del Sacramento.
Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and is a World Heritage Site. We arrived in time for lunch and then spend the afternoon exploring the old town. Lots of cobbled streets, some nice views of the coast line and overall a nice town to spend an afternoon in.

Colonia Coastline

Old Town Colonia

Basilica del Sanctísimo Sacramento

More Colonia Coastline

That evening we took a bus to Montevideo. I was a little disappointed with Montevideo. I'm not sure what I was expecting but Montevideo didn't match my expections. My expectations were probably influenced by the Lonely Planet guide as it says "Kick back in what may be South America's most liveable city". It didn't really strike me as somewhere I'd like to live. Maybe I didn't give it enough time. I didn't take any photos!


Along with Colonia, Punta del Este and Punta de Diablo are the two places that everyone says you must go in Uruguay. It is possible to do a bus tour and visit both places but I didn't want to do another bus tour after the one in Mendoza. So instead we hired a car and decided to make the journey ourselves. The weather had been great the past week but about 2 hours into the journey it started to rain. It eventually cleared up but it was unfortunate that the one day we choose to hire a car and make the trip that we get rain.

Punta de Diablo

Punta del Este

Sunset in Punta del Este

Asado does not mean Barbecue

Asado is considered to be the traditional dish of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and southern Brazil. I had heard about it and read about it but I had not experienced one. On one of my last days in Baradero I heard we were going to be having an asado for lunch. I asked Agustin if this was the Argentine barbecue that I'd heard about. He agreed that it was somewhat like a barbecue but advised that it was best not to compare it to a barbecue as some Argentines may take offense to this!


So what is an Asado? There appears to be a cut of beef that is called asado but it is also a way of cooking and is somewhat like a barbecue but after seeing the amount of work and effort that goes into preparing an asado I can see why people may get offended when someone says "oh its a barbecue".


Preparations for the asado started early on Sunday morning. A wood fire was started and constantly topped up with firewood as the morning progressed. Close by a small pit was prepared and a grill was setup. The grill appeared to be an old metal frame from a bed but I maybe wrong on that!

Preparing the asado

The meat was not marniated just well seasoned with salt. There were lots of different cuts of meat (all beef) and also some chorizo like that used in choripan. I got a picture of the last few cuts of beef before they went on the asado.

Beef for the asado

The cooking process lasted for 3 or 4 hours. New coals were taken from the fire and placed under the grill as required whilte the meat slowly cooked.

Asado coals and the asado grill

There was always someone tending to the asado ensuring the temperature was correct and everything was in order. The result was some really tender, juicy steak.

beef cooking over the coals

More beef!

Almost ready!

Tables and chairs were moved out to the garden and about 25 of us had a lunch that lasted about 3 hours! I never got a photo of this :(

Getting to Baradero and la comunidad

I heard about a project to build a sustainable community (Comunidad Hogar German Frers) on couchsurfing. I arranged with one of the project founders to go and help them out for a few days. The project is in a place called Baradero which is about two hours from Buenos Aires.


I decided to take the train and got to the train station about 45 minutes before the train was due to leave. There were a few different train stations all beside each other, after trying a few I eventually found the correct one and found the correct counter to buy the ticket I needed. But they would not sell me a ticket, I know the Spanish for why so I said that, it was a bit pointless as I still don't know any Spanish so I didn't understand his reason. I concluded it was full as there is only one train per day.


The bus station was nearby so I went there and got a ticket. I had an hour to wait before the bus so I found the correct platform and decided I'd wait there listening to my iPod. 3:00pm, 3:15pm, 3:30pm and still no bus. I knew the final destination of the bus and it was never displayed on the list of departures. Eventually I asked someone if they spoke English (I know this much in Spanish) and they said 'un poco' which is a little. So I showed them my ticket and they said bus not arrived yet. So I waited and eventually at 3:45pm the bus appeared on the departures monitor and soon afterwards it arrived.


2 hours later I was in Baradero. I tried calling the guys who I'd been talking to on email to get them to collect me but I couldn't get in touch with them. So I got a taxi, luckily I was prepared for this and know how to say my destination in Spanish. Baradero is quite a small town and after driving for about 2 minutes the road disappeared and we were driving on a dirt track, eventually we came to a junction with a main road.

Here I saw the sign for la comunidad. I paid the taxi driver, got my luggage and was greeted in Spanish by lots of people. The guys who I'd been talking to that spoke English were away and not due back for another hour. Next week I'm going to start learning Spanish.