I caught the travel bug later than most people. I didn’t do a gap year, never spent my summer holidays working abroad and didn’t get on a plane until I was 14 (apart from when my parents took me away as a baby which is a very faded memory). But the last few years of my life have been a jet setting whirlwind. From long haul backpacking trips and cramming in a lot of city breaks my passport has slowly been filling up with stamps. Over Christmas I sat down and made a list of all the countries I had been to only to find I was on number 29! Being a big fan of round numbers and with my 30th birthday approaching I was desperate to get to 30 before 30 so when we learned we could hop on a ferry to nearby Uruguay it was a no brainer that we ticked this country off!
Booking it was a bit of a faff especially trying to translate the Spanish Buquebus website but we got there in the end and joined the long queue of travellers in the swanky ferry terminal. A quick hour later we pulled up at the port in the muddy coloured waters as the sun beamed down on us.
We headed to UNESCO site Colonia Del Sacramento a very pretty beach town. We stumbled across a beautiful secluded beach and drank cold beer watching locals play beach football. We ate fancy ice-cream (pineapple and dark chocolate nomnomnom) sat in an ivy covered garden as butterflies fluttered past. We got silly in the sand posing like idiots without a care in the world. We soaked up the beer with cheap sloppy burgers watching the world go by. It was all magical.
You can even hire golf buggies to zip around this charming town, something we realised too late after the afternoon beers (boo) but it looked so much fun. If we ever go back that is something I HAVE to do! It was such a great day out especially having space to breathe and take things at a slower pace compared to the bustling busyness of Buenos Aires we had gotten used to. Obviously getting a tiny peak into this place was very short and sweet and I would have loved to have been able to explore more. However, it did make me realise how possible it is to do a ‘Country in a Day’ (a taste at least) especially living in Europe where cheap flights are a plenty. This is something I would love to do more of. Uruguay: it wasn’t nearly long enough but what a special unexpected country to tick off my list.
How many countries have you been to? Where’s next on your list?
Not Wed or Dead 