From big and busy to small and mellow

It is quite the transition, from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. From the city with 13 million inhabitants and a country with approximately 39 million to a small town with 22.000 souls. The entire population of Uruguay counts 2.3 million. We arrived by boat (1 hour from Bs. As., to Uruguay) last tuesday. Our complete bodies came to rest...The transition is tremendous. Buenos Aires is very nice, but also very big with lots of condradictions, like every big city ofcourse. We liked it, but it definitely has it downsides. For example, at night garbage recyclers appear on the streets to recycle garbage that restaurantes and inhabitants put outside. What a way to make a living. You cannot cross the streets before looking left and right and then left and right again and maybe a third time. In Colonia, we were walking in the middle of the street just because you could.

Colonia is an amazingly beautiful. In 1680 Portuguese founded the town to smuggle goods across the Rio de la Plata into Bs. As. Spain (ofcourse) captured it it in 1762 and held it until 1777, when tax reforms finally permitted foreign goods to proceed directly to Buenos Aires. It has a very small historic area which is a photographers paradise, at least I think it is. We spent a day in Carmelo, a little town east of Colonia. Not a mellow, but a super mellow town. It really looked as if time stood still here....horses and carriages, old cars, beautiful but not very well maintained buildings and so on. Below pictures from Carmelo and Colonia.

One of my favorite cars......soooooooooo sweet!

Dogs has been following us throughout South Americas. They see you, they decide that they like you and they will stick with you wherever you go. If you go inside, they will wait for you.....If you hide, they will find you.... and if you run, they will haunt you. They do not ask for a lot, they are not in it for the food, they just need a bit of attention. Just a strike on the back, that is all. At first all is a bit weird, but then you get used to it. One day I found myself waiting for the dog! It´s like having your own pet for half a day. It´s very nice...parting is the hard part :-)

Right now, we are in Montivideo, Uruguay´s capital. Sunday we will leave for Punta Diablo, which is quite remote and pitoresque and all the way up the uruguaian coast....and after that it´s up to Brazillllllllllll........where it is warm, as it is still very cold where we are, unfortunately :-))