Colonia

Matt and I went to Colonia, Uruguay on Tuesday to renew our passports. Tourists need a passport and to pay a fee to enter Argentina but no tourist visa is required for stays up to three months. If you don't get your passport renewed you have to pay $150 when you go back to the states. Many Argentines and travelers visit Uruguay purely for relaxation and the long white sand beaches, so this was a good excuse to go. Colonia is the oldest town in Uruguay and sits on the coast of Rio de la Plata, facing BA. We took the three hour boat on the way over and the faster one hour boat on the way back. A perfect day trip. Since we only had seven hours in the city we rented bikes see we could explore the coast. The historic old town had cobblestone streets and narrow passageways that were a little hard to meneuver but nothing a expert beach cruiser couldn't manage :) We ate lunch, rode down the coast, collected sand at the beaches and twenty minutes outside of the city we found the old bull fighting stadium that barely can stand on its own. According to the bike rental lady, bull fighting was banded in Uruguay in the 1890s and according to wikipedia she was correct, stating the exact date to be 1899. We returned to the historic center with two hours to spare and saw the most beautiful on the horizon as we popped a bottle of the Uruguain beer Pilsen.