Before I begin, please allow me to paint a quick word portrait of my husband. We’re on the road around the Plaza de toros Real de San Carlos in Colónia, Uruguay. We’ve pulled our bike over to the side as Dan’s struck up a conversation with a construction worker who is part of the team restoring the former bull fighting stadium (into an arts precinct). He won’t let us in to look around because it’s dangerous, but Dan’s got him telling a rapid-fire story about the history of the building and the restoration. I pick up bits and pieces of the conversation – lots of mentions of Buenos Aires, the ground is 50 meters wide – but Dan understands it all and he’s listening, enraptured, with a smile across his face in the golden hour of twilight, his body draped across the bike frame. That’s my portrait. I hope it captures my husband’s enormous talent with language, his curiosity and the ease with which he connects with people. I wish I could have taken a photo without ruining the moment for both of them, but maybe it wouldn’t have captured as much as these palabras.
We’re in Colonia, having taken the (reasonably quick) boat across the brown river (feels more like the sea) between Argentina and Uruguay.
It’s a small town on a peninsular, and from the main road, you can often look down side streets in both directions that finish at the river. The old town has cobbled streets, quaint houses and gorgeous trees and flowers sprouting everywhere. It feels like a postcard. The old convent now abuts the lighthouse, which we are yet to climb. It’s crawling with tourists, who are always in your perfectly-framed photos taking their own photos.
Instead, we explored the river shore, where grass grows right up to the river banks (which feels unusual because the river really feels like the sea, as the other side is beyond the horizon) and the mud is a thick, dark grey.
In the afternoon, we took off to the Plaza de toros, part on foot, and then by bike. The journey took us around the stunning bay over twilight and sunset. People were outside relaxing on the nature strip beside the bay in droves.
This place is around twice as expensive as Argentina so we went to the shops for dinner – empanadas. Notable? A lack of green vege. Please send me pictures of broccoli.
VRPS
[Colonia]
The Two Swords 