Colonia del Sacramento, a UNESCO World Heritage listed city, is charming from the very beginning you set foot in its cobblestone streets. The Portugese initially settled Colonia to be close to the booming Argentine trading going on in Buenos Aires that the Spanish had a strangle hold on in the 1600's. Colonia is only an hour boat ride across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires so this made for a good location to do some under the table trading for the Portugese with the Argentines. Of course the Spanish sussed this out and naturally some battles ensued throughout the 1600 and 1700's.

Today, Colonia shows no ill scars of its battle fought days, only the lasting beauty of its fortified walls and fortress light houses. Tucked neatly within these heavy fortified walls and winding thier way between old colonial buildings are some of the most ricketty cobblestone streets you would find world over. But the town is so charming to walk through.

The town is tiny and so Em and I spent only a day here before we boated back to Buenos Aires. The day was spent wandering the streets, sipping tea and stretching our last few Uruguayan pesos as far as possible before the days end. Oh and Em took a million photos of the little village. Even I will admit it was hard to resist a photo on every corner (note, that the photo for this blog is from Montevideo not Colonia, haven't put Colonia photos up yet).

We got through immigration with a few difficulties after talking to a fat, prematurely balding Uruguayan who was giving us grief. But after Em started tearing up he sent us through all clear and we were on our way back to Buenos Aires after seeing Uruguay, which although unplanned turned out to satisfy our travelling senses from the beginning to the end.

Truly lovely country. But back, once more, to the bustle of a living, breathing Buenos Aires.