Alright, the little day trip to country number 64 was back on today.

After a bit of a fiasco with my planning a few days ago, I had ticket in hand for a ferry this morning going over to Uruguay.

A popular day trip from here in Buenos Aires is to take an hour ferry over to the little seaside town of Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay.

It’s a nice way to give you just a bit of taste of Uruguay even if it’s just for a few hours.

An early morning

Since I started this trip a week ago I’ve been getting up pretty early on my own accord each day.

Today, however, was the first day where I actually had to get up early.

The ferry ticket I had purchased was for a 10:30 departure but I had to be there a full hour and a half early in order to go through customs and immigration just like in an airport.

So I got up just after 7am, ate the flank steak rosti I had stored in the fridge last night, and hopped a bus over to the ferry terminal at 9am.

It had read mixed reports online as to whether I had to print a physical ticket ahead of time or just arrive at the ferry terminal with the email the company sent me.

I tried to get the hostel to print my ticket but their toner was out so I guess I was going to find out.

Well, for future travelers, you’ll be happy to know that you just show up and enter your reservation code into one of the kiosks right beside the check in counters.

It was super easy to do.

Passport Control

Right on the stoke of 9am, an hour an half before our departure, the boarding door opened to the immigration area of the terminal.

Passport control was also super easy and took less than 5 minutes.

I got my passport stamped for my exit out of Argentina and the woman said something about getting my passport stamped on the 4th floor.

I headed out of the passport control area and looked around for something leading to a 4th floor.

I was confused.

I watched everybody else just go up an escalator to the waiting area so I just followed along.

I mean, if everyone is doing the same thing, I must be doing it right, right?

While I was waiting I was becoming more apprehensive about the why she told me to go the fourth floor.   It was genuinely confusing and I knew for a fact I was only on the second floor.

I started scrolling online and finally found a blog of someone who described their checkin and boarding procedure down to a tee.

And then I found a paragraph about looking for the immigration booth with a Uruguayan flag immediately next to the Argentine one on the far right side of the room.

It continued to say that a Uruguayan immigration officer will take your passport and boarding pass and stamp both of them.

Well, I definately didn’t do this.

It was now almost 10:00 and the boarding door to the ship was about to open.

I frantically went back downstairs and through broken Spanish and a little Google Translate, was able to figure out where to go.

Apparently it was booth number four and not floor number four as I had misheard.

And that booth was literally right beside the one I had gone through earlier.

So, yeah, that was a bit of an adventure.

I honestly don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t get that entrance stamp because my passport didn’t get checked again until I arrived in Uruguay.

Let’s just say I’m glad I figured it out before we departed.

Also as a side note, the checkin time ends a half hour before departure and when I went back to the immigration area is was just as checkin was closing and there wasn’t a sole in line.

I could have easily just shown up 30 minutes before departure.

Now, take that with a grain of salt as it was a Monday mid-morning departure in November and maybe it’s worse other times.

Hola Uruguay!

The ferry departed right at 10:30 and I sat in a nice comfy cushioned seat right next to the duty free shop smack dab in the middle of the ship.

Honestly the seats were really comfy and there was plenty of legroom and overall it was a pretty non descript ride over to Colonia.

The return ticket worked out to about $110 which is kind of pricy for a one hour ferry but that’s the price you pay to cross countries off the list.

Since we had already gone through Uruguayan passport control back in Argentina, exiting the ferry was just as simple as placing your bag in a xray scanner and heading out the door.

It was just before noon when I head out in the bright sun to explore the little city of Colonia.

I was going to do a walking tour but for some reason it just wasn’t being offered today.   Yesterday sure.   Tomorrow no problem.   Today, meh, not so much.

As I walked in the blistering 24C (75F) I quickly realized that my original plan to come a few days ago when it was raining was indeed the right way to go.

Also, I wish I had packed shorts for this trip cause walking around in sweat pants was not ideal at least for the first stretch where there was literally no shade to hide in.

Exploring Colonia

Colonia is a small town that seems to be mostly run for tourists.

There are a smattering of attractions and landmarks to see around town but they are relatively close to each other so it doesn’t take that much actual time to explore.

Don’t get me wrong – I love exploring little towns and villages.   It’s nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities.

The attractions in the town were the Portón de Campo city gate, the Faro Colonia Del Sacramento lighthouse, the Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento and the old town center Barrio Histórico.

After wandering around for a bit over an hour it was time for lunch.

A huge lunch

I had preplanned where I was going to eat here in Colonia even before I left home.

I had the El Portón steakhouse marked on my map and I was ready for a nice meaty lunch.

And then I looked up the place online as I was about to walk over there.

Closed on Mondays.

Ah, c’mon!

Seriously?   The one and only day I’ll be here.

Guess I really should have come a few days ago when I initially planned to.

Okay, okay, time for a slight recalibration…

I found another place nearby that actually had a “Gluten Free” page on their menu.

At 1pm I sat down at the Café & Restó Club Colonia.

They had a few gluten free choices including a pizza and a hamburger but I was in the mood for their Milanesa, or breaded cutlet, served with fries.

This thing was huge!

I also received a complimentary couple of slices of gluten free bread to start with and I gotta say, it was pretty damn good.

Overall the meal was a success and at just $25 seemed like a pretty good deal.

I rolled on out of there an hour later with a very full belly.

Well, not so full that I couldn’t treat myself to a little bit of gelato.

A short walk and I was at Bortolot which is a pretty popular gelato place here in town.

I ordered two scoops, lemon pie and dulce de leche, and got two massive scoops in a cup for $10.

Okay, now I was full!

Back to Argentina

At 3pm I was back at the ferry terminal and casually going through an immigration with no line.

This time I didn’t miss the other passport booth and got both stamps done side by side.

And then, after waiting an hour and a half, we were on our way back to Buenos Aires.

By the time I arrived back at my hostel it was closing in on 6:00 and all I wanted to do was take a shower and relax.

It wasn’t until 8:30 when I decided to finally head back out to grab a bite to eat.

I wasn’t really overly hungry and didn’t really want to hop a bus to go somewhere so I figured I’d just go the the McDonalds down the street.

Argentina is one of a handful of countries in the world where you can actually get a gluten free bun at McDonalds so I had to try one, right?

I tried to order a big mac but they wouldn’t sell it to me.

After a bit of back and forth with Google Translate I found out that they think the cheese and the sauce are not gluten free.

This is obviously wrong but I think because of allergy regulations for restaurants that things that are in common areas of the prep area where gluten could come into contact are not to be sold as “gluten free”.

It also explains why my burger bun was sealed in a separate plastic container the other night and why the plates my lunch was served on were wrapped in plastic wrap in Tigre the other day.

I didn’t want to get into a big back and forth trying to explain that I was okay with the cheese and the sauce but I also didn’t want another plain sauceless burger like I had the other night so I just dipped out to find some other food.

That food was another order of Salchipapa, a plate of fries topped with sausage, mayo, and ketchup, from the place I went to the other day.

There we go – problem solved.

And that was it for the day.

I spent the rest of the night just vegging at the hostel watching stuff on my laptop before heading to bed.

Tomorrow begins my trek down to Antarctica as I’ll be boarding an afternoon flight to Ushuaia on the southern tip of South America before embarking on my 13 day cruise the following day.

Antarctica Trip 2025 is truly gearing up and the next two weeks should be amazing…