South America, Day Six: Colonia del Sacramento

After my new Australian friend demonstrated an eagerness to travel to Uruguay too, the plan for today was pretty much set. After some basic research it turned out that the capital Montevideo was a bit too much of a time sink and so instead we went for the more typical tourist destination of Colonia, a lovely little port town a couple of hours away from Buenos Aires.


Although I will not claim that there's anything of particular interest to do in Colonia it was still one of the highlights of my time in Argentina, particularly because of how much of a quick win it was. We joined a walking tour, visited the multiple museums (each no bigger than a couple of rooms each), checked out the beaches and grabbed lunch too. I really can't impress how simply... nice it was. And their high roads didn't even have traffic lights, which I thought was amazing.


On the way back to Palermo, I was taken to Boca by the same friend, ignoring the trepidation in their voice. Apparently Boca was a place best visited during the day, but I thought it was worth checking out anyway. The experience was interesting - the place was dead and there was a definite feeling of insecurity while walking around. Grabbing the taxi back to Palermo was a relief.


Of all the advice our Buenos Aires friend in Valpo suggested to us, the one they stressed the most was to take part in a tango class as opposed to the usual tango show tourists are expected to watch. This had two benefits: the first being that the aftershow by the teachers was an order better than the commercial shows put on. I was more interested in the second reason though; the fact that we actually take part in a Tango ourselves.

The class recommended to us, La Veruta, happened to again be within walking distance of our hotel, and so with the South African and Australian friends in tow we headed there. Entry was surprisingly cheap considering my expectations and after a brief show by the other more experienced guests there the group classes finally started. Of course, I took part and of course, I had a brilliant time trying to pick up the new dance routine - dancing with random pretty women was a bonus of course.

The only dampener on the night was that we had to leave early to grab dinner, and so I missed the professional show afterwards. Still, I had already gotten a good dose of Tango so wasn't too bummed out.

Tonight was my last night in Buenos Aires. That made me sad.