Colonia

I haven't been taking very many pictures lately (sorry!), so it's been a while since my last post. First, and most important, I finally took Karla's husband Dave up on his restaurant recommendation. He visited Buenos Aires a few years ago and found this gem of a restaurant, which I had been meaning to check out. Dave knows what he's talking about... the place was amazing! :)

Also, last weekend, I went to Colonia, Uruguay, a town on the other side of the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. It turns out that back in the 16th century, the Portuguese were trying to move in on Spanish territory in Latin America. So, they came down from Brazil and set up a small colony ("Colonia" in Spanish) opposite Buenos Aires. The Spanish then attacked the Portuguese colony on and off for two hundred years, until they eventually won. Then, the colonies became independent from Spain, and Uruguay and Argentina became separate countries. The town of Colonia is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been preserved and restored.

Colonia is a fast one-hour ferry ride from Buenos Aires. The ferries are really upscale. This is a picture of the ferry terminal in Buenos Aires. You get what I mean that it's a pretty fancy mode of transportation!

This is the UNESCO World Heritage Site plaque in Colonia.

This is me in Colonia, with the Rio de la Plata in the background. The land that you see on the horizon is just an island, but apparently on a clear day, you can see all the way to Buenos Aires.

This is one of the streets in Colonia. All the buildings were from the Colonial era (the oldest ones were from the Portuguese colony, the more "recent" ones were built when the city was a Spanish colony).

This is one of the older, Portuguese colonial houses.

The stone ruins here used to be Colonia's first church. It was destroyed when the Spanish bombed the town. Instead of rebuilding the church, they used the ruins as the foundation for a lighthouse.

Colonia is a total mix of Spanish and Portuguese influences. Here, you can see Spanish and Portuguese cobblestones. The Portuguese cobblestones are the less regular ones at the bottom of this picture; the Spanish ones are the regular ones at the top of the picture.

I had lunch in a cute little restaurant. The food wasn't very good at all, but I took this picture before I had eaten, when I was still very excited about the cute restaurant. :)

This is me outside the town gate. The Portuguese built a wall around the city for protection against the Spanish. At the top of the gate is the Portuguese colonial emblem.

In other news, I saw a great Argentine movie about Juan Peron (a former president) and his wife, the famous Evita. Although Peron died in 1974, he is still really popular here, and there continues to be a political movement called "Peronismo" whose members still consider themselves to be followers of Peron. The movie was interesting because it painted a really one-sided (positive) picture of Peron and Eva, and the audience totally loved it. The whole theater erupted in applause at the end of the movie!

This is the poster for the movie, called "Juan y Eva." It was a cool cultural experience!

Next weekend I am headed to Iguazu Falls, and the following weekend I will be visiting a friend in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so I should have some more exciting pictures to post soon!