Colonia del Sacramento, in Uruguay, is 50km east of Buenos Aires across the Rio de la Plata (River Plate). I took a high speed ferry and the crossing took an hour. I checked into El Viajero Posada B&B (elviajerohostels.com/../el-viajero-posada-bb#) which is located between the port and the old town. The B&B is run by a hostel group and offers great value with very comfortable rooms.

Colonia is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay with quiet, tree lined streets.

The historic district is a UNESCO world heritage site. Parts of the old town have been restored, but only where they have the original plans/documentation to ensure authenticity. The town gate was rebuilt using its original stone which had been used to fill in the moat in front of it.

Many of the old streets still have their original paving.

The old town switched between the Spanish and Portuguese eight times between 1680 and 1822 (also 6 years of Brazilian rule). This has resulted in the mixed Spanish and Portuguese architecture. The house on the left in the picture below is Portuguese and the one on the right of Spanish design.

This also applies to the roads. The paving on the left in the picture below is Portuguese and Spanish on the right. Both the Spanish style houses and paving appeared to have aged better.

Very little in the old town has changed.

The Lighthouse is one of the most modern buildings in the old town. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go up it as I still had a very bad knee from a trip up the Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires a couple of days before (see future 2nd post on Buenos Aires).

A local artist has restored one of the Portuguese houses.

The Roman Catholic parish is one of the oldest in Uruguay. The current church (Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento) dates back to 1810. It has been restored several times since due to storms and fires.

The old town is located on a rocky peninsula.

There are several old vehicles scattered around the town. This one is used by a local restaurant as an extra table.

Not all of the buildings have been looked after so well.

The old port is a popular meeting point at sunset.

The town becomes even prettier after dark.

I found two good places to eat. The first was the Bistro in the Charco Hotel (www.charcohotel.com). The meal was excellent and the hotel rooms looked very nice too.

The other was Don Joaquin Pizza just outside the old town. (www.facebook.com/pg/donjoaquinartesanalpizza/..). Voted the best pizza in Uruguay by TripAdvisor.

After a couple of very pleasant days in Colonia, I picked up a rental car and headed north to Fray Bentos. On my way out of the town I passed the old bull ring. It was built as part of an ambitious tourist complex in 1910. Unfortunately, it only ever hosted eight fights before bull fighting was prohibited by the national government in 1912. It has been unused ever since and is now in danger of collapsing.