Argentina is primarily a Catholic country so Easter is an important holiday. I had thought that the boys might have had the whole week off from school (especially since they attend a Catholic school) but they only had Thursday and Friday for Easter Vacation. Both days are national holidays. I had initially considered going to Mendoza for the long weekend to visit wineries and see what had changed in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, I realized that both B and myself had to leave the country to get our visas renewed for another 90 days. Uruguay was the closest and easiest country to visit for a weekend.
Since we started planning our trip at the last minute (about two weeks beforehand), we had limited options about places to stay and transportation. The ferries - the quickest way to get to Colonia - were sold out so we rented a car. We weren't too disappointed. The car made it possible for us to stay at a neat place to stay, located about 10 km outside of Colonia, that John had found on Airbnb. We also forward to seeing more of the Argentine and Uruguayan countryside by driving.
We left Buenos Aires on Thursday morning, expecting to have avoided everyone leaving the city after work on Wednesday. That's what everyone seems to do for Thanksgiving in the United States, so we imagined that the same would be true in Argentina. The 5.5-hour drive to Colonia del Sacramento estimated by Google Maps had seemed manageable. Unfortunately, we were completely wrong. It seemed that everyone had decided to leave the city on Thursday morning (like us) instead of Wednesday. We encountered a lot of traffic leaving the city, and were delayed an hour or more. After leaving the city, we thought our traffic problems were over.
Since we started planning our trip at the last minute (about two weeks beforehand), we had limited options about places to stay and transportation. The ferries - the quickest way to get to Colonia - were sold out so we rented a car. We weren't too disappointed. The car made it possible for us to stay at a neat place to stay, located about 10 km outside of Colonia, that John had found on Airbnb. We also forward to seeing more of the Argentine and Uruguayan countryside by driving.
We left Buenos Aires on Thursday morning, expecting to have avoided everyone leaving the city after work on Wednesday. That's what everyone seems to do for Thanksgiving in the United States, so we imagined that the same would be true in Argentina. The 5.5-hour drive to Colonia del Sacramento estimated by Google Maps had seemed manageable. Unfortunately, we were completely wrong. It seemed that everyone had decided to leave the city on Thursday morning (like us) instead of Wednesday. We encountered a lot of traffic leaving the city, and were delayed an hour or more. After leaving the city, we thought our traffic problems were over.
After a quick lunch, we got back in our car and drove toward the border. Many kilometers before reaching the border and the bridge across the Uruguay River, traffic came to a dead standstill. We sat in traffic for many more hours.
We had thought that we would arrive in Colonia del Sacramento in the early afternoon. Instead, due to traffic and the border crossing, we arrived after dark around 7:00PM. Ugh!
Upon our arrival, we quickly dropped off our stuff and then got back into our car. We needed to go to town to eat dinner. Along the way, we picked up some media lunas (croissants) and yoghurt for breakfast in the morning. Of course I didn't need to buy coffee - we had brought our yerba mate with us!
We had thought that we would arrive in Colonia del Sacramento in the early afternoon. Instead, due to traffic and the border crossing, we arrived after dark around 7:00PM. Ugh!
Upon our arrival, we quickly dropped off our stuff and then got back into our car. We needed to go to town to eat dinner. Along the way, we picked up some media lunas (croissants) and yoghurt for breakfast in the morning. Of course I didn't need to buy coffee - we had brought our yerba mate with us!