Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Colonia de Sacramento First Impressions

Today was a travel day,  but the bus only took 2 1/2 hours to get from Montevideo to Colonia de Sacramento.  This allowed me to spend nearly the entire afternoon exploring this small antique town.  I have found that when I explore a new city,  I usually explore the main streets on the first day,  the side streets on the second day,  run errands on the third day,  and on the last days,  only then do I start to get around to going in museums.  Colonia is a tiny town though,  so I might end up in a museum soon.  I have two more days here before hopping on a quick ferry ride to Buenos Aires.  BA is right across the water,  but you can't see it from here.

What you can see from here is a lot of old Spanish, Portuguese,  and French colonial architecture,  and also a lighthouse. 

And I only have one story today,  it's this:  In my travels so far I have never needed to visit a real bus station.  I visited the little areas where long distance mini-buses hang out in Suriname and French Guiana,  but those had no real structure,  and the mini-buses simply left when they were full.  Today was my first visit,  and I was surprised to find that there are many bus companies that occupy these spaces.  This also meant I had no real idea where to get my bus ticket.  Fortunately there was an information booth,  and hey,  they spoke English,  nice.  I had two choices of bus companies,  choose the first one,  and within a half hour I was on my way through rolling fields of corn.  Those fields reminded me so strongly of SE Wisconsin that at one point I could have sworn I was on Green Bay Road headed from Kenosha to Racine.  When we passed a billboard written in Spanish,  I blinked,  and remembered that I am in Uruguay, not Wisconsin,  although it continued to remain eerie for me for many miles.

Guess what pictures.



That's right, folks,  South America like you expect South America,  all colorful doors and adobe houses.  About time I posted some of this stuff,  no?  :)



Jacques made it to the top of the lighthouse.  No word on a partner to carve initials into a lock yet.


Again,  with apologies to my sister in law.  When I look at this image,  I can already feel and smell the blood in my nose that will surely happen as I'm tripping and falling down these stairs.  I take that as a sign of a good image,  but still,  apologies to my sister in law.



I'm pretty sure this was a tourist bike parked here,  not a resident,  but,  uh,  so what.  I like the shot anyway,  I'll edit out the logos on the bike when I'm home.


Colonia is somewhat known for its old cars.  I'm fairly certain at this point that they've just parked a bunch around the town,  but again,  so what.  I like the way this image turned out a lot.


Small town,  small catholic church.


Hard to tell in the small version,  but this car has seen better days,  it has plants growing out of it.  :)



A nice abstract of yellow algae growing on the rocks near the ocean.







And,  as always,  I do love shooting during that time when the light in the sky balances out with the artificial lights of the city.  I'm far enough south now that that period of time lasts a little while.  Near the equator the sun sank very quickly below the horizon.  Here in Uruguay it's a more gentle curve.  Although!  (and get your physics hats on here),  at this point on the globe at this time of year,  the sun,  when it sets,  travels from right to left,  not from left to right as it does in the northern hemisphere.  That has thrown me off when trying to predict where it will set at least twice. 

2 comments:

  1. Too many great photos this time to pick a favorite. Really. You must be feeling quite at home in Colonia de Sacramento :)

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    1. I was up until early this morning. There was an "incident" with a bunkmate in my shared dorm room. Fortunately he's gone as of today, and I'm just chilling in the lounge, taking it easy, waiting for the sun to go down so I can hopefully get some more low light shots. :)

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