Colonia once more.

Every three months we have to exit and reenter the country to have our tourist visas renewed.  Our three months are up next week and today we went to Colonia in Uruguay to get our stamps.  We could have used last week's unexpected trip to Brazil as our exit/reentry but we had already bought our ferry tickets and we wanted to show Talluah's parents some more of South America.

The last two times we've been to Uruguay it was a weekend.  Today, being a weekday and the threat of rain, the ferry was only a third full and the historic part of Colonia was lovely and quiet.  Three months ago when we were on the ferry, they played a song called Give me back my toaster.  It is mainly in Spanish but the chorus drops the f-bomb in English numerous times.  Several weeks after Depp heard the song and us talking about it he asked what the bad word was in it as he hadn't picked up on it because he never hears it.  We said he doesn't need to know it.  Well, three months later the ferry is still playing the same song on a 20 minute loop.  Luckily Depp was too busy looking out the window to notice.

The skies were grey and the wind was blowing but we had packed our jackets and ponchos from the falls and were ready for anything.  With less tourists milling around the town we were able to enjoy the artisan shops at a gentler pace and take time to explore.

If you're in Buenos Aires it's worth doing a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento.  There are tour guides but the area is small enough that with a free map you can guide yourself round, imagine the ghosts of explorers setting up a new colony and read the history at another time.

One thing we did do differently this time was look for sea glass along the beach.  I asked one shop keeper what they call sea glass and he said in Spanish, "Glass.  It's just glass."  I think the magic of something going from a dangerous sharp object to a smooth piece of artwork was lost on him.   Another shop keeper said esmerilado vidrio which translates to frosted glass.  Google translate says cristal marino.