Uruguay’s Rocha kaleidoscope

A coastal area with many landscapes and stories to tell.

Bonnie Tucker / FST
For residents of the Argentine capital who want to beat the summer heat on an ocean beach, distances to Uruguayan destinations are comparable with those to the Argentine resorts in terms of travel time. Flight time from the Argentine capital to Montevideo or Punta del Este is a little over one hour. And a mere 340 km separate Chuy on the border with Brazil from the Uruguayan capital, where Buquebus ferries disgorge over 3,000 passengers and 500 cars from Buenos Aires a day during the summer high season. The direct ferry trip takes 3 ½ hours, during which passengers doze, read or watch a video, and arrive rested for the drive north in a comfortable air-conditioned bus or their own means of locomotion.
… foto Cabo Polonio FARO blog.jpg …
In January, some Buenos Aires vacationers head for Punta del Este and steep high-season prices, but others continue on to one of the little fishing towns that dot the spectacular 170 km of coastline of the Department of Rocha further north. In these towns prices are lower, crowds are somewhat sparser, and contact with nature and local culture is more direct for people who value rest and subscribe to the adage about Small being Beautiful.
In February, prices begin to drop everywhere along the Rocha coast, and in March they are affordable for many people who had to spend the hottest months in Buenos Aires. March is also less windy than January and February.
… foto Santa Teresa BLOG.jpg … Uruguay’s portion of the Atlantic coast is full of rocky capes and peninsulas that separate bays and beaches which provide options of surf or quieter waters. The prevailing easterly winds that make the rocks offshore a danger for navigation led to the construction of lighthouses in Punta del Este, José Ignacio, La Paloma, Cabo Polonio and Punta del Diablo more than a century ago.
For tourists, the Rocha coast is a world of dune-protected fine sand beaches, several of which are good for surfing and kite surfing. Other attractions are restaurants that serve delicious fresh seafood caught by local artisan fishermen, cozy bars and restaurants, inns and hotels of trendy or atmospheric style, two well-restored 18th-century forts, wetlands full of birdlife, and a guest ranch that puts visitors in touch with an adventurous past and comfortable, easily adopted local customs. All this occupies a 60-km-wide fringe of land between the sea and a range of hills.
… foto Mapa Rocha BLOG.jpg …

Heading north from Punta del Este (which is 138 km north of Montevideo), one comes across the former lighthouse village of José Ignacio, (in the Department of Maldonado). Its stone lighthouse with three white bands, built in 1877, is very similar to the one in Cabo Polonio, which went into service four years later. The kite surfing craze has one of its bastions here, with a school for surfing as well as this extreme sport located on the nearby Garzón Lagoon.
… foto José Ignacio BLOG.jpg …

In José Ignacio, Argentines as well as Uruguayans who fled crowds in Punta del Este 10 or 20 years ago are fighting to keep the look and lifestyle of their chosen spot as untouched as possible by developers intent on building mansions and luxury hotels, and travel agencies that bus in tourists for a day on the beach. The recent construction of wooden stairs down to the beach and a boardwalk beside the part most frequented by visitors has increased comfort and improved safety, although some locals feel that the structures mar the view and feel of the place.
… foto José Ignacio ANTES BLOG.jpg … foto José Ignacio DESPUES BLOG.jpg Each of the towns on the Rocha coast has stories to tell. But they deserve a book, they won’t fit into a blog article.

LA PALOMA. Located a little over 240 km north of Montevideo, this city of 5,000 inhabitants grew up around its stately white lighthouse, which Italian stonemasons constructed on Cape Santa María in 1874. In addition to being the department’s biggest and best-equipped seaside resort, it has its largest fishing port, which has a sector reserved for yachts and sailboats.
… La Paloma BLOG …

The lighthouse provides tourists with a 42-meter-high vantage point from which to take pictures of the town. Many houses in the picturesque old quarter around the lighthouse have been recycled.
The abundance of fish around the cape makes it possible to catch something on practically all the area’s many fine yellow sand beaches.
La Paloma’s quiet beach, preferred by families with children, is El Cabito. The Los Botes beach is where artisan fishermen leave their boats and show their catch to visitors.
… foto Surf 1 BLOG …

The beach favored by surfers is La Balconada, where people also go to thrill to sunsets.
Of late, La Paloma has become a favorite of adolescents because of its night life and numerous cheap camping grounds.
In addition to its discos and a casino, the city has several good seafood restaurants and around 50 hotels, cabin courts, rental houses and other accommodations in forest and beachside locations.

LA PEDRERA. Ten kilometers further north, La Pedrera appears as a smaller, more exclusive and quieter place. There are no discos; they were sent packing to nearby La Paloma several years ago. The town is set largely atop a low cliff between two broad, fine yellow sand beaches. The quiet beach preferred by families is El Desplayado, the one with big surfing waves Playa del Barco.
… foto La Pedrera BLOG …

The rocky point that gives La Pedrera its name is home to Costa Brava, the most famous of the town’s renowned seafood restaurants.
Fewer than 3,000 people live there all year round, but in summer the flood of tourists multiplies the population tenfold, so it is better to go in March. There are 14 hotels, cabin complexes, apart-hotels and other accommodations.

CABO POLONIO. A rustic and definitely unique fishing village that lives more off bohemian tourists than fish in the summer. Locals do everything possible to discourage mass tourism. To get there, you have to leave your car in a parking lot near the highway and contract one of the several 4WD truck or pickup transfer services available, or ride a horse. The 50-minute drive takes you through forested dunes and along an immensely broad beach to a sandy clearing in the village on the cape.
The cape is hammer-shaped but looks like a peninsula from afar. It harbors a large sea lion breeding colony. The beaches on either side of it are sprinkled with scattered huts used by fishermen or rented to tourists who range from hippies to professionals. The mobile dunes behind the beaches change the landscape all the time.
foto: Cabo Polonio 1 BLOG.jpg … (bahía desde península)

Cabo Polonio has both agrarian and seafaring sides to its personality, and fewer than 200 year-round residents. There are no streets, just paths amid the houses. Apart from the inns that have electrical generators, the town has no electricity; at night, people make do with the light provided by the revolving beacon of the lighthouse. There is no drinking water or telephone service, either. The treelessness of the cape makes all the sand, rock and sea expanses around you feel very broad indeed. The beaches are good for swimming, diving or surf, and the rocky areas are good fishing spots.
Foto: Cabo Polonio 2 BLOG.jpg … (pueblo) The cape is so low on one side that the ocean’s waves appear to rush past beside you on their way to the beach.
For many years there were only two inns, but now they are seven. None of them are what you would call upscale, but the Perla del Cabo has a great seafood restaurant.
You can get to Cabo Polonio with a day tour booked in Punta del Este.

GUARDIA DEL MONTE. Thirteen kilometers inland from Cabo Polonio is the Castillos Lagoon surrounded by butiá palm groves, marshlands full of native vegetation and wildlife, and a large forest of enormous ombú trees.
On a rise facing the lagoon is the place that best expresses this part of Rocha: the main house of the Guardia del Monte ranch, which grew up around an 18th-century Spanish post house and was acquired by the Servetto family in 1910.
… foto Estancia Guardia del Monte 1 BLOG.jpg (en carro)

Alicia Fernández de Servetto, the owner, raises sheep and cattle, and offers a distinctive Uruguayan ranch experience to travelers who are genuinely interested in the area. For her, the tourists to whom she divulges ombú lore are "not tourists, but visitors." They hear, for instance, that botanists tend to classify the ombú more as a shrub than a tree.
In the evening, she offers newly arrived guests a sweet golden liqueur made from the macerated fruit of the butiá palms that distinguish the Castillos area and give locals their butiasero moniker. …. foto Estancia Guardia del Monte 2 BLOG.jpg … (con ombú) A retired schoolteacher, she enjoys telling visitors how survivors of shipwrecks on the Rocha coast became leading butiaseros during the 19th century.
… foto Estancia Guardia del Monte 3 BLOG.jpg … (Alicia con mapa) In the main house two recycled rooms with private bathrooms are available for guests, who are shown local flora and fauna during horseback rides or cart rides. Fishing and canoeing on the lagoon are additional options.

VALIZAS. Too small to figure on most major tourist maps, this small fishing village just north of Cabo Polonio has high sand dunes. And it doesn’t have electricity, either. It is good for fishing and walking the beach in search of remains of the shipwrecks that dot the Rocha coast. The Aguas Dulces resort a big further north has cabins and huts.

PUNTA DEL DIABLO. This picturesque little shark fishing village is blessed with a beautiful setting, a distinctive small-town life and a special existential energy. A long rocky point separates two beaches with different personalities. The one called Los Botes is where artisan fishermen unload their catch and leave their boats. The other, suggestively named La Viuda (the Widow), is good for surfing and kite surfing.
…. foto: Punta del Diablo 1 BLOG.jpg … (botes en playa)

The main pastimes are walking on those beaches and watching the local fishermen bring in their catch. The place fascinates everyone from backpackers to the bohemian bourgeois set.
… foto: Punta del Diablo 2 BLOG.jpg … (gente bajando a la playa) While the thing to do is rent a rancho (hut) with few if any amenities for a week or a month, there are also 27 more conventional accommodation options, of which only two are inns, one is an apart-hotel and the rest are mostly cabin courts.
… foto: Punta del Diablo 3 BLOG … (ranchos) There are several good seafood restaurants and other eateries, a couple of pubs, and a cybercafé. The stable population is 600, a number that increases twentyfold during the summer high season. More information at: http://www.portaldeldiablo.com.uy/.

SANTA TERESA FORTRESS. Punta del Diablo is very hear the large Santa Teresa Fortress, which in colonial times was disputed by Portugal and Spain, and finally by Uruguayan patriots and the Brazilian Empire until the independence of Uruguay in 1828.
… foto: Fortaleza Santa Teresa 1 BLOG.jpg … (exterior)

Set on a rise within view of the coast to the east and overlooking the Laguna Negra marshlands to the west, the fortress was well restored in the 1930s. It occupies an area of one hectare. Its buildings house interesting displays that illustrate life in the garrison, as well as scale models of all Uruguay’s colonial forts. It is open daily during the summer high season, and on weekends only during the low season.
… foto: Fortaleza Santa Teresa 2 BLOG.jpg … (plaza de armas) The Santa Teresa National Park that surrounds the fortress has an area of 3,000 hectares. Its 2,000 native and exotic trees were planted to fix the dunes, which were threatening the fortress when restoration work began. There are a hot house, a cool shady area formed by shade trees and a museum that shows the restoration of the fortress and the design of the park, as well as cabin courts and campgrounds. The park extends down to four of the country’s most beautiful, pristine beaches, which offer good fishing and excellent waves for surfing.

CERRO DEL INDIO. Located on the edge of the Laguna Negra nature reserve near the Santa Teresa Fortress, this sheep and dairy farm is an ideal place for birders, skilled riders and people who are interested enough in archaeology to chat with the owners about the enigmatic 3,000-year-old Indian burial mounds that are being excavated in the region.
… foto Cerrito de Indio BLOG.jpg …

LA CORONILLA. This modest little town 25 km south of Chuy consists of three loosely connected neighborhoods and the traditional Hotel Parque Oceánico, recently refurbished.
… foto Hotel Parque Oceánico BLOG.jpg … Surrounded by a big seaside (or "oceanic") park of butiá palms and eucalyptuses that links it with the beach, the hotel is a pleasant, self-contained refuge for older people and families with small children who don’t want crowds, noise or night life. Open all year round, it is near the Cerro Verde and Coronilla Islands nature reserves, as well as the Santa Teresa Fortress in the national park of the same name.

SAN MIGUEL FORT. Like the Santa Teresa Fortress, the San Miguel Fort in the hills of the same name was disputed for more than 60 years – first by the Spaniards and Portuguese, and finally by Uruguayan patriots and the Brazilian empire until Uruguay’s independence in 1828.
This fortification in the San Miguel hills sent smoke signals to the fortress 40 km further south to warn of enemy troop movements on the plain below. An interesting folk museum is within sight of the fort. Both are a kilometer from the Hostería Fortín de San Miguel, a replica of a Spanish parador surrounded by the native vegetation of the San Miguel National Park.
…. foto: San Miguel 1 BLOG.jpg …. (entrada)

Dark but homey like an old castle that smells of fireplace wood smoke, the inn is the right base from which to explore both the fort and the museum. It is a favorite of esoteric groups who say it has good vibes because the San Miguel hills lie atop one of the positive energy lines that emanate from Mount Uritorco in the province of Córdoba in Argentina. It has two good restaurants and a swimming pool that is ideal for relaxing for a few days in a setting very different from those of the nearby sea resorts, and a world away from fast-paced big cities.
… foto: San Miguel 2 BLOG.jpg … (pasillo externo hostería) The fort complex is located less than 10 km from the city of Chuy, and it is easy to get there directly from the Montevideo bus terminal. Of the many buses that go from the capital to Chuy every day, several return on a different route that leaves you on the inn’s doorstep.

CHUY. This binational city is no beauty, but the fact that the frontier between Uruguay and Brazil runs down the middle of its main avenue, across which thousands of people move back and forth freely every day, is intriguing, to say the least. Chuy attracts compulsive shoppers who are incapable of passing up bargains in clothing, luxury items, sports equipment and electronic products. Most of the big stores and shopping centers are on the Brazilian side of the avenue, and many duty-free shops are in Uruguayan part of town. As in Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este, many of the shopkeepers are of Arab descent.
… foto Chuy frontera BLOG.jpg … The Barra del Chuy is an immensely broad beach whose northern sector belongs to Brazil, and to Uruguay in the south. The Brazilians have removed the dunes from their sector. The Uruguayans, more ecological, have left them in place to renew the sand of their part of the beach.
… foto Barra del Chuy BLOG.jpg … Hot and muggy in the summer, Chuy is best visited during the cooler months. The temperature is always more bearable in the San Miguel hills.
The best way to savor the diversity of Rocha is to go straight north to the inn near the San Miguel Fort in the Chuy area and proceed south at leisure, spending a few days in each of the small coastal towns that takes your fancy.

In Rocha there are accommodations for every taste. Among them:

Beach and family life
Hotel Parque Oceánico, http://www.hotelparqueoceanico.com.uy/ , La Coronilla.
Hotel La Pedrera, www.lapedrera.com.uy, (00598) 479-2001, La Pedrera.

Culture
Hostería Fortín de San Miguel, http://www.elfortin/ .com, Chuy.
Estancia Guardia del Monte, http://www.guardiadelmonte.com/ , Castillos.
Cerro del Indio, (00598) 47-4003, La Coronilla.

Bohemian bourgeois
Posada Rocamar, http://www.posadarocamar.com.uy/ , Punta del Diablo.
Terrazas de la Pedrera Apart Hotel, http://www.terrazasdelapedrera.com/ , La Pedrera.
Hostería La Perla del Cabo, http://www.laperladelcabo.com/ , Cabo Polonio.
Additional information:
http://www.turismorocha.gub.uy/ , 00598-479-6088.
http://www.welcomeuruguay.com/

http://www.probides.org.uy/

PHOTO CREDITS: The Cabo Polonio lighthouse, Bonnie Tucker. A beach of the Santa Teresa National Park, Bonnie Tucker. Map of the Department of Rocha. A beach at José Ignacio in Feruary, 2007, Bonnie Tucker. The access to the beach beside the José Ignacio lighthouse in 2000 and 2007, Bonnie Tucker. The La Paloma lighthouse, Bonnie Tucker. A surfer defies a wave on a Rocha beach, Rocha Tourist Office. Playa del Barco in La Pedrera in November, 2003, Bonnie Tucker. Cabo Polonio’s boat beach, Bonnie Tucker. The Cabo Polonio village, Bonnie Tucker. Returning from a birding jaunt at Estancia Guardia del Monte, Bonnie Tucker. Alicia Fernández de Servetto seated at the foot of a 500-year-old ombú, Bonnie Tucker. Alicia showing her shipwreck map, Bonnie Tucker. Boats on one of the beaches of Punta del Diablo, Bonnie Tucker. Recently arrived tourists walk down to the beach at Punta del Diablo, Bonnie Tucker. Huts for rent in Punta del Diablo, Bonnie Tucker. The Santa Teresa Fortress, Bonnie Tucker. Partial view of Plaza de Armas of the Santa Teresa Fortress, Bonnie Tucker. An Indian burial mound, www.portaluruguaycultural.gub.uy. Hotel Parque Oceánico, Bonnie Tucker. The drawbridge entrance to the San Miguel Fort, Bonnie Tucker. The countryside as seen from the San Miguel Inn, Bonnie Tucker. The avenue in Chuy that serves as the border between Uruguay and Brazil, Bonnie Tucker. The Uruguayan sector of the Chuy beach, Bonnie Tucker.

A weekend in Montevideo

An escape from the pressure cooker.

Bonnie Tucker / FST
Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is 40 minutes by air or three hours by ferry from Buenos Aires. The air and water entrances provide different first impressions of this city of a little over 1 million inhabitants, but both – and especially the stretch of riverfront between them – are valid representatives of its personality.
Porteños (Buenos Aires residents) and tourists from elsewhere go to Montevideo because they know it is different from BA. They realize the extent to which this is true only when they get there and look around. Topography has helped preserve the life quality of montevideanos.

Saved by the Rambla
Montevideo’s port, which concentrates truck traffic, operates inside a bay on its western side, and its international airport is far from downtown, in the opposite direction. The southern edge of the city that overlooks the River Plate, and runs between the port and airport, has been preserved as a middle class and upper middle class residential area, and is embellished by the Rambla, the 22-km-long riverside drive and promenade that has long given all residents free access to beaches and unmarred views of the water.

Buenos Aires’ Costanera Norte riverside drive suffers from heavy port traffic; the proximity of squatters’ slums; the airport that borders it; and the clubs, restaurants and events halls that block the view of the river. If porteños turn their back on the river, it is because they have been deprived of contact with their side of the estuary. So they like going to Montevideo, where the situation is different.
Montevideo is also a lot smaller than Buenos Aires (1,400,000 million inhabitants vs. 11 million for BA counting the Greater Buenos Aires urban sprawl). That means less stress in the Uruguayan capital. It is a pleasant, tidy time-warp city that has preserved most of its Art Nouveau and Art Déco buildings, in addition to the Spanish colonial fort that overlooks its harbor. Its only high building is the relatively new Communications Tower. Its people are amiable and seem more relaxed than their neighbors across the River Plate estuary.
Some tourists are irked by the fact that in Montevideo most shops are closed on weekends; one has to go to a shopping center to be able to spend one’s money. But when they discover the Rambla, they realize why montevideanos seem so relaxed. Porteños are more than a bit envious of the way that their neighbors across the estuary unabashedly take their weekends off and enjoy fresh air and open spaces on the broad sidewalk that overlooks so many kilometers of sand bathing beaches facing the River Plate. No clubs or events halls or restaurants or sausage stands get in the way of the view of water, water and water. They can stroll, run, cycle, walk the dog or sit on benches and read, sip mate or stare at the water for hours on end in a residential area that is free of noisy, smelly truck traffic.
It is said that the sight of water calms anguish in most people, and water has always been part of the lives of montevideanos. For them, the estuary is the “sea” and the Atlantic, which officially begins 120 km further east at the tip of the peninsula for which the upscale Punta del Este resort is named, is the “ocean.”

Too much for so short a time
Montevideo is an ideal city for people who like outdoor markets, street shows, art, crafts and antiques. It also has good restaurants, and several shops that sell high-quality leatherwear and woolen garments.
If you go for two days, you will soon realize that the things to see and do in the Uruguayan capital greatly exceed that time frame, and that you will have to return.
Most Buenos Aires residents on a weekend getaway opt for the ferries (Buquebús and Ferrylíneas) because the terminals are quick to access from the BA downtown area, they can take their cars, and Montevideo’s port is on the doorstep of its historic and commercial downtown areas. (Be sure to book a three-hour ferry, not one that takes five hours, or more.)
However, if you want to do all the markets or join a guided city tour in the Old Town that begins at 10am on Saturday, you will have to fly there or take a ferry Friday afternoon and spend a night in a hotel because the morning departures across the river won’t get you there in time.

Classic musts
For tourists, the two classic weekend musts in Montevideo are the Mercado del Puerto (Port Market) and the Sunday morning flea market on Calle Tristán Narvaja.

The Port Market looks like an old English railway station, and there are several versions as to how it made its way to Montevideo. It opened in 1868 as a food market that supplied ships, and ended up as a picturesque food court. The former stalls inside are occupied by some fish restaurants and steak houses, and several grills that have a long U-shaped bar at which clients sit to eat barbecue specialties. One such grill serves a potent medio y medio cocktail (half sweet white wine and half white sparkling wine, or champagne, if you please) to a garrulous clientele that packs the aisles in the winter and spills out onto the mall in the summer while waiting for a table. On Weekends, itinerant musicians liven up the place and artisans arrange their creations on blankets out on the esplanade.

The Tristán Narvaja market, which on Sunday occupies more than 20 blocks of the eponymous street starting at its intersection with Avenida 18 de Julio, has everything you could dream of, and more. It is a favorite of collectors of antiques, coins, postage stamps, old books and used records. Absolutely everything is sold there, from clothing to plants and pets. It opens at 9am and the merchants begin to dismantle their stalls at 2pm; as there is a lot to see, it is best to get there before midday.
The antiques and crafts fair held in the Plaza Matriz square in the Old Town on Saturday is a good excuse to have a look at that square – the city’s oldest – and the rest of the neighborhood.

Tours and activities
Also on Saturday morning, diagonal streets in the Old City are closed to traffic to form a grid with pedestrian streets where roaming musicians and dancers perform, and stalls selling art, crafts, book and antiques are set up. At 10am, City Hall guides conduct three-hour excursions from the meeting point at the Puerta de la Ciudadela (remains of a gate of the city’s first fort) on the edge of Plaza Independencia. For information on the City Hall’s “Paseo Cultural” Saturday program, visit http://www.cultura.montevideo.gub.uy/.
There are several interesting museums and tours for people who are interested in art, architecture and music.

Arteuy (www.arteuy.com.uy) takes you to artists’ studios in the Old City, starting from meeting points at three hotels and ending with a drink in the Port Market.
Downtown, an obligatory stop for those interested in early 20th-century South American art is the museum at Peatonal Sarandí 683, which showcases the works of constructivist painter Joaquín Torres García, founder of the Escuela del Sur (Southern School), whose students prioritized artistic expression with a Uruguayan and South American identity. The museum is open every day but Sunday.

Also downtown, the Teatro Solís, Montevideo’s recently refurbished 19th-century neoclassical opera house, offers guided tours in Spanish, English and Portuguese on every day but Monday. During the 50-minute tour, two actors appear from time to time to illustrate key moments in the history of the theater. See schedules at http://www.teatrosolis.org.uy/.

In addition to its splendid permanent exhibitions of the works of Uruguayan artists Juan Manuel Blanes (1830-1901) and Pedro Figari (1861-1938), the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes (Av. Millán 4015 in the Prado neighborhood) has a nice coffee shop in a large winter garden setting where plays and concerts are given. Set in an Italian-style villa that was built for a wealthy family in 1870, it is open every day but Monday.

Food
Finally, no one should leave Montevideo without attempting to devour an entire chivito – an enormous sandwich filled with thin beef fillets and a host of other goodies that range from tomato, lettuce, boiled egg and cheese to corn, marinated eggplant and fried onion rings. The diner orders the ingredients according to his or her taste, and may eat the result with a knife and fork on a plate, or in hand, washing it down with a good Uruguayan beer. Of all the restaurants that serve chivitos on the Avenida 18 de Julio, the most famous are the La Pasiva franchises.

Those looking for something a bit more upscale or bohemian should try the Molino de Pérez, an old mill in the Malvín neighborhood that has been transformed into a gourmet restaurant and cultural center. Art exhibitions and concerts are given there.

Night life
The three most famous pillars of Montevideo night life are old-time bars: Bacacay in front of the Solís Theater; Baar Fun-Fun (Ciudadela 1229), famous for its sweetish drink “la uvita”, whose recipe is treated like a state secret; and Tabaré (Zorrilla de San Martín 152), where famous singers from Carlos Gardel to Caetano Veloso have performed.

Events
In addition to the aforementioned city fine arts museum, the Prado neighborhood is home to the city’s most important mansions of the 1860-1890 period, and the Uruguayan Rural Association’s fairgrounds.
This year, the Association’s big yearly livestock and industrial show will be held there from September 9 to 20. See http://www.expoprado.com/ for information.
Another date to look out for is that of the yearly National Heritage Day Festival, during which historic homes and other buildings open their doors to visitors, among other events of special cultural interest. It takes place during a weekend in September or October. This year the date is September 26-27, and the theme is “Rural Traditions.” See http://www.sociedaduruguaya.org/ for details.

PHOTO CREDITS: Montevideo seen from the old Spanish fort, Bonnie Tucker. The Rambla, Bonnie Tucker. A cannon of the Spanish fort, Bonnie Tucker. The Sarandí pedestrian mall, Bonnie Tucker. Port Market, Bonnie Tucker. Tristán Narvaja flea market, Bonnie Tucker. The Cathedral facing the Plaza Matriz, Bonnie Tucker. Artist Gustavo Vázquez, Bonnie Tucker. Inverted América (1943) by Joaquín Torres García, Museo Torres García. Teatro Solís, Teatro Solís. Assassination of General Venancio Flores (1868) by Juan Manuel Blanes, Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes "Juan Manuel Blanes." A Uruguayan "chivito" sandwich. The scene at Baar Fun-Fun, Baar Fun-Fun.

Focus on Montevideo

Photography teacher Marcelo Gurruchaga will be leading a photo safari to Montevideo dur-ing the June 13-15 long week-end. For three days, participants will enjoy snapping pictures of the Uruguayan capital’s peculiar combination of tradition and modernity. Cost: 1,590 pesos.


PHOTO: Montevideo reflections, Bonnie Tucker.

Two styles for Carmelo

A modern international resort synergizes with the past.

Bonnie Tucker / FST
Ever since it was inaugurated in 1999, the exclusive resort with the Four Seasons brand in Carmelo has been an architectural benchmark for home builders in that part of Uruguay. When its management was taken over by the the Canadian chain in 2001, its service set a standard to be imitated on both sides of the River Plate, and the massages and beauty treatments done in its Balinese-style spa are still unbeatable.

Its 18-hole par 72 golf course, designed by a prestigious architectural firm, is the venue of many important international tournaments. Most people go there to relax in the spa, play golf and be pampered. There are, however, additional options in the surroundings, including a surprise connection with the region’s colonial past.
One of the most interesting excursions offered by the resort is a horseback ride to Finca Narbona, a farm with dairy cattle, an artisan cheese factory, a vineyard, an old winery that harbors a two-room inn, and a restaurant where you are served prime cold delicatessen accompanied by a full-bodied Tannat wine, and maybe a plate of pasta later if you have room for more. The ride through the forest and hills takes two hours, and after lunch a minibus will take you back to the resort if you feel more like a nap than further riding.

But there is much more than this upscale undertaking to be found in the Uruguayan countryside halfway between Carmelo and Nueva Palmira. Finca Narbona occupies only a tiny part of what was once Estancia Narbona, an extensive colonial estate that lived more off limestone quarrying and lime making than cattle. The property belonged to Juan de Narbona, an enterprising Spaniard who in 1707 arrived in Buenos Aires young and illiterate, but endowed with a keen business sense. Like many other entrepreneurs of his time, he was involved in a vaquería business, tanning hides and making tallow from fat obtained from wild cattle hunted by gauchos. However, he found slave trading and limestone quarrying to be more lucrative. Less than 10 years after his arrival in the New World, he was Buenos Aires’ leading lime producer and Governor Juan Valdez Inclán gave him the land on which he built the Pilar Church, inaugurated in 1732. It was said at the time that he did very well in smuggling and usury as well. The tunnels between his Buenos Aires mansion and the river were the talk of the town.

It was also rumored that Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, the governor of Buenos and founder of Montevideo who helped Narbona get a concession to the land in Uruguay where he established a new limestone quarry, was one of his debtors.
Narbona built his Uruguayan estate house with its adjacent chapel on a hilltop above the Víboras River around 1735. The lime kilns he installed there were the first in that part of the River Plate Viceroyalty. Firewood from the virgin forests in the region and the hides provided by the enormous herds of wild cattle that roamed there were additional sources of income that helped him consolidate his fortune in Buenos Aires, get further construction contracts, and build the Catalinas monastery and church, inaugurated in 1745.
When Narbona died in 1750, he was buried beneath the floor of the Pilar Church, long before the Argentine government banned such enterrements and built the present Recoleta Cemetery.
The Jesuits, who began operating the Estancia del Río de las Vacas in the vicinity of Narbona’s estate in 1742, also quarried limestone. They too had slaves and were the ones who introduced viticulture in what is now Uruguay. But grapevines were not planted around the present-day Finca Narbona until the beginning of the 20th century.

Motorists coming from Carmelo find the entrance to Finca Narbona a little past the 150-year-old Castells bridge and water mill on the Víboras River. The dirt road to Estancia Narbona, on the other hand, is immediately to the right after crossing the bridge. It leads to another dirt road that branches off to the left and up to the hilltop where the main house is located.

Surrounded by an informal park graced by large native trees, the grey, humidity-besieged house looks a bit like a fortress with its thick walls, high gabled roofs, tall windows with wrought iron gratings, and three-floor lookout tower. The “L” that it forms with the chapel embraces a broad paved patio enclosed by a low wall in which the wrought iron entrance gate is flanked by massive pillars.
In the chapel two wall niches contain religious images, and a wooden door in the floor leads to a sepulcher in which local people and the family’s slaves were buried and, it is believed, to a tunnel leading to the river.

The tower was built by Narbona’s son-in-law, Martín Camacho, who continued exploiting the property after the death of his father-in-law.

When I was there in 2006, several long ceramic “thigh tiles” used for roofing – so called because slaves formed them atop their thighs – lay in a pile beneath one of the windows of the church.
The resort does not encourage guests to visit the old Estancia Narbona estate house because it has had little if any maintenance work, despite being a National Historical Monument and property of the Uruguayan government since the 1950s. However, they will tell you the open hours and you can go in a remise.
The Narbona estate house and chapel can be visited every day but Monday and Friday, from 9am to 5pm. Call the caretaker at +598-540-4154 to say when you plan to arrive.

The phone number of Finca Narbona is +598-540-4778, that of the Four Seasons resort in Carmelo +598-542-9000.

PHOTO CREDITS: Golf course and swimming pool of the Four Seasons resort in Carmelo, Bonnie Tucker. Finca Narbona restaurant entrance and window of winery, Bonnie Tucker. Pilar Church in Buenos Aires, Bonnie Tucker. Entrance to patio of Estancia Narbona main house, Bonnie Tucker. Patio of Estancia Narbona main house, Bonnie Tucker. Interior of chapel and "thigh tiles" at Estancia Narbona, Bonnie Tucker.

Unique River Plate places

Martín García with the Delta, Colonia without it.

Antonella Romano / FST
Broad enough at its mouth to look like a sea, the River Plate estuary is narrow enough near its headwaters in the outlets of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers to make the tops of the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires, Argentina visible to people in Colonia, Uruguay on a clear day. This nearness is one of the things that gives Uruguayans and Argentines certain things in common, such as their addiction to yerba mate, a Guaraní habit that was institutionalized by the Jesuit missionaries, who in the 17th century cultivated a wild forest plant and used its leaves as a base for an infusion that is sipped through a metal straw from a gourd or a cup made of other materials.
Argentina and Uruguay also share a national flower – that of the coral tree – and a peculiar equestrian sport known as pato. They have the same national colors – blue and white – in the midst of which shines a sun with a human face. The independence war patriots chose this sun for several reasons, among which was its likeness to the Inca sun god Inti, calculated to achieve the Indians’ backing for their cause. There are also those who say that it insinuates the Freemasonry sympathies of many of the founding fathers on either side of the estuary during the 19thcentury.
However, the proximity has been unable to reconcile some minor differences, such as their claims to famous tango singer Carlos Gardel. Argentines accept that Gardel was born in France, but not that he first saw the light of day in Uruguay, as their neighbors on the other side of the River Plate claim.
The Uruguayans took longer than the Argentines to win their independence (1825 vs. 1816), perhaps because they had to fight so hard to avoid being dominated first by Portugal when they were a Spanish colony, and later, in the company of other provinces of the River Plate Viceroyalty, in the struggle against Span. And after that it had to deal with an ephemeral alliance of Buenos Aires and Portugal and, finally, an invasion by the Empire of Brazil. Uruguay’s existence as a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil became reality with the blessing of Great Britain, and in keeping with the political and commercial interests of all parties concerned at that time in history.
As a sort of recompense for these travails, Uruguay been favored by nature with regard to the sediments borne by the river: the white sand ends up on its pretty beaches, and the mud on Argentine shores.

Perhaps for that reason Uruguayans and Argentines look at the water differently. The Argentines, who for the most part are not great lovers of the sea beyond the beaches of Mar del Plata, dismiss the estuary as “the river,” although one poet once apologized for its muddy look by dubbing it río color de león (puma-colored river). Montevideo residents, who live closer to its mouth and enamored of the sea to the point that they have good seafood, call the river “the sea” and the Atlantic “the ocean.”
In addition to being one of the frontiers between the two countries (the other is the Uruguay River), the estuary houses the innumerable islands of the Paraná Delta, whose rivers and streams were the logical choice of smugglers and politicians on the run as far back as colonial times. Today it is sprinkled with farms and nice little inns and restaurants that can be reached by regular passenger boats.

Martín García
The tiny island of Martín García, located in the northeastern corner of the estuary near the mouth of the Uruguay River, harbors a village of 200 souls and four different ecosystems. Woodlands, grasslands, mini-deserts and marshes in the part of its 184 hectares that is open to visitors can be seen on foot in a day.

It lies a mere 3 km off the Uruguayan coast but belongs to Argentina by virtue of a binational treaty that makes it a demilitarized multi-purpose nature reserve. There is no town hall or police station, just a coast guard base. Residents – most of whom are Buenos Aires Province civil servants and their families – get about on bicycles. There are also a few good-conduct prison inmates who live there with their families while serving the last part of their sentences; none of them wants to return to the mainland. Doors are locked only when the tourist boats arrive.

The cemetery and ruins of certain buildings reveal that in the 19th century the island harbored an Argentine naval outpost, a prison, a quarantine station where victims of successive epidemics were interned, and a crematorium to dispose of their remains. It is said that some of the Indian chieftains who were taken prisoner during the Desert Campaign were among the internees. In the 20th century, the crews of two German battleships, and more than one overthrown Argentine president were confined there. The lighthouse, built in 1881, is not in use.

The buildings that are of most interest to tourists are the cinema-theater with its double-barrel Art Nouveau façade, built in 1910 but still used for special events; the red historical museum in what was once a bar and general store, in front of the theater; the pink town bakery, famed for its panettone Italian fruit cakes; the church right beside it; and the house where Nicaraguan poet Rubén Dario wrote one of his most famous poems while a guest of a friend who was a quarantine station doctor.

The Tigre-based Cacciola boat company runs day tours through the Delta and out to the island on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Boarding time in Tigre is 8.30. The boat departs at 9am, arrives at the island at 12 noon, and leaves for Tigre at 5.30pm. The round-trip boat ticket costs 76 pesos, or 142 pesos with lunch and a village tour included.
If you are a hiker, a birder, a botanist, an historian, or just a person who is curious about a place that is not on standard tourist itineraries, you should definitely consider one of Cacciola’s two- or three-day packages. You go with the crowd, but when the others return to Tigre in the afternoon, you remain behind and spend the night at the company’s inn. That gives you time to chat with islanders, walk about, take pictures, and have a siesta before returning to Tigre with the next boatload of day-trippers. It costs 324 pesos per person with full board except drinks, or 491 pesos for three days. Information: 4393-6100 in Buenos Aires, 4749-2369 in Tigre; http://www.cacciolaviajes.com.ar/.

For people who are in a hurry and like flying, the island’s aerodrome receives air taxi and helicopter flights from the San Fernando airport. The flight in a small plane takes 40 minutes and costs from US$75 to well over US$100 per person, according to the number of passengers. Waits on the island of over an hour cost an additional 50 to 75 pesos per person, depending on length. A walking tour and lunch at one of the restaurants on the island may be included in the fee. Among flight providers are Argentina Fly (http://es.argentina-fly.com/martingarcia), Vuelos de Bautismo (http://www.vuelosdebautismo.com.ar/) and Overfly http://www.overfly.com.ar/.
Those who wish to combine the plane and boat options – arriving with one and returning with the other – may do so, but it will cost them a pretty penny, because while they may buy a one-way boat ticket, the plane ticket must be paid for as round-trip excursion.

Colonia
Colonia del Sacramento is always more crowded than Martín García because it is on a mainland, it is a mere 50-minute fast-boat trip from Buenos Aires, and it is famous: it is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

You don’t go through the Delta to get there. The 60-km trip across the estuary comprises just a lot of water until the Uruguayan shore slowly comes into sight, and the boat glides past the town’s 19th-century lighthouse and sidles up to its disembarkation sleeve. The bustle and noise of Buenos Aires are forgotten and contact with another quality of life begins, if only for a few hours.
The Colonia’s Old Town has a lot of atmosphere and personality, and photography enthusiasts immediately fall under its spell. It occupies fewer than 30 odd-shaped blocks at the tip of a small peninsula. Day trippers who arrive in the morning walk about, shop in quality crafts shops, art galleries and clothing stores, and look forward to lunch; there are a number of very good restaurants. (Banks don’t open until 1pm and many shops are closed until 10am, but exchange shops give morning travelers a break by opening at 9am. There is one in the port terminal. Exchange rates are 23.50 Uruguayan pesos per US$, and six Uruguayan pesos per Argentine peso.)

Although few of the hundreds of tourists who arrive in Colonia every day go to the museums that showcase the place’s history, most of them enter into some sort of contact with the past – if only through osmosis – when they enter the Old Town through the Portón de Campo, the gate in the rampart six blocks from the port terminal. The same goes for the rough cobbles of an unpretentious colonial frontier town, and the low old houses lining the “Street of Sighs,” so called for the brothels that used to line it.
The Portuguese coat of arms on the arch of the gate to the Old Town is a replica of the original, which was set in place in 1745 and is now on display in the Portuguese Museum, which in turn is set in an 18th-century house that has Portuguese- and Spanish-built components. Nearby is the Nacarello House, an old Portuguese house that was restored to show living conditions in colonial times. The Municipal Museum has interesting paleontological, natural history and early 20th century history displays. Admission to each museum costs 50 Uruguayan pesos, but you can get a two-day pass to all eight of them for the price of one if you ask for it at the entrance to the first one you visit.

Today, Colonia is a popular day trip destination for both Argentines and tourists who happen to be passing through Buenos Aires. Foreigners who are about to overstay their three-month tourist visas go to Colonia to get Uruguayan entrance and exit stamps applied to their passports so they can re-enter Argentina for another three months.

One day is certainly not enough for enjoying the Old town of Colonia at leisure. If you plan to buy a package with an overnight stay to be able to see it, check where the hotel assigned to you is located. If you won’t have a car and your objective is to enjoy the Old Town of Colonia del Sacramento, accommodation 5 km or 10 blocks from the Old Town will probably not appeal to you.

At least 15 hotels, inns and hostels – and most of the best restaurants – are located in or immediately around the Old Town. However, no map singling them out seems to be available. That’s understandable; the Old Town occupies only a tiny part of Colonia del Sacramento, a city with more than 20,000 inhabitants and many hotels and restaurants that are competing for the tourist trade. One solution is to get a map that shows the names of the streets in the area that interests you and check them against the addresses given by hotels on the Internet before making a reservation.
There are some very interesting places to stay out in the countryside, but they are another story.
The ticket prices of the ferry companies that do the Buenos Aires-Colonia route vary. See http://www.buquebus.com/, http://www.ferrylineas.com.ar/ and http://www.coloniaexpress.com/ and compare.

PHOTO CREDITS: Carmen Bastion, Colonia. Ruins of the prison, Martín García Island. Cine-theater and Historical Museum, Martín García. House where Rubén Darío stayed, Martín García. Walking in the village on Martín García Island. Martín García aerodrome. Lighthouse, Colonia. Citadel gate, Colonia. Riverside restaurant, Colonía. Hotel Beltrán, Colonia. All photos by Bonnie Tucker.