By ferry to Uruguay

On Monday evening, I took the bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires. There I met a nice Brazilian, with whom I took the train to Tigre on Wednesday.

Tigre is about 50 km away from Buenos Aires. There we took a boat trip on different rivers.

Each house had its own pier and the owners usually had several boats. All the houses were on stilts, as protection against floods. They were incredibly well-maintained, with a porch and usually a small garden. I briefly wondered what life would be like in such a house without road access.

The city is really beautiful too. Many large houses, almost like villas. I particularly liked "Paseo de Frutas". Hundreds of colorful garage doors and behind them different small shops.

The next morning, I took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. It's kind of strange to cross the river between Argentina and Uruguay, knowing that the Argentine military made thousands of children and young people disappear in the river.

Colonia del Sacramento is really beautiful. Like a small town in France. But just as quiet as in a small town in France, still worth a day trip.

On Friday afternoon, I took the bus to Montevideo. On the way there, you could see many windmills and cows. When we entered Montevideo, you could see quite a lot of garbage. I didn't like the capital of Uruguay so much. Somehow everything was gray and there was no real city center either. The famous Rambla was just a curb along the beach. After I had also caught bed bugs somewhere, my interest in the city was rather limited. However, the flea market on Sunday morning was very impressive because of its size.