Leave it to Beaver - Land!

Colonia sits at the western end of a small bay. On the other side of the bay is a bedroom community called Real de San Carlos. They are about 2 miles apart as the fish swims. Real consists of a lovely long beach and small criss-crossing streets, more like country lanes, leading from the beach. The parcels are all very green, most with excellent landscaping. Most of the houses are obviously upscale summer homes, owned no doubt by the upper class of Buenos Aires.

I took the local bus over here today. The bus ride took about 30 minutes because it winds its way all around the bay to the other side. (When I wrote this) It´s now a little after noon and I´m sitting on the deck of a restaurant about 15 feet above the beach. In back of the restaurant, on the other side from the beach, is about 100 yards of grassy park with tall eucalyptus trees providing shade. Quite a few cars are parked at picnic tables with families doing the BBQ thing. I can look over the bay at Colonia, its bigger buildings and shoreline, and the boats at anchor. This restaurant could hold 100 people for lunch. There are about 5 occupied tables. This is not, I believe, because tourism is down. It´s simply the way it is here in laid-back Colonia. On the beach several families are playing in the water. The water is not cold. The weather is absolutely IDEAL. It´s about 75-80 degrees, with a refreshing breeze blowing in off the river.

The restaurant menu offers pastas, raviolis, cutlets of beef, chicken, or pork and the ever-present BBQ´d everything. The background music is Abba, Beatles, the Carpenters, Dionne Warwick. The whole place, in fact all of Uruguay, is "Oldies but Goodies."

Well, it´s now 5 o´clock. The sun is still high. It won´t set until about 8:30 (It´s summertime here!). I´m now sitting under an awning on the flat roof of my hotel, drinking my diet Coke and looking out onto the beautiful river and at the beaches on the other side where I had lunch. What a life!

While walking to my stop today, the most exciting event of the day was watching a group of about 5 boys, age about 10, who were barefoot and in shorts, armed with water balloons and consumed with giggles, on the brink of battle. Fortunately for me, they were bent on assaulting each other, not unlucky tourists. Before I came here, I read "If you liked the 1950´s, you´ll love Uruguay!" How true. It really does seem like a throwback to a different time. The Cleavers having picnics in the park, little or no traffic, 1950´s prices (almost!). Unlike Buenos Aires, I haven´t seen any beggars, no homeless, just friendly happy people. Even the newspaper is boring. Frankly, that´s nice!

Until later.