Colonia del Sacramento - Day 16 and Change of Plans

As we waited for our us to depart this morning for the colonial town of Colonia del Sacramento, a ship's officer boarded the bus to remind us to remember to wear our masks at all times. We didn't think any of his reminder. Now, we know that someone tested positive and that would significantly alter our plans for the rest of our trip.

Colonia del Sacramento was established in 1680 by the Portuguese to keep an eye on the Spanish across the Río de la Plata River at Buenos Aires.  Its historic quarter is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Colonia del Sacramento

Bus Trip  to Colonia

As we rode along the well maintained freeway, we passed farms with fields green with produce, corn? or soybeans? and brown as hay appeared to be been mowed recently. We saw cattle, beautiful horses, very nice farm houses along with some in disrepair or maybe abandoned little buildings. 

According to our guide, farmers and ranchers are, for sure, on the top of the economic pyramid although they are always complaining and getting government loans. Exports are beef, woodchips and soybeans in that order.  

Uruguay generates 100% renewable power: Wind, Biomass, Solar and Hydroelectric. We saw many wind turbines in the distance as we rode along.  Uruguay actually sells power to Brazil and Argentina.  It has a stable government, good middle class and is highly taxed.  They provide free education through university for all and health care.  The country has about 3 million population with 12 million cattle.  Beef is king here and they consume the highest per capita beef in the world.

Portuguese House - Tile Roof, Spanish roofs are flat

Left - City Gate  Right Portuguese stone "paved" street 

Portuguese built with stone, Spanish built with bricks. 

Left - Lighthouse behind Convent,  Right - Church

Street Scenes 

Returning to the ship in the late afternoon we learned about the COVID case and that we would not be steaming for Buenos Aires in the evening as planned.

This morning, January 7, we were informed that we would remain in Montevideo for 2 more days on the ship.  Viking is rescheduling our departing flights as we cannot enter Argentina to fly out of Buenos Aires as planned. That is the mess that one case can cause even though the COVID positive person is in quarantine ashore.

Of course, we cannot leave the ship now except for transport to the airport. We have been told that most of us will depart by Monday but we haven't heard anything yet about our flight.

Update - Saturday Morning, this morning we have our new flight schedule. We will fly out of Montevideo Monday morning on a Viking charter flight and spend the night in Miami before flying to Fort Myers via Charlottesville, NC on American. We should be home Tuesday evening.  Hurrah!