The bus pulled into Colonia del Sacramento just after eleven, and the fog was so thick I could barely see the terminal sign. Three hours and twenty-seven minutes from Montevideo on the TURIL bus, and the whole ride had been a slow dissolve — city blocks thinning into campos, then the silver ribbon of the Río de la Plata appearing and vanishing through the grey. I stepped out with my bag and the air smelled like river and wet stone. Winter in Colonia is a quiet season, and the fog was doing its part to keep it that way.
I found my guesthouse on a side street off the Rambla de las Américas, a place called Casa Lahusen, a restored old house with thick walls and a courtyard that had probably seen two centuries of owners. The woman at the desk handed me a key the size of my palm and showed me up a narrow staircase. My room looked over the river, though today the river was just a theory behind the fog. It was about 7 degrees out, and the room had a small heater that clicked on slowly, like it was waking from its own winter nap. I dropped my bags and sat on the bed, listening to the quiet. It was the sort of quiet that makes you check your ears.
I pulled on my coat and walked into the Barrio Histórico, the UNESCO old town, which is exactly the kind of place that rewards you for coming in the off-season. The cobblestones were slick, the streets empty, and the fog turned the whole quarter into a kind of half-remembered dream. I passed the Portón de Campo, the old stone gate and drawbridge that marks the entrance, and walked down Calle de los Suspiros, the one-block street lined with weathered Portuguese houses. It is one of the most photographed lanes in Uruguay, and I had it almost entirely to myself. The only sound was my boots on the stones.
Colonia was founded by the Portuguese in 1680, right across the river from Buenos Aires, and then it changed hands between Portugal and Spain more times than anyone can comfortably count. That history is written in the architecture: the low, tiled roofs and whitewashed walls of the Portuguese grid, and then the heavier Spanish colonial buildings that came later. It is the only Portuguese-style urban grid in Uruguay, and walking it feels like stepping into a map that kept being redrawn. The Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento, begun by the Portuguese, stands on the Plaza de Armas, its stone walls holding centuries of both faith and politics.
I climbed the lighthouse, Faro de Colonia, which was built in 1857 on top of the ruins of an old convent. The steps are narrow and spiral, 110 of them, and by the top I was breathing hard in a way I blamed on the cold. But the view was worth it: the fog had lifted just enough to show the river stretching toward Buenos Aires, a silver-brown expanse that looked like an ocean pretending to be a river. From up there I could see the old city walls, the modern town behind them, and the green of the countryside beyond. I stayed up there a long time, letting the wind clean out the bus ride from my head.
Back on the ground, I was hungry. I found Resto-Morriña, a small place on a corner near the water, and ordered the plato del día. The menu was written on a chalkboard, and the waitress laughed at my accent when I asked what she recommended. The food was simple and good: a beef stew with potatoes, a glass of the house red, and bread that was still warm. It came to about 950 pesos, call it twenty-three dollars, and it was the kind of meal that makes you want to take a nap. I sat by the window watching the fog roll past the glass.
After lunch I walked along the Rambla de las Américas, the riverside promenade that runs through town. The fog had turned to a fine drizzle, the kind that soaks you slowly if you do not respect it, and the river beach, Playa Ferrando, was deserted. I passed a couple of fishermen sitting on crates, their lines disappearing into the grey water. The Río de la Plata is called the River of Silver, but here it is more like a river of lead: heavy, wide, and patient. I thought about the electric ferry, the China Zorrilla, that now crosses to Buenos Aires in about an hour, and how this town has always been about the river frontier.
In the afternoon I visited the Museo Portugués, the small museum in an eighteenth-century house on the old plaza. It is the kind of museum that rewards you for slowing down: maps, porcelain, furniture from the colonial period, all arranged by someone who clearly loved the place. The woman at the desk told me that in summer the streets are packed, but in August it is just a trickle of visitors. I was the only one there for a while, and the rooms were so quiet I could hear the clock on the wall. It costs about 150 pesos to get in, and it felt like a donation I was embarrassed to give.
I ended the day back at the Rambla, watching the sunset that never quite happened because of the clouds. The lights of Buenos Aires, which you can sometimes see across the river, were hidden tonight. I sat on a bench and thought about what it would be like to live here. The rent in the historic quarter runs maybe 15,000 to 25,000 pesos a month for a modest flat, cheaper than Montevideo, and the town is small enough that you would learn its rhythms quickly. But it is also a place where the economy runs on the ferry — the weekenders from Buenos Aires, the remote workers looking for a quiet base. In winter, you get the town to yourself.
That evening I walked through the Ciudad Nueva, the modern town that sits behind the old quarter, just to see where regular life happens. I found a small cafe, Albertine Pan y Café, and ordered a cappuccino. It was about 200 pesos, around five dollars, and it came with a small piece of chocolate. The barista told me that the town is in its low season now, and that next week there is a meeting at the intendencia about the comparsas lubolas, the carnival troupes, already planning for the 2027 Desfile de Llamadas. It feels like a place that is always looking forward, even in its quietest months.
The next morning I woke early to clear skies, the first time I had seen them. I walked back to the harbor, the Puerto Viejo, where the yachts sit in neat rows and the water reflects the pastel facades of the old town. I checked online at a cafe that the new electric ferry charging docks have turned the port into a bit of a showcase, even earning some kind of industry award. Worth seeing just for that. I also learned that the city just opened a new small business center on Lavalleja, which seems like good news for anyone thinking of setting up here.
I spent the afternoon planning a drive out to the countryside, to the wineries around Carmelo, which is about forty minutes upriver. The Tannat here is the local specialty, and I am told the bodegas welcome visitors even in winter, often with wood stoves and long tastings. I also looked into the Real de San Carlos, the old bullring from 1910 that only hosted a handful of fights before bullfighting was banned in 1912. It was restored and reopened as a cultural venue, and it is on my list for a day trip when the weather settles.
I walked back through the old town in the evening, the fog rolling in again off the river. The streetlights made halos in the damp air, and I could hear a dog barking somewhere in the maze of lanes. It occurred to me that Colonia is a place where you can feel the layers of time: the Portuguese founders, the Spanish rebuilders, the ferry commuters, the winter quiet. I sat on a bench near the water and watched the lights of the port, thinking about how this is the first real stop on my loop around the country. The hot springs are still weeks away, the Atlantic coast even further. Tonight, Colonia feels like the right pace for August.
I am in Colonia del Sacramento, and I think I understand why people fall for it. The fog, the cobblestones, the river that looks like a sea — it gets under your skin in the quietest way. I have a few days here, then I will keep moving west, but part of me already knows I will be back. For now, I am going to sit on this bench and let the evening do its thing. Hasta mañana, listeners. From winter on the Rio de la Plata, this is Lucía, signing off.