Mpexy
05-14-06, 13:27
90 Day Visa Renewal day-trip excursion -
I had to renew my 90 Day tourist visa, and didn't have a short hop back to the states planned for awhile, so I did the day trip to Colonia thing. Thought I'd write up my observations specifically for those wanting / needing to renew their tourist visa as quickly as possible via a Colonia trip.
Buying a ticket -
Any Buquebus tour office will do, or you can even buy them online at their website, but I just went down in person to their new location on Posadas, near corner of Callao and Posadas. Normal day trip only ticket was 226p for the fast boat in a first class cabin seat. I highly advise taking the fast boat as it's only 1hr vs 3hrs for the slow one, and spending the extra 34p for first class - the normal 192p tourist cabin seats looked ok but the upstairs first class ones are not only a lot more roomy, it has an on-board lounge / bar / kitchen for snacks right next to it, and very clean bathrooms. Another tangible benefit is that when the boat docks, you get to exit pretty rapidly as the stairs down from the first class cabin is right next to the exit lock. The fast boat leaves every day at 11:15 am from the Darsena Norte Terminal in Puerto Madera, or just say Buquebus terminal to any taxi driver - and the ticket seller will say show up 1hr before, but it seems 30-40min will easily do. You can buy a packaged tour but riding on buses as a tour group isn't my thing so I passed on that, just took the boat-only trip ticket over.
Immigration.
At the Darsena Norte terminal, soon as you enter there's a bunch of numbered lines on your left - the little sign above the number will tell you which to get in line for - it has the time of departure and type of boat. They check you in, check your passport, and issue you the boarding ticket. Then send you on to immigration.
Just before the immigration door, there's a little cambio place - you can change some cash into Uruguayan pesos, but I'd say forget it and just do it in Uruguay (or not even change any at all actually)
Passing through immigration seems to be so ho-hum and routine the guards didn't even check my when the metal detector went off. I forgot and had my cell phone and camera in my pockets but I guess they figured a gringo was safe and just waved me through in a pretty bored fashion. At the passport check, the process is pretty rapid and well set up - sitting side by side is both the Argentine and Uruguay immigrations people. So you step up, the Argentine guy stamps you out of Argentina, slides the passport over to the Uruguay guy, and he stamps you into Uruguay. Bienvenido Uruguay and you haven't even left the Puerto Madera port yet.
The Boat Ride.
Exactly 1hr by my watch and the boat left a few min early. Very smooth, zero roll or turbulence.
Entering Colonia and Changing Cash.
Since they already checked you in and out, all you do is get off the boat, collect any luggage, if any, and just walk past the customs guards. It was a day trip so I had no luggage so I didn't have to pass anything through their baggage checker. Once you exit the terminal, which is really tiny - you kind of think you're now in the middle of some little backwater as the Puerto Madera side is totally different than Colonia. It's like walking out into a large parking lot with a bunch of nothing.
You can rent a car near a few rental agencies right as you exit, but what you should do if it's the first time is just walk the 10 meters or so to the Uruguay Tourismo office. The guy there can give you a pretty nice map to walk around by, and if you need it, directions to where you can change Dollars or AR pesos into Uruguayan pesos.
There is no cambio place in the actual port area - you need to walk out the large parking lot area, and I found the directions incredibly difficult based on what the tourismo guy said and marked on my map, so the easier version is this - just walk out the damn parking lot, there's only one way to exit - and just like a parking lot in the states they have a little guard shack with raising / lowering bar. Just walk out there and you'll be looking at a three-way triangle. To your immediate side left is some random street you don't want to go, diagonal left is a street called Rivera, and diagonal right - forget that street to. Literally staring you right in the face is this small building that looks like and actually also does serve as a car rental shack - it has a name marker on it called Viaggio. Call me stupid but it took me 35 min and two trips back and forth to two different tourismo offices to finally understand that this damn car rental shack is also the open all hours cambio place.
It's important to know this cambio place as opposed to any other for two reasons - going against all common sense and prior experience, this place closest to the port gives the best exchange rate from american dollars or AR pesos to your pesos. When I went this weekend, they gave 7.5 your pesos per 1 AR peso. The two different cambio / banks open on a Saturday on the main street of Gral Flores that the tourismo office willl also direct you to gave 7.1. Also, the boat docks at 12:15pm usually, and by the time you get off and situate yourself, especially if it's the first time there, it's 12:30 or so. I found out the hard way that all the cambio places in town other than this car rental / cambio place right next to the port closes for a little lunch time siesta between 1pm and 3pm. Personally, if you're only going to Colonia for a day trip, and specifically to renew your tourist Visa, I'd say forget exchanging any money at all.
What to Do for 4.5 hrs.
The boat goes back at 5:30pm, but since you need to show up about 30 min prior, you're really looking at killing about 4.5hrs in Colonia.
What I did, and advise if you don't want to hassle with changing cash is just pay in AR pesos - most the restaurants and other places will take AR pesos here. Argentine friends tell me it's a Colonia thing - in Montevideo apparently there are less places. I figured if there was going to be any place that had a decent place to lounge around, it was a nice hotel. So I took a cab but later learned the walk is so short, might as well walked it. Although if you want, there are a ton of scooter and moped rental places right as you exit the port area - don't know the cost but I saw people renting them pretty quickly.
The Radison Colonia is a decent place to park for a couple hours, have a nice lunch, sit by their pool and sip your drink of choice, read a book, whatever. I basically spent most my time there. You can pay for your meal in pesos, which they don't give the best exchange rate for but the difference is so small, in my opinion, that it washes out if you exchanged AR pesos to your pesos, and then back again if you had any left. I took some pics of the Uruguayan pesos because I found them fairly attractive, although fairly large sized bills compared to the more easily pocketed AR ones.
The walk from the port to the Radison is literally 5-6 min at most, so I'd say needing any small change for cabs while in Colonia is pretty useless. The only reason to have some your pesos is perhaps if you wanted to get some ice cream as the one main place that seemed to be the one ice cream store in all of downtown Colonia on their main street only took your pesos that day. Misc observation but the ice cream was about 3/5 the cost as in your average Freddos in BA. If you want to buy electronics without the killer BA tax on them, it seems like Uruguay is the place to do it in as the cost for digital cameras I looked at in one store seemed about on par with what I'd expect to pay in the United States, and less than the really jacked up rates I see in BA.
Going Back.
Same process in reverse as in Puerto Madera, show up about 30-35 min before the boat leaves - check in to get your boarding stub, then pass through immigration. Uruguayan guy stamps you out, slides passport over to the Argentina guy, and he stamps you in and stamps a new 90-day tourist visa into your passport.
As far as any checking to see if I'd done prior tourist visa renewals or whatever, it doesn't seem like they are cracking down on that at all. The immigrations guy just took like all of 5 sec to open, stamp stamp, smile and move me on my way.
I had to renew my 90 Day tourist visa, and didn't have a short hop back to the states planned for awhile, so I did the day trip to Colonia thing. Thought I'd write up my observations specifically for those wanting / needing to renew their tourist visa as quickly as possible via a Colonia trip.
Buying a ticket -
Any Buquebus tour office will do, or you can even buy them online at their website, but I just went down in person to their new location on Posadas, near corner of Callao and Posadas. Normal day trip only ticket was 226p for the fast boat in a first class cabin seat. I highly advise taking the fast boat as it's only 1hr vs 3hrs for the slow one, and spending the extra 34p for first class - the normal 192p tourist cabin seats looked ok but the upstairs first class ones are not only a lot more roomy, it has an on-board lounge / bar / kitchen for snacks right next to it, and very clean bathrooms. Another tangible benefit is that when the boat docks, you get to exit pretty rapidly as the stairs down from the first class cabin is right next to the exit lock. The fast boat leaves every day at 11:15 am from the Darsena Norte Terminal in Puerto Madera, or just say Buquebus terminal to any taxi driver - and the ticket seller will say show up 1hr before, but it seems 30-40min will easily do. You can buy a packaged tour but riding on buses as a tour group isn't my thing so I passed on that, just took the boat-only trip ticket over.
Immigration.
At the Darsena Norte terminal, soon as you enter there's a bunch of numbered lines on your left - the little sign above the number will tell you which to get in line for - it has the time of departure and type of boat. They check you in, check your passport, and issue you the boarding ticket. Then send you on to immigration.
Just before the immigration door, there's a little cambio place - you can change some cash into Uruguayan pesos, but I'd say forget it and just do it in Uruguay (or not even change any at all actually)
Passing through immigration seems to be so ho-hum and routine the guards didn't even check my when the metal detector went off. I forgot and had my cell phone and camera in my pockets but I guess they figured a gringo was safe and just waved me through in a pretty bored fashion. At the passport check, the process is pretty rapid and well set up - sitting side by side is both the Argentine and Uruguay immigrations people. So you step up, the Argentine guy stamps you out of Argentina, slides the passport over to the Uruguay guy, and he stamps you into Uruguay. Bienvenido Uruguay and you haven't even left the Puerto Madera port yet.
The Boat Ride.
Exactly 1hr by my watch and the boat left a few min early. Very smooth, zero roll or turbulence.
Entering Colonia and Changing Cash.
Since they already checked you in and out, all you do is get off the boat, collect any luggage, if any, and just walk past the customs guards. It was a day trip so I had no luggage so I didn't have to pass anything through their baggage checker. Once you exit the terminal, which is really tiny - you kind of think you're now in the middle of some little backwater as the Puerto Madera side is totally different than Colonia. It's like walking out into a large parking lot with a bunch of nothing.
You can rent a car near a few rental agencies right as you exit, but what you should do if it's the first time is just walk the 10 meters or so to the Uruguay Tourismo office. The guy there can give you a pretty nice map to walk around by, and if you need it, directions to where you can change Dollars or AR pesos into Uruguayan pesos.
There is no cambio place in the actual port area - you need to walk out the large parking lot area, and I found the directions incredibly difficult based on what the tourismo guy said and marked on my map, so the easier version is this - just walk out the damn parking lot, there's only one way to exit - and just like a parking lot in the states they have a little guard shack with raising / lowering bar. Just walk out there and you'll be looking at a three-way triangle. To your immediate side left is some random street you don't want to go, diagonal left is a street called Rivera, and diagonal right - forget that street to. Literally staring you right in the face is this small building that looks like and actually also does serve as a car rental shack - it has a name marker on it called Viaggio. Call me stupid but it took me 35 min and two trips back and forth to two different tourismo offices to finally understand that this damn car rental shack is also the open all hours cambio place.
It's important to know this cambio place as opposed to any other for two reasons - going against all common sense and prior experience, this place closest to the port gives the best exchange rate from american dollars or AR pesos to your pesos. When I went this weekend, they gave 7.5 your pesos per 1 AR peso. The two different cambio / banks open on a Saturday on the main street of Gral Flores that the tourismo office willl also direct you to gave 7.1. Also, the boat docks at 12:15pm usually, and by the time you get off and situate yourself, especially if it's the first time there, it's 12:30 or so. I found out the hard way that all the cambio places in town other than this car rental / cambio place right next to the port closes for a little lunch time siesta between 1pm and 3pm. Personally, if you're only going to Colonia for a day trip, and specifically to renew your tourist Visa, I'd say forget exchanging any money at all.
What to Do for 4.5 hrs.
The boat goes back at 5:30pm, but since you need to show up about 30 min prior, you're really looking at killing about 4.5hrs in Colonia.
What I did, and advise if you don't want to hassle with changing cash is just pay in AR pesos - most the restaurants and other places will take AR pesos here. Argentine friends tell me it's a Colonia thing - in Montevideo apparently there are less places. I figured if there was going to be any place that had a decent place to lounge around, it was a nice hotel. So I took a cab but later learned the walk is so short, might as well walked it. Although if you want, there are a ton of scooter and moped rental places right as you exit the port area - don't know the cost but I saw people renting them pretty quickly.
The Radison Colonia is a decent place to park for a couple hours, have a nice lunch, sit by their pool and sip your drink of choice, read a book, whatever. I basically spent most my time there. You can pay for your meal in pesos, which they don't give the best exchange rate for but the difference is so small, in my opinion, that it washes out if you exchanged AR pesos to your pesos, and then back again if you had any left. I took some pics of the Uruguayan pesos because I found them fairly attractive, although fairly large sized bills compared to the more easily pocketed AR ones.
The walk from the port to the Radison is literally 5-6 min at most, so I'd say needing any small change for cabs while in Colonia is pretty useless. The only reason to have some your pesos is perhaps if you wanted to get some ice cream as the one main place that seemed to be the one ice cream store in all of downtown Colonia on their main street only took your pesos that day. Misc observation but the ice cream was about 3/5 the cost as in your average Freddos in BA. If you want to buy electronics without the killer BA tax on them, it seems like Uruguay is the place to do it in as the cost for digital cameras I looked at in one store seemed about on par with what I'd expect to pay in the United States, and less than the really jacked up rates I see in BA.
Going Back.
Same process in reverse as in Puerto Madera, show up about 30-35 min before the boat leaves - check in to get your boarding stub, then pass through immigration. Uruguayan guy stamps you out, slides passport over to the Argentina guy, and he stamps you in and stamps a new 90-day tourist visa into your passport.
As far as any checking to see if I'd done prior tourist visa renewals or whatever, it doesn't seem like they are cracking down on that at all. The immigrations guy just took like all of 5 sec to open, stamp stamp, smile and move me on my way.