Colonia, Uruguay
Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a sentimental person. I do not care to hold onto objects or images of the past. My goal is to live in the moment and be conscious of my actions in order to keep options open for a happy and fulfilling future. No, this does not mean that I completely disregard the past or that I do not look back fondly upon memories, but I don’t see the value of holding onto the past when it provides no benefit to your ability to build and progress toward bigger and better things. I’m a fairly goal-oriented person and sometimes making progress means leaving things behind to make room for more appropriately allocated ideas.
As a chemical engineer, I relate this idea to the Law of Conservation of Energy. We are beings that may only possess a finite amount of energy, we experience cyclic time limits and deadlines, and we are bound in our daily lives by social laws, restrictions, and, perhaps more abstractly, cultural customs that dictate our appropriate behaviors.
The engineer in me encourages me to tackle every situation/system by first asking, “Given these set of limitations, how can I optimize?”
This is why I found my trip to Colonia relatively frustrating. Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay is a small town located across the Río de la Plata estuary from Buenos Aires.
The town essentially acted as a trading accessory between Portugal and Spain from 1680-1810, flipping ownership relative to which country was ahead in its colonization efforts at the time. In other words: the town was fought over for years, and whoever had more guns, owned Colonia. Uruguay finally gained its ownership of Colonia and independence in 1828.
Now however, the town remains simply as a tourist attraction. The only thing to do is go to restaurants or into little shops. Most of the things they are selling are imports anyway. The architecture was the only thing that made me feel like I was in a foreign country. It was cute. That's the best I can say about it, "It was cute".
What frustrated me was that the location seemed to actually be prime. The town was on the water and the weather was quiet pleasant, especially considering it is winter here in the southern hemisphere (and I was able to comfortably wear a t-shirt). I believe the town has so much more potential than what it is currently achieving. There is so much to optimize, all while preserving the history. It appeared that very few people actually lived in the area. It serves mostly as a sleepy summer getaway location, but with all the tourism, I was informed that home owners have been trying to get away due to lack of privacy. What I’m trying to say in the end is that the town is working inefficiently. It seems to not be fully satisfying in a local or tourist sense, though it has the obvious potential for either.
(Wow, what a brain dump. Not a traditional travel blog post, but this is what I genuinely thought, so here you go 🙃)
Historic Quarter of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay