8:15am: Our trip to Uruguay starts with a 20 minute Uber ride from our apartment in Palermo to the Buquebus ferry terminal in the Puerto Madero neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The driver drops us off right at the front door and we head to the check-in area. It appears to be very empty. Apparently we can't check in for our 10:45am ferry until 9am, even though it's written on our ticket to arrive 2 hours ahead of time.

8:58am: A little before 9, the check-in booths open and the line moves quickly as we get our boarding passes for both the ferry to Colonia and the bus to Montevideo. We then make our way through security and then immigration. Once that's done, we walk to the waiting area, which has plenty a spot to buy snacks and drinks and plenty of seating to wait before we board.

9:15am: We have our boarding passes and we've cleared security and immigration. So now, we wait.

A few notes about our check-in process:

1. It took us about 15 minutes from the time we got into the line to get our boarding passes to get through security and immigration and get to the boarding area.
2. When we went up to the check-in counter to get our boarding passes, we didn't need to show them our tickets or QR codes. We just gave them our passports and they had all of our booking information.
3. On the Buquebus website, it said no liquids were allowed in carry-on baggage. But we had no issues getting through security with our under-100ml, airline-sized toiletries or even our large water bottles that we had filled with water before we left our apartment that morning.
4. Migration is what you would expect. The one thing that kind of surprised us was that after we cleared exit control on the Argentinian side, the border guard said "follow me". We weren't sure what was going on, but all he did was walk us over to the Uruguay border guard's booth. I guess this only happens for certain passports, and not everyone has to do this, but we needed to both "exit Argentina" and "enter Uruguay".
5. We couldn't find any free wifi in the boarding area.

10:25am: Finally, it's boarding time. No overhead announcement, we just saw people going.

10:45am: We're off exactly on-time. We just booked the basic fare, but we didn't have any issues boarding or finding seats together. The ferry has 2 levels for foot passengers and another deck for cars. On our level, in addition to our seating area, there is also a currency exchange, duty free shop, bathrooms, a business-class seating area, and a snack bar. We're cheap though, so we brought our own food. And of course people brought their own Yerba Mate too. On the level above ours, there a more comfortable seating area and another snack bar. These chairs look pretty comfortable up here, so I'm not sure why they aren't all taken.

11:31am: On the ferry ride, we received a text from Claro Argentina, the company we had our SIM card with, saying we could buy a roaming package for Uruguay for about $10 CAD. We clicked the link and purchased the package so we didn't need to buy a new SIM card in Uruguay.

11:58am: We get into Colonia, Uruguay right on time and see the buses that will take us to Montevideo as we exit the ferry. You can book a ferry that goes direct from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, but when we booked, it was twice the price and it had way less departure options.

12:07pm: Our bus fills up and leaves around 12:10 as another bus comes in to take the next set of passengers. Our 2.5 hour bus ride goes pretty smoothly.

2:36pm: When we arrived at the Tres Cruces bus terminal in Montevideo, which it turns out is also a shopping mall, we tried to request an Uber. But the app was taking a really long time and couldn't seem to find us a driver. So we went to an ATM, took out some Uruguyan pesos, then hopped in one of the many taxis waiting outside to take us to our accommodations.

Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, is filled with street markets and cobblestone streets. But my favourite thing about the city is its waterfront. It seemed to stretch on forever, and we were able to see it from so many places we visited.

I also loved the yerba mate culture there. Everywehere we went, everyone seemed to be drinking it. I got so into it that I started asking people if I could take their photo with their yerba mate.

While in Uruguay, we also visited the cute town of Colonia del Sacramento, with many reminants from when the Portuguese settled in the area.