Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de and ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
352 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 54
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
352 km from Colonia del Sacramento to Colonia del Sacramento, about 5 h 54 of riding. On the way it passes Maison du docteur Curutchet, ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl and back through Maison du docteur Curutchet. It crosses from Uruguay into Argentina - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de
The ferry from Buenos Aires crosses the muddy, brown Rio de la Plata in about an hour, and when you arrive in Colonia del Sacramento, the city seems to have been kept in a jar. The Portuguese founded it in 1680 as a smuggling base to rival Spanish Buenos Aires on the opposite shore, and for the next century it was fought over by Portugal and Spain, passing from hand to hand. The old quarter on the peninsula is the result, with cobbled streets, low whitewashed houses with tiled roofs, and a mix of Portuguese and Spanish colonial styles. It was listed by UNESCO in 1995.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de is where the day begins. Next is Maison du docteur Curutchet.
2. Maison du docteur Curutchet
La Plata is a city with an unusual origin: it was planned from scratch in the 1880s as the new capital of Buenos Aires province, after the old city of Buenos Aires was made a federal district. Its founder, Dardo Rocha, commissioned a grid of streets with diagonals cut across it, and plazas every six blocks, a design inspired by Washington and Paris. The result is a calm, tree-lined place with a vast neo-Gothic cathedral and a university tradition.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Maison du docteur Curutchet comes up about 107 km into the recorded legs. Next is ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl.
3. ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl
This is not a place for tourists in the usual sense, and it is better to arrive knowing why. The ESMA, the Navy Mechanics School, is a complex of handsome neoclassical buildings in the Núñez district in the north of Buenos Aires, set in leafy grounds on the Avenida del Libertador. During the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 it was also one of the largest clandestine detention centres in the country. Thousands of people were held and tortured here, and most of them were killed, many thrown alive from aircraft into the Río de la Plata. Only a small number survived, and their testimony helped bring the junta's leaders to court.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de to Maison du docteur Curutchet
Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de → Maison du docteur Curutchet is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Maison du docteur Curutchet to ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl
Maison du docteur Curutchet → ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl to back through Maison du docteur Curutchet
ESMA Museum and Site of Memory - Former Cl → back through Maison du docteur Curutchet is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Maison du docteur Curutchet to Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de
back through Maison du docteur Curutchet → Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia de is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.