or travel in general between the two countries ((delays, cancellations, etc).
Should I make reservations/buy my ticket early?

I am planning to take the hydrofoil between BA & Colonia

Thank you.

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Sat Oct 27, 3:01 PM ET

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Uruguayan police scuffled with Argentine environmentalists who were on a boat to protest a Finnish paper mill they fear will spew pollution into a border river, protesters said.
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Police boarded one of 20 boats being used by protesters on the Uruguay River in front of the paper mill of Finnish company Botnia which is due to be inaugurated soon, according to images shown on the TN news network.

"We were conducting a peaceful protest near the Uruguayan coast when three Uruguyan police boats surrounded us and wanted to detain us," one of the environmentalists, Gustavo Zapata, told reporters.

Zapata claimed that he was struck by one of the officers, who tried to detain him. Another environmentalist said an officer and a protester fell in the river.

Argentine environmentalists have kept a road block on one border bridge for nearly a year as a form of protest over the mill, which has been a source of tension between the two countries' governments.

Argentina has asked the International Court of Justice to halt the project on the grounds that it violated a bilateral water deal because of heavy pollution.

Because the " environmentalists" in Argentina have kept the international bridges blocks most of the timeit is obvious that more people travel on the Buquebus between both countries. They have increased the frequency so there is no problem . However is better to make a reservation.
I find so funny that after blocking the bridges for more than a year, or may be even more, the Argentines say that they were conducting peaceful protests....Amazing the are blocking the international bridges against International law by force, and label themselves PACIFIC.... this world is upside down.!! The Argentine Government has a laiser fair attitude allowing those so called "enviromentalists" to act like the "cartoneros" that is people that like to block avenues, streets, bridges etc in Argentina while police watches them. Most of them are on social welfare. Their jobs is to do these things.
Tha damages caused to Uruguay are enormous. The International Court of Justice has so far always favored the Uruguayan position. But the enviromentalists do not seem to acknowledge this.
Do not worry mistik go and have fun. You will have no problem taking the Buquebus, but of course do not think in driving through the bridges.

Thank you Graziella!
I truly appreciate your feedback.

I intend to take the hydrofoil from BA to Colonia on a day trip - no driving across the bridges, that's for sure.
I'll have my hotel make a reservation for me.

I am so glad that you found my feedback helpful...I guess that I got a little carried away with this crazy affair.
It is true that is not ideal to have a huge paper mill built in front of your city. However there are hundreds and hundreds of these last generation mill over Europe and all over the world. This Paper mill has been built by a
Finish company and Uruguay. It has been built with the most sophisticated technology and Uruguay is a country that desperatly needs more work opportunities for its citizens.
The Argentines are saying things like that everyone is going to die of cancer because of the paper mill and other things like that and as a solution have taken upon themselves to block the international bridges. Imagine the terrible situation. Uruguay has been backed by the International Court of Justice . They continue to block, and what I undestand happened lately is that they went with boats to manifest their disgust. They , the Argentine locals, are pushing things , saying always that they are pacific, for them to block ilegally international bridges is a pacific act of protest.!
All this will not affect you, I have been there recently and took the Buquebus ( may be there are other companies as well that you can take, I am not sure)
as usual. However at certain dates there might be an overload. Reservation one or two days ahead should be enough.
One thing do not pay extra for first class, it is all more or less the same. Just buy the least expensive ticket. Of course take the fast ship to Colonia, it takes an hour.

Just to reinforce Graziella's point...I took Buquebus to Colonia and returned from Montevideo in September. I paid the nominal extra charge for first class and the seating was not crowded at all....and there were no problems with protests interfering with the service.

Graziella, a minor point but Piqueteros (not sure of spelling, but I feel certain AV will correct any errors) are unemployed paid protestors....not to be confused with hard working cartoneros who scrounge through trash to find items to recycle.

Yes, obviously, Graziella confused the "cartoneros" with the "piqueteros" (it's hard to believe, but the good drdawggy got the spelling right, LOL!). Graziella meant the "piqueteros", when she described them as "people that like to block avenues, streets, bridges etc in Argentina while police watches them. Most of them are on social welfare. Their jobs is to do these things."

Hi Drdawggy and Avrooster, of course you are absolutely right, what I am going to do without you ?

Just to finish my line of thought I feel that the Argentine environmentalists should make a continuos effort to have the paper mill activities monitored and checked to be sure that asny kind of contamination is not allowed.
I agree that sometimes big corporations when not checked properly might contaminate. This is a crime and should not be allowed.
The world is full of these sad cases, for instance, as far I have read, Ecuador has a huge environmental problem. Since 1990 there have been at least 800 recorded oil spills in the country. Scores of spills have never been cleaned up. This should not be the case iregarding the paper mill built in Uruguay. The Finns have a good record building paper mills and I hope that both Argentineans and Uruguayans find a way to work together to be sure a pristine record is kept in the River Uruguay. In my opinion the rest is a demagogical behavoir and a waste of time that has caused enormous loses to Uruguay, a small country that cannot afford it.