Montevideo, Uruguay—April 14-April 15

April 14

We spent most of the day transferring from Chile to Uruguay.  Our flight over the snow capped Andes was smooth and uneventful. We were met at the airport by Pilar, our Uruguayan guide. She told us a few things about Uruguay and Montevideo on our ride to the hotel.

Slightly smaller than North Dakota, Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America.  It is boxed into the eastern coast of South America by Brazil to the north and Argentina to the west. To the south is the wide estuary (117 miles wide) of the Rio de la Plata, while the Atlantic Ocean washes its eastern shores.  So, we have gone from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast in a very short period of time.

April 15

This morning we toured the city of Montevideo.

 

Since our hotel,  Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza Hotel, is located on the central Plaza Independencia, we began with a walking tour by simply crossing the street. This is the most important plaza in Montevideo , and it is located between the Old City and downtown.  At one end is the Gateway of the Citadel, one of the few remaining parts of the wall that surrounded the oldest part of the city.

The first building pointed out to us was the Palacio Salvo. The original specifications describe a lighthouse at the top of the building, which was replaced by a set of antennas.  The building was originally intended to be a hotel, but this plan didn't work out, and it has since been occupied by a mixture of offices and private residences. For decades it was the tallest building in South America.

 Another important building on this plaza is the opera house, Teatro Solis.  It is Uruguay’s oldest theatre. It was built in 1856 and went through an eight year reconstruction beginning in 1998.

 We then strolled down to the Ciudad Vieja (Old Town) which retains its atmosphere of bygone days with old buildings, cobblestone streets and lazy plazas.  This pedestrian street shows a homeless persons sleeping on a bench, one of the few I have seen on this entire trip.

 

This led us to Plaza Constitución (Constitution Square), also known as Plaza Matriz,  the oldest plaza in Montevideo. This day it was full of vendors and people enjoying their families.

 

 

 

One of the most vibrant places in the Cuidad Vieja is the Marcado del Puerto.  Inside the Market’s ornate building (it was once a train station) market stalls have been converted into parrillas (grills) and seafood restaurants.  It is here that we had a delicious lunch of steak.  Uruguays are voracious meat eaters and the parrillada (beef platter) is a national standard.

 

  

 

 

We then drove and walked along The Rambla.  It is an 8.1 mile long avenue that goes all along the coastline against the Rio de la Plata. La Rambla provides a great environment for people to do a big variety of activities, such as jogging, walking, biking, fishing, fly kites, or simply drinking mate with someone and taking a sunbath.  Facing this coastline are hundreds of condos.  It looks like a great place to live.

At one of our stops, a man carrying his mate greeted our tour director, Nadia, and chatted for a while.  Notice what he is carrying. It is a thermos and some sort of container with a metal straw. 

Here's a close-up of his equipment which he put on the ground briefly.

 

Let me explain.  The infusion, called mate in Spanish-speaking countries or chimarrão in south Brazil, is prepared by steeping dry leaves (and twigs) of the mate plant in hot water rather than in boiling water. It is consumed similar to a tea, more traditionally hot, but sometimes cold.

Drinking mate with friends from a shared hollow gourd (also called a guampa, porongo or mate in Spanish, or cabaça or cuia in Portuguese, or zucca in Italian) with a metal straw (a bombilla in Spanish, bomba in Portuguese) is a common social practice in Uruguay, Argentina and southern Brazil among people of all ages.

Yerba mate is most popular in Uruguay, where people are seen walking on the street carrying the "mate" and "termo" in their arms and where you can find hot water stations to refill the "termo" while on the road. In Argentina, 11 lb. of yerba mate is consumed each year per every man, woman, and child, while in Uruguay, the largest consumer of mate per capita, 22 lb. of yerba mate is consumed per person per year.  Interesting, huh?

We went to the Central Market which is such a contrast to the one we saw in Cusco.  This one is very modern, with stalls of fruit and meat, fabric shops and restaurants, but presented in a slick style.

 

 

I noticed this woman carrying her mate while shopping at this market.

We ended our day with a very private dinner on the top floor of the hotel.  We celebrated the birthday of one of our travelling companions.  Nadia had arranged for a birthday cake with a huge sparkler to complete the celebration. A lovely way to end a perfect day.