Montevideo

The rainy cold front continued and I decided to change my plans and head straight for the capitol, Montevideo instead of going to one of the smaller beach cities further along the coast. There should be more to do and see there given the weather. At breakfast I found the couple I had dinner with last night had come to that very same conclusion, so we went to the bus station together, and ended up spending much of the day together. In Montevideo we took a city bus downtown from the main bus station and checked in to a nearby hostel. We walked around the downtown and oldest part of the city, getting a feel for what was around us. In the museum of the city's history, a chatty guard explained about the history of the town - the fortress walls were destroyed for the city to expand, but the entrance gate still exists. He opened up old wooden chests, for us to look at, and finally he sat down at an antique piano and played a few songs (all of these things had signs on them telling the public not to touch them). Outside the gate of the old city is a tall modern building that seems like it should have business offices in it - instead it is the presidential palace with guards in the glass lobby! The rain continued to hamper sightseeing and I ended up sitting by the fireplace at the hostel talking to the few other travelers there for part of the afternoon. I went with the couple for a dinner of paella at a restaurant we found by accident while looking for one recommended in a guidebook, called Fugo, which turned out to be great discovery. I am not accustomed to the eating schedule here and in Argentina, which involves eating bread for breakfast at 8am, a big lunch at around 1pm, and a large dinner beginning between 8 and 11 pm. We waited until 7:45 to start looking for our intended restaurant and found it was still closed a bit after 8, when we, tired and hungry, stumbled into Fugo as the very first customers of the evening close to 8:20. Happily, the food was good and the restaurant filled up with locals of all ages, families with babies and older couples, shortly afterward. Aside from our paella, everything served around us, mostly parilla grilled meats and salads, looked great. Happy with our dinner this night, we went back and I sat at the fireplace to dry off once again, then headed to bed.

I spent the next day wandering around the city with a Swiss traveler I met at the hostel, Timmy. We stopped into some museums, went to the market, discovered that underneath the statue in the Plaza Independencia is a tomb of one of the founders of independent Uruguay, with flame and military guards. Passing by yesterday I thought maybe the stairway down was for a subway or something similar - this took me by surprise! We went into some small art and photography museums, a the museum of history of civilization (filled with replicas of artifacts from all the great civilizations of the world, beginning with the cave paintings of Lascaux, Egypt, Ur, Greece, Rome, up through modern times - much better suited for children. We walked along the brown river and noted the soviet style apartment buildings. This is an election weekend and one of the two political parties - the color party - uses a lot of soviet symbols even though it is not promoting the same ideas that had been associated with them. I missed an up close view of the copy of the famous Saudi skyscraper but did see it from a distance. We went back to the hostel to join a group of Brazilians to go to futbol (soccer) game at the famous Estadio Centenario here, that hosted the very first World Cup in 1930. The city's team, Peñarol, was playing. It wasn't a big game, but the fans were still happy, singing the entire time. It was certainly interesting to see. Afterward I had dinner in the hostel then went to an “Irish” bar (a popular sort of place here and in Buenos Aires) and spent the evening listening to live covers of American music with Timmy and a Dutch friend of his. We went to a dance club playing not only the usual mix of Latin American songs heard everywhere, but also a good mix of Brazilian sambas! Night time here is much busier than the day - streets are filled with young people (and empty wine bottles). What an interesting experience!

---

Part of trip: Granjas en Argentina

---