Montevideo, Uruguay

---

After our return from Ushuaia, we stayed at the nice hotel, Palacio Paz, near our previous Sheraton Hotel and in a nice park setting. I'll go more into some random nights in Buenos Aire later, but this was just a holdover for our early morning ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay. We checked out of the hotel around 5:30am and walked about 20 minutes to the Buquebus Terminal. Here, we had a very easy, smooth check-in, including immigration for both Argentina and Uruguay in one location. It is a lovely terminal and we just got some juice and coffee while we waited to board. Our ferry was almost empty so we had our pick of seats. I slept 2 of the 3-hour ride to Montevideo.

On arrival, we quickly picked up our backpacks and exited the terminal. I had booked a hotel, Don Boutique Hotel, near the ferry terminal that was in the Old town neighborhood. I knew the hotel was not anything fancy, but that neither of us had issues with a basic hotel. However, we arrived a little before 11 am and I was surprised at how quiet the streets were. Nothing appeared to be open - shops, restaurants, bars.... nothing. Ok, weird. We quickly found our hotel which looks much better on the inside than the outside and had a very friendly receptionist. Since it was early, we left our bags and went in search of lunch. After walking for about 20 minutes, there were just two options for basic fare. It was a nice day, so we had an outdoor table and got one of the few options to eat just to tide us over.

We continued walking as it seemed the hotel was going to have a strict 2pm check in time. There was a very nice pedestrian only street from our hotel that went for a few blocks south, and intersected with an even longer pedestrian only street that went to the east. It was after 12 at this time and still so empty. I hoped maybe it would be more lively in the evenings (it wasn't). We found a nice little urban courtyard with some cool hydroponics. They also had a display board showing how the city was working on projects within the old town area to gentrify it. So, maybe in like 10 years it will be very nice - really. However, right now, it just had a strange, depressing vibe to it. I did not feel safe walking here alone, especially at night. There were so many big stray dogs just pooping in the middle of the street; this was completely at odds with Buenos Aires which was very dog friendly and the dogs seemed well cared for. Here, the poop just stayed on the street, and it rained both evenings, which meant I was stepping in poo water in my flip flops - I was so worried about getting dysentery or some other disease. I started making a "WTF" list because there were just random things that made zero sense. It was really weird.

As we kept walking further from the old town area, it got a little more normal and nicer, but I think the mood was killed. The Plaza Indepencia and Plaza Constitucion were quite lovely, so we wandered here for a few. We saw a little courtyard to the side with some art, including a mural by the famous Uruguayan painter, Carlos Vilaro, father to one of the survivors of the Andes plane crash. We stopped by Plaza Zabala with its beautiful flowering trees. Still, not many places were open. So strange. It was mid-afternoon on a work week in March on a beautiful day.

We got back to the hotel and took a nap. L made a plan to do something 'fun' that evening. So, he set up a mini pub crawl on the pedestrian streets with a nice dinner to follow. The first place we went to, El Otro Es Mercat, was just a block from the hotel with a super nice waiter and it had an overall nice vibe. We had an empanada starter with good beer and sat at tables on the street. It just went downhill from here. Our next stop was a gin distillery for a tasting. Gin is not usually my choice, but I was up for something. We arrived soon after they opened and the waitress gave us a nice big menu and left us to choose. We asked for a few different things, which was met with 'we do not have this now' each time... Until finally we asked, ok, what do you have? Just gin and tonic. Literally, just one drink with an option of a mandarin flavor or regular. That was it. No food, no cocktails, no alternates. So wtf was the point of the menu (see another wtf moment)? It was good, thankfully. We had expected to be here a bit longer, so we went to another place instead, Poolish Resto Bar. Very friendly server here and we had another starter of croquetas. We originally asked for beer, but we asked what Fernet was.... Big mistake. Apparently, this is an extremely popular drink in Argentina, made with coke and mixes of herbs. Our server said it was her favorite, so we gave it a try. Not for me. Not at all! She meant well though - they legitimately like this.

After this, we gave up on the pub crawl and just waited for the restaurant next door to open and we got dinner. It was definitely a meat restaurant with another very friendly waiter. He was super nice and asked me how I wanted my Asado cooked? Red? Negro, I said. He laughed in shock and L just put his head down in embarrassment. It was good and a nice end to a strange day!

The next morning, we got a decent breakfast at the hotel and lazed about as it was raining out. Then we walked to my one request of the trip: The Museo Andes 1972. This is a museum dedicated to the plane crash of the Uruguayan Rugby team in the Andes Mountains in 1972. I have read many books about this event, so I was so interested to see it, even though I knew it would not necessarily be a happy event. L always makes fun of my morbid curiosity, but he thought the museum was very well done and interesting. It started with a movie downstairs with the survivors opening the museum and talking about their experiences. Then you can walk through some artifacts as well as a mapped model of the mountains that shows the paths of the plane, the final walk out, and the helicopter rescue. There were some things that were a bit strange to include; I understood why they did, but it held little interest. Things like certain events that happened during the time they were on the mountains (some events were quite interesting, but others seemed just random). There were inclusions that I loved, such as some memorial type frames of the people who had died on the mountain. You hear a lot about and from the survivors, but little from the dead. I knew I would cry, and the worst was reading about the father of one of the dead who stood up in the news conference to say he was glad his son was able to feed the survivors to keep them alive, pretty much quashing any negative drama around the ordeal. Or hearing Carlos Paez Vilaro, the famous painter, reading the list of the survivors on the radio, not knowing who was on the list beforehand, and choking up saying his own son's name. Yeah, I am crying just writing this. Just, very well done.

Then we walked back to the Puerto Mercado, a huge open area between our hotel and the port, that is full of restaurants and bars. Again, they are open / closed at very strange times. However, it seems like lunch time (after 12) is the busiest time of day, so we got a seat at the bar area of a restaurant that had a rotating grill. It looked cool. The guy was nice enough, not chatty, but man he knew what he was doing! We loved watching him put our provolone on the hot ashes beneath the grill and our kebab and chorizo on the grate in front of the roaring fire. We each got a large cold beer and it was definitely the other highlight of Montevideo! So far, today was great! Delicious!

We went back to the hotel as it was still raining. Then we thought we would stop by a bar that L really wanted to try that was top rated: The Dog That Smokes, also located just outside our market. The market itself closes at 5pm for some strange reason - it seems like the perfect after work place to go. We found the bar.... and of course it was closed. And it looked like it had been closed for some time. Bummer. We tried to get a drink from the hotel rooftop bar that was heavily advertised. There is no such thing. It was a completely empty rooftop with a bar area, but also had clearly not been used for a very long time. We got wonderful views of the adjacent rooftops covered in trash and things like old bikes. God, we were so over this city. We tried to find another place for a drink on the pedestrian only street and found a courtyard that had a small plain room with pantyhose decor (another wtf moment) where we had a beer and then left. We just walked back to the MOJO restaurant because we knew could rely on it. As it turns out, only to an extent. This evening, same friendly waiter, but they took their time starting the grill. The advertised special was not available. The 'salad' was a plate of chopped, cheap veggies... It was fine, nothing terrible, but wow. Let's get the heck out of here!

I was very disappointed in Montevideo. I had always wanted to visit Uruguay as I understood it was the most stable and one of the most economically prosperous countries in South America. I recognize that it might purely just be the area that we stayed in, but it was such a strange vibe, that neither of us felt it was worth exploring further. We woke early to get to the bus station, which was actually very nice - whether that was a true depiction or a sign of our desperation to leave.... who knows. Next up: Colonia del Sacramento!

---