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Published: March 26th 2007
Some claimed that Montevideo is the Latin American city with the highest quality of life. While the guidebook claimed : "Montevideo is probably South America's most laid-back capital." I think by saying that Montevideo is "laid-back' it meant dull. The capital city of Uruguay is small with a population of not more than 1.4 million, many of them are students and young workers, but this place is far from the excitement that Buenos Aires has to offer. It may be laid-back but the bottomline is there was simply not much going on.
The city was founded by Portuguese and the Spanish later ruled the area. I gather many of the European forces then were hoping to control this area as Montevideo sits right at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata which flows to the Atlantic Ocean. Today, it is a major trading hub in Latin America.
A short ferry ride on the
Buquebus took me from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. As with all things in Latin America, the ferry was not on time. It was almost 2 hours late in departing and there was no information provided to passengers at the terminal. The humid breeze of
the harbour drifted in as we arrived at the ferry terminal. It was a hot and humid day. There was limited public transport from the ferry terminal to the city centre and the buses seemed to be all headed for Punta del Este. Taxi was the only option to get to the city centre.
The arty
Red Hotel which is converted from one of the old European mansion with high-ceiling and balconies, was my home here. This little place seemed like a place out of
Wong Kar Wai's film set. Many of the walls of the mansion were painted in bright red. It was tastefully furnished to give the Nouveau European classic feel. To me, if it looks good, it
will be good place to stay. Afterall, the place seemed clean and the staff were friendly. Whether the Red was truly good, I could only find out later - in the shower. After a long day on the road, a nice hot shower/bath is all that I look forward to but alas! There was no hot water. Not wanting to go without shower, I had to brace myself for an icy cold water. I had to start by doing a bird-bath thing
Animal
By Joaquin Torres Garciaand later proceeded to a full head to toe shower.
Most of the more interesting sites at Montevideo are located at the Ciudad Vieja (Old Quarter) and can be easily explored in half a day. But there is really nothing much happening here. The strange thing about the Uruguayans is they can have one imposing and spectacular old monuments in the Plaza Independencia and right next to it is an ugly post-Soviet type office building. Surely Jose Artigas deserves more respect than this. The one place that worth special mention is the
Museo Torres Garcia. Although the museum is small by international standard, a number of of Joaquin Torres Garcia's original artworks are exhibited there and is a good place to browse if you are into art.
Given that nothing much is going on in the city, it is not surprising that most folks in Montevideo enjoy fishing. Many of them, with their self-made fishing rods, will be sitting along the Rambla and the Mercado del Puerto area waiting for their catch. It was one of those old-man-and-the-sea scenes with the sunset at the background but before I could capture the moment, the dark clouds gave way to the heavy rain and every one left for shelter.
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