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Published: March 6th 2014
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Montevideo
Iconic tower in Montevideo In Uruguay people get killed by eagles... More about that later.
We were in Uruguay for only four days, that is not enough for any country, except perhaps Vatican City. The last time I was in Uruguay I was there for a week, and to be honest I did less than we did now. Montevideo was less touristic in those days, and less expensive.
My most enduring memory of that time was the steak I had. To this day it is the best steak I have had in my life, and it wasn’t dear, I think I paid around five dollars for it. I suspect no steak will ever be able to top the one I had then, because as time goes by it will only become better and better in my mind.
Uruguay therefore has ever since been associated by me with the best steaks in existence. It was because of this that I went back with some trepidation. I had spoken to my mother about this steak so often that I felt she was bound to get disappointed by whatever piece of meat would be served there.
I was even more anxious because my mother
Montevideo
Government house was really looking forward to this meat fest. The day we left Paraguay she told me she couldn’t wait to try the Uruguayan steaks. That and a glass of wine, something that is more or less alien in Paraguay. Not the wine, you can get good wine in Paraguay, but they don’t serve glasses of wine, you can only get a whole bottle, and my mother never wants a whole bottle with her meal.
So it was with meat and wine in our heads that we entered Uruguay, arriving early in the morning in Montevideo after a 22 hour bus trip. We quickly discovered that arriving early on Sunday morning in Montevideo isn’t a good thing, as all hotels were full. We eventually had to settle for a very expensive second rate hotel. The only redeeming factor for this hotel was its views, which were great.
Luckily we could reserve a room in a nice budget hotel for the next few days, so we only had to spend one night in our rather overvalued room.
The second frustration was caused by my mother contracting a minor stomach bug, which cut short our hopes for steaks and wine
Montevideo
View through a gate into the old town that day. Fortunately it was a minor stomach bug, so the next day we were able to have our steak.
It was as I had feared though, the steak wasn’t as good as expected. Not that it was bad, we just chose the wrong piece of the cow. The next day we tried again, it was much better, though not as good as the legendary steak of my memory. The glasses of wine were good however, and my mother ended up ordering a bottle anyway!
Obviously there is more to Uruguay than wine and steak. Actually wine plays only a minor role in Uruguay, and vineyards are a relatively new phenomenon, but the quality is excellent. Since we saw just two towns in the whole country it is hard to say that much about the country as a whole. I will stick to Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento in my observations.
First Montevideo, it is a green city, and a windy one, and it has some beautiful architecture. It is quiet as well, as capitals go. You can buy a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the town, just like they have in London. I can recommend it, if
Montevideo
My mum in the main pedestrian street of the old town only for the hilarious Spanish-English translation you get to hear on the headphones that are provided. My headphone didn’t actually work, so I had to make do with what my mother told me.
Oh and just so you are prepared, the translation isn’t in sinc with what you see, so you have to remember what you saw along the way, because you only hear about it several minutes later.
Anyway this is when I learned that the Tres Cruces bus terminal was named so because
‘three people were killed by eagles here’. That is at least what I heard my mother say.
Looking perplexed, I said to my mum:
‘Really, three people were killed by eagles here? What kind of eagles?’ My mother started laughing,
‘No, no… Not eagles, he said, three people were killed by evils!’ Ah, now things made more sense. Evils of course, loads of people get killed by evils. Happens every day.
A rough translation from this Spanish-English to understandable English would turn evils into highway robbers. I know this because I read it in my guidebook, not the translation, but that those three unfortunate souls were killed by
highway robbers back in the day.
Nevertheless I find the eagle story more fascinating and I shall stick to that version of the events if anybody would ask me why the Tres Cruces bus terminal is called as it is.
So far we have got steaks, wine and killer eagles for Uruguay, not a bad tally. What else?
Uruguay has recently legalized marihuana, the main reason is to try and combat a hard drug called
‘pasta base’ by the locals, which is a highly addictive and cheap cocaine derivative and is a serious problem in Montevideo. The hope is that by legalizing marihuana, you separate the soft from the hard drugs. So somebody who actually wants marihuana doesn’t have to buy it from the same drug dealer who also sells the harder stuff, and who will most likely try and get you on the more addictive pasta base.
The only thing I can say is that the amount of drug addicts scrounging out of bins, sleeping in the streets or aimlessly walking the streets, quite often completely out of their minds, is noticeable. I found walking around Montevideo somewhat disconcerting at times. You are not quite
Montevideo
Church and tree with pretty pink flowers at ease when a man or woman start randomly screaming at you or some other passerby, and unfortunately such occurrences were not rare.
Finally, Colonia del Sacramento, one of Uruguay’s oldest towns, and probably its main tourist attraction. It has part of its town wall left and cobbled streets and some old houses. But it is over run and tiny, you can see it all in half an hour. It is more a hype than anything else, and there are prettier, older, bigger and better preserved towns in many other places in South America.
It’s not bad, it just isn’t anything special either. If only they had thrown in some eagles… But now I am just dreaming.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Food memories
My husband is still chasing the meatball sub from his college days. He'll never find one as good. Loved the story about being killed by eagles whoops evils. Glad you are enjoying the time with your mother. Looks like a lovely location. We will add it to our list.