Posada Al Sur Montevideo

... alongside the harbour. The main attraction of the harbourside has to be the Puerto Mercado (Port Market) which, during the day, is a mecca for those who love parillas (meat grills) - apparently at night-time it's a bit of a no-go area! This place has dozens of parillas under the roof of an old cast-iron Victorian building imported from the UK. After spending three hours or so devouring more meat than you can shake a stick at (washed down by excellent wine), we ventured back out ...

... is much more interesting than the actual town (a World Heritage site) having changed hands twelve times between Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and finally to Uruguay.

Arriving in Montevideo was a breeze, the tourist information guy acted like someone was forcing him to take this job against his will so he gave out his very useful advice on buses in the most disinterested way he could! I ...

... a chance to see many different things but sadly not to stop very long in those places. We didn't stop either in the old residential district, the Prado, which is full of beautiful houses, 1920s and 30s style. Really Montevideo, by South-American standards, is extraordinary! But for me the best was the coast, and the Rio de la Plata. Seeing little sailboats going peacefully around under the sun was real pleasure! :) Really it's a place where I could live! The next day I ...

To give myself a brief respite from the incessant partying in BA, I headed across to Uruguay for a few days to try and take in some of the sights that fellow travelers had told me about, principally; (i) Colonia de Sacramento A beautiful old colonial town west of Montevideo. I landed here on a ferry from BA. Very important historical location where the Spanish and the Portuguese fought over who had access to the Rio Plata and eventually Buenos Aires. The Spanish ...

... a metal straw to drink a very hot liquid from but it's a friendly and intriguing custom. there is mate paraphernalia everywhere and if you fancy, you can buy a mate gourd cased in a cow's hoof. no lie. *weekly flea markets where people sell everything and anything from used shoes and antique candlesticks to local produce and live owls. there is a puppy corner where everyone and their mother whose dog has recently had babies sets up boxes ...

... operational hydroelectric dam (this will become the worlds second largest when the Three gorges dam in China gets going next year). It was massive and we drove underneath it and over the top, with a huge lake on one side and a sheer drop on the other. It is pretty impressive and creates 80% of the whole electric demand for Paraguay and 25% of the demand for Brazil (which is pretty amazing considering the size of Brazil - a third of the S.American continent). In order to build ...

We arrived in Montevideo after two bus journeys totalling 15 hours, the second of which was on an amazing bus. It was very comfy and so we actually slept quite well. We met a German girl called Danielle who is really nice so we all came to the hostel we had booked together and checked in. After we had freshened up we went for a walk along the river and to the port where we came across an art exhibition that we went to ...

... beautiful if crumbling buildings many of which seem to be in the course of renovation (this is probably one of our favourite cities in South America but, does not seem to get that many visitors (presumably because it is so close to Buenos Aires). Being the port area prices are high as it is frequented by passengers from the cruise ships. We wander in to the covered market area and find not market stalls, but wall to wall parrilla restaurants. Even in ...

... from Brazil who were on vacation and than some locals...and men playing guitar and all singing...was just soo super fun afternoon...ended up staying there basically for some 3-4hr just drinking wine and chilling Museo Garcia Torres...not too wide of the selection there but very nice indeed...its open until 8pm which is a great thing about it...many art galleries here and I really am enjoying the art here. I was curious how come I cant find ...