The first foray out of BA

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  Montevideo, Uruguay
Monday, November 10, 2008

We started our Uruguayan adventure with an early morning ferry trip to Colonia from the very plush (Andy calls it first world) Buquebus terminal in BA, big fancy waterfall, would rival Vancouver airport.  Weīre hoping this is the standard we can expect from all transport terminals we will encounter in the coming months ..... NOT!  We decided to take the slow ferry, thinking we could go out on deck and enjoy the view of the retreating Buenos Aires skyline, take in some air etc.   But no, the boat is like a plane, you canīt go outside, canīt see where youīre going, and the seats are like airline seats, reclining and all.  It turned out to be the fast boat after all, not sure how we managed that, but we connected with the bus and hoofed it straight to Montevideo.  Another magnificent terminal, Tres Cruces.  We were introduced there to the local beer "Patricia" and chivitos, Uruguayīs steak sandwich: I ordered a Canadiense, it had everything under the sun on it, including peas.  Not sure why itīs called a Canadian.  But bloody brilliant.

We found our hostel in an historic building on the quiet main square of Plaza de la Indepencia.  Our room overlooked the square with the enormous statue of Artigas on his horse (local hero).  Sundays are a bit quiet in Montevideo apparently, and there werenīt many people around in the Old Town .... in fact the ratio of people to tourist police was about 2:1.  Amazing contrasts in the old town, many crumbling buildings with windows bricked up, waiting for someone to snatch it up and realise itīs potential, others have already taken advantage of an influx of EU funds and are restored to their former glory.

We made it all the way down to the water and discovered where all the people had been hiding.  Hundreds of fishing poles bobbing in and out of the river, people drinking the ubiquitous mate and sunning themselves, serious football games being played on dusty pitches behind chainlink fences, all with a backdrop of shipping containers in the port, graffitied buildings, and the glistening waters of the Rio de la Plata.

We whiled away the rest of the afternoon in "our" plaza, chatting (ha!) with some local ladies who were actually Peruvian and who, like all women here, fell in love with Patrick.  We tried to go for something different for dinner and went to a Basque restaurant recommended in one of the books, but it was non-existent.  Ended up at an Italian chain restaurant which was actually really great, enormous salads and great pasta .... they could do something about the lighting though.  It was full of locals watching a football match, all the tables were seated on the side facing the tv, I think I was the only person there facing the wrong way.

We took it easy the next morning and headed out just before lunch.  The old town was not a great deal busier than it was on Sunday, but then again we are comparing everything to Buenos Aires, which is a nuthouse.  We wandered down to the Mercado del Puerto, which is not really a "market" per say, itīs a 200-year-old iron, wood, and glass structure housing about 20 restaurants, all specialising in parrillada - meat cooked on a parrilla, which is basically a wood burning bbq.  Oh my God.  It was magnificent.  Patrick chose the restaurant, they were all pretty much the same from what we could see, and from where we sat we could see seven fires!  We had a massive meal over the course of about two or three hours, which included a bottle of medio y medio, or half sparkling wine and half white wine.  Patrick made friends with some of the touts trying to get people into their restaurants, and got himself a tour of the building.  Blair bought our first souvenir, a lovely charcoal sketch of the market.

Then it was off to the beach.  What a surprise.  I never imagined there would be such nice, clean beaches right in the heart of Montevideo.  Change the colour of the water and add a few decent waves, it could've been Bondi.  The water was warm enough to go all the way in and Patrick enjoyed playing in the sand for a couple of hours.  On the way home Blair almost got arrested in the supermarket.  He set off the alarms as we were leaving the store and a policeman (not a security guard, a policeman) chased us out and brought him back to the store.  It took us a few minutes to figure out it was the key in Blair's pocket .... we clean forgot to retrieve our backpack from the lockers at the front of the store.  Whoops!

The next morning we decided to skip the stale bread and sugary cornflakes offered at the hostel and went to a cafe nearby for something a bit more substantial.  It was across the road from the fully restored Teatro Solis, which apparently has 55 different types of Uruguayan marble inside.  We were unable to confirm this as there was a tour an hour before we arrived on Sunday, and not another one until three hours after we left on Tuesday.  A few years away from being a tourist and I forgot everything is closed on Monday.  Looked nice through the windows though.

All in all, loved Montevideo, a very laid back place, chilled out atmosphere and a pleasant break from the chaos of Buenos Aires.  I thought portenos drank a lot of mate but they've got nothing on the uruguayans .... any time of day, everywhere you go, all walks of life are carrying a thermos of hot water and a mate guord.  It's quite a commitment really, much more than picking up a Timmy's at the drive-thru.

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