Montevideo
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
1
14
28
Trip End
Feb 08, 2008
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
We are booked by water jet at 9:00 returning at 22:00. Details to come
This is the blog from Ingrid posted initially as a comment whilst I continued the laborious process of downloading photos from an internet cafe.
"Graeme is trying to download and add more photos, which is a painstakingly process since the system is very slow. So.... I have offered to add my version of our day in Uruguay. We started with a rather rushed trip to the ferry terminal - leaving our apartment at 8:15 a.m. for the 9:00 a.m. departure on a very fast ferry. The boat was modern, clean and boasted a capacity of 1000 passenger, and 400 cars, and even had a substantial duty free shop on board. The crossing took 3 hrs on calm waters. Montevideo was deadly quiet in the middle of the day - actually quite deserted - and we were wondering about it, until the city re-surfaced around 1:00 p.m
Jet boat2
. Contributing to the lack of traffic and people was the fact that it was a public holiday and, as we saw later, most of the city´s population of 300,000 was populating the beaches that run along the entire coast line. They were absolutely packed!!!! We took a 3-hr bus tour, which allowed us to see much more than possible on foot. While Montevideo is nothing like Buenos Aires, we enjoyed the differences. Since it is a port city, and sprawled along an extensive coast line, the air was less polluted, and overall cooler than in B.A.It was interesting to hear, that Uruguay has been a Republic for 100 years, and that the population of this country is a mere 3 million people. Every person over the age of 18 is expected to vote. It is mandatory and people are fined for not doing so. Talk about meeting their civic duty! Their president, although provided with a huge palace type accommodation, uses the ´official residence´only for entertaining world leaders, etc. He prefers and continues to live in the nice, but by comparison, modest home. Not something the would happen in Canada, eh....? The main agricultural produce is beef and sheep and, although they have access to river and sea fish, they are red meat eaters through and through. The portions of meat in this part of the world certainly substantiate that.
They have private and public schools, and education, including university, is free
Entering the port of Montevideo
. They also have a 2-tier health care system. Again, public health care is free and available to all, although waiting times are long in the public system (8 months to see a specialist - sounds like Canada.... well almost ;-) We left Montevideo at 10:00 p.m. - arriving back in B.A. at 1:20 p.m. and managed to get back to bed by 2:00 p.m. Our maid arrived at 10:00 a.m. this morning, so no sleeping in for us. We will have a quiet day today and probably have a siesta. It is another scorcher here with 35 Celsius and probably higher by mid-afternoon with high humidity." And now Graeme will take over with the fizzle now that I have given you the sizzle - or is the metaphor he uses: I have just given you the fat and he will give you the sizzle? Who knows - Graeme knows, maybe.Graeme's blog:
This is Wednesday February 6th - a lazy day for both us and time to recuperate, veg-out and spend some time in the internet cafe. Probably the last before Chile and maybe even before we get home to Ottawa. Yesterday was mañana - not just slow and waiting, but also if it doesn't happen - does it matter? That kind of mañana. I want to add to Ingrid's thoughts, my feelings about our tour operator slash facilitator or whatever and his tomorrow attitude. No matter how much lead time we have given him, he has taken us to the edge. Our 'mad' early morning dash to the jet-foil ferry was mitigated only by the lackadaisical custom officials who did not seem to mind that the info/data provided to them by our guy had our passport numbers, names, and nationality incorrect
Ingrid and her twin on the way to Montevideo
. Nope, don't even know if he noticed. His eyes were open, - I checked. I guess that was to avoid stamping the back of his hand instead of the papers in front of him. Effective, if that was the purpose of not sleeping on the job. We could have been Mad Molly and Jimmy Hoffa. They still would have automatically raised their forearms three times and stamped everything in triplicate before passing to a senior officer who checked, re-checked, scrutinized, verified, before our eyes, looking wise, and otherwise, I tell you no lies - approved the work done by the officers preceding him and then raised his arm SIX times, PLUS attaching his signature of attestation to the grand idea that Mad Molly and Jimmy Hoffa were entering his country with a VERY HEAVY unchecked tuba case! (there I go again...one day someone will believe what they read in these here blag rags)
We get off the ferry and wonder what to do next as it is the middle of the morning and we were not supposed to be meeting our tour bus until 14:30. So we take a taxi to that hotel, where we are to meet the bus later - the Radisson. This is when we find out the true dilemma of rushing to a destination. We had not had time to change our money before boarding the jet-foil and there was no place on the boat. On departing, there is also no place, - nothing - other than a line of taxis. So we take one asking the driver if he would take Argentinian dollars rather than Uruguayan thingies. He says yes, and on arrival at the hotel he points to the meter at the end of the two kilometer trip; he uses his fingers to tell us how much in Argentina money.
I make a quick calculation, a hesitation, look at him quizzically and seeing no change in his demeanor pay him (no tip of course) exactly what he asked. As I walk into the hotel, Ingrid sees that my accountant mind is multiplying by decimals and dividing by zeroes, factoring in the temperature outside versus the cost of a pound of beans lying at the bottom of the Boston Harbor AND, I come to the conclusion that I have just got TOOKEN'd - tookened damn good - by my empirically based calculations
A window on the history of Montevideo
. I may have paid him almost double what I should have, which is at least four Canajun dollars too much. OR - four Canadian dollars even... AAAaaarrrggghhh says I... and then I instantly go back into vacation mode. I do not aaaarrrgghhh long - Ingrid will attest to this.The hotel is one of these typical lavish, catering to the Rolex watch-wearing, Paca Raban, Gucci, Louis Vuitton luggage-type, - the poodle-fur people dragging it along behind them on a leash. Hey, it has a casino in the basement - what more evidence would a person want? Anyway, that is where we go - the Casino - in order to change our first money until we can find an ATM. And then.... then, we go out into the bursting blue and radiantly sanguine sun of this wonderful seaside town (almost seaside) and explore on foot. The first sight is the city square that includes remnants of an old wall that fortressed the city when first founded. We take a photo capturing the other side of the square through a portal in this wall. We look at the now common General-on-a-Horse. The buildings are exquisite, sandstone, marble, different hues of unknown colors made from a glaze aged by years and tinted with antiquity.
Even the grime appears to be clean grime. The most amazing thing at a gently humorous level, is the next site we see. There are workers. Youth workers. They are like ants all around the square with brooms and dustpans on the end of hockey sticks and they are cleaning the... the... well, everything! Have they not been to BA? Do they not know that this is not the culture, custom or maybe even appropriate within the code of human dignity on this continent? This place is spotless and what a delight. The workers also seem to be enjoying themselves - must import some of them to Ottawa to work for our city. Two of them could probably replace 200 of ours easily by their smiles alone!
Workers
We continue walking into the city centre and past many statues, icons, historical notations through construction... and then one of us hears the other's stomach growl and with a requirement for not just 'a little something' but something little enough for good digestion and an additive to the appetite we have for the whole vacation not just for comfort in our stomachs. It does not take us too long before we come across a park setting that meets our requirement to eat and get back to the hotel by 2:30. We take a seat underneath a blossoming tree looking out over a bubbling fountain of 2-3 meters surrounded by young children attached to the watchful eyes of mothers sitting not far away on benches under similar trees. I look around at the naturally man-made beauty of an oasis in the midst of concrete realizing that at one time, nature probably had command of this whole area without any concrete intrusions - not even an 'oasis of buildings or habitat'. Ah, how man commands that which makes up his life.
I am a devout and zealous fan, and by inference, an avid reader of Buckminster Fuller and I think often of one of his many on-point statements that lingers in my mind as worth using as a measuring tool for man's processes on earth: "there is one outstandingly important fact regarding 'spaceship Earth' and that is that no instruction book came with it."
I ponder what instructions were laid down to isolate the kind of beauty one sees here in the center of this city. I then, even more practically, wonder how one person comes to claim ownership of the entrepreneurial rights to such a location - not only here, but also back home, anywhere. I can only assume that whoever it is that has the rights, in turn must commit to certain standards of service, quality and price. I am not a cynic, so I will believe
Bldgs
. All to say that meal is light as the day is bright and the waiter is pleasant as pleasant as might. Until it is time for:a) him to put our bill down on the table. You see, they have a quaint custom of using a 'thing' that looks a giant thumbtack that, resting on its head serves to keep the point reaching for the sky above while waiting for a bill/ invoice to come punching down on its sharp little end. When the meal is consumed and concluded then the waiter just pulls them off (knowing that they have not been blown away or washed away by the weather of the day). Europe has similar thingies, but not the same. Spying a whole in the table where the umbrella might otherwise go, I had assumed logically while fiddling with this gizmo that it fit upside down into the umbrella hole, thus plugging it and not allowing ants to crawl up or crumbs to fall down or something. Putting down our first course, the waiter dumbfoundedly wonders why us tourists have pocketed such a minor item of little relevance to anything unless we are thinking of stabbing him in the arse if he doesn't move quickly
enough or something - so, saying nothing because of the language barrier, he reaches over to another table and takes theirs. It is then that I realize what the gomajoobie is for. Now we have two of them - one of them upside down with its head buried in a hole and the other standing like an erection waiting to be paid for holding up so long!
b) paying said bill. It arrives and is in numbers that resemble those I have learned in my accounting days. When I add them quickly with my incredible skill, verve, mental agility and brane-power, I determine
that they are added correctly
Statue
. HOWEVER, when one has to pay 3548 with an unlimited number of zeros and misplaced commas, one has to be exactly sure what one is doing - doesn't one? So, I am now slowly counting out my money and running my mind through my fingers over all the sums and Ingrid is kicking me telling me that I am being watched by the server with dour concern. It is then that he comes over and asks if he can explain it to me - yeah right! So I tell him back - after hearing his explanation in Spanish, that I am having difficulty extrapolating the permutations available, on a factorial basis of the digits he has presented me - in English. We are now both understanding each others words equally badly. So, I put down a bank note with some zeros on it and hope for the best. He is now returning with my change. I am now counting the change and comparing it to the sum I was charged. Again, something is amiss in my thinking parts, so I start redoing some calculations out loud to Ingrid. Ingrid is getting embarrassed and just as I about to do a taxi on it and say 'ah what the hell', the server arrives with some more money for me as if he had only given me part of
my change while he waited for the rest to be printed, wash in the wash or had to dry from a tropical storm the night before or something. I will go no further with this story as time as time is pressing and we must hurry in order to not miss our bus.
Needless to say, we do leave a tip and we do get an odd look from our obedient servant as we wish him a good day. Am I too cautious or am I correct about both incidents this morning? Perhaps the taxi made me too concerned and it showed at this restaurant. Ah well, better a little bit safe than a little bit pregnant, as I think the metaphor goes
bldgs
. On the other hand, I oft remind myself that cynicism is but an unpleasant way of saying or knowing the truth as I read somewhere once upon a time. Now talking of cynicsm, we make it back to the hotel for 2:25. Five minutes to spare and have really hoofed the last 10 minutes. We hear toilets calling and stuff like that including at least a bottle of water a desert oasis away giving our name as if it was last call before someone else would get it. But do we dare stray from here and miss our bus? So we don't. We are now sitting in the lobby where we are told we will be picked up. We are sitting. Waiting. Godot like. 2:45, 2:50, 2:55 - and I am now pacing. Ingrid is gone for both of the preceding calls and returns five minutes later with a tall glass of ice water with a lime on the side. She purchased it from the bar at the end of the mile long foyer. It cost more than the taxi AND the lunch together I calculate. It is now gone 3:00 and I ask the front desk AND the concierge is this usual and they say: 'perhaps 15 minutes late, but not usual and not longer than that'. The concierge offers to call them for me. Their office is in BA - long distance, inconvenient, difficult and it would cost (plus hotel charges and we all know what those are like).
We do not have a cell. We were given one by our apartment leasing people but we decided not to carry it or attempt to use it. Tip for others: if you can get a cellular/mobile take advantage of it in these countries - they rely on them! At last at 3:15 I ask the concierge if he knows of another company he could book for us. He replies affirmatively and makes arrangements. It will be here in 15 minutes. Ingrid and i are now looking at 1 1/2 hours wasted of our day. BUT, it is vacation time and Ingrid is now making the best of it lying on the grass outside of the hotel across the street. And I am cool about all this..
Edifices 1
. real cool - it is vacation time mañana rules. And then ten minutes later I hear the name Waymark called and I respond, the cucumber I am, nonchalantly to what I now guess is my first booking. Yup, sure enough it is. So then I lose it for almost 12 going on 13 seconds and make every accusation I can think of as only a cucumber could if a cucumber would and she apologizes but then states: "but I told your agent that we will pick you up at 3:30 and we are exactly on time - I do not understand..." I vow to look for a gun store on my tour of this town (or at least a water pistol) in order to get my booking agents fingers working half the speed his words fly across a telephone in assurance and conviction of what he does for us ! aaarrrrrgggghhhh again. But hey, I am non vacation - what me worry? (She and her tour operation turned out be one of the best we could have asked for - like Visa, it was priceless).
The rest of the photos included herein, provide a good example of the type of buildings, ornate and intricate work on their facades, almost pristine sculptures that wouldn't last a winter blast or a summer of graffiti in Ottawa! Then after visiting the President's palace and tour through some beautiful residential areas we proceed to the beaches, where we pondered the dragon-green, luminous sea, the fiddlin' and piddlin' waves languishing in a roll that took what seemed forever to reach the shore. The mood of this sea was to the bathers on the shoreline like a cat is to toddler crawling across the floor eying a pullably-soft tail. Tolerant, kind, but not about to be controlled - can any sea be controlled? The sun sets in respect to the majesty of the sea and allows it to be swallowed in a cradle for sleep until the morn when released, it will give back the requisite warmth for the continued growth and caring of exquisite and interrelated creatures within. The sort of stuff that man takes for granted as he stands on the shore thinking of himself only. Like I said above, cynicism speaks only to the truth.
Comments
Uruguay
Sounds like a great side trip! :)