Montevideo, Uruguay

Trip Start Nov 29, 2007

115

Trip End Jun 24, 2008

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Flag of Uruguay Montevideo, Uruguay
Sunday, January 13, 2008

We arrived in Montevideo 4 hours later than we had been told, but we had somewhere booked already, so it didn�t really matter. We have a really nice place to stay, but it is not in the best area of Montevideo! We are staying in the Ciudad Viejo, very near the Mercado del Puerto, in Pasado Al Sur - a B&B. It is the only part of the city that the Lonely Planet guide says not to walk at night, but to be honest we have had no problems. It is a poor area of town and you do get beggers coming up to you quite a lot, but you seem to get this all over the city anyway.

Montevideo is actually a really nice capital city. It is VERY laid back and you would never know that you were in a capital city, but I guess when you compare the fact that it has 1.3 million inhabitants as compared with the 11 million in Buenos Aires, it is no wonder it is a bit quieter!

Our room in Montevideo

We had lunch at the Mercado del Puerto, as recommended by a fellow traveller - thank you! It is a bustling place filled with a variety of restaurants all with parrillas - or roasting grills, so it is pretty hot with all those fires burning, but well worth the experience. They also have a large selection of fish and I think it was the best fish I have had on my trip yet, I had a lovely Sword Fish - Pez Espada. The food here has really surprised me, we are right next to Argentina, yet they seem to eat a lot less junk food and a lot more fruit and vegetables, the shops and markets are great and it is really cheap - not so cheap in the restaurants though and the budget is now becoming more of a challenge to keep to!

We have walked around a lot of the Ciudad Viejo where we are staying and along to Plaza Independencia and on Sunday night we saw all the locals dancing Tango in the streets, which was great to see. Sunday (13th Jan) was actually our second anniversay, so we splashed out and went for a nice meal, well that was the plan, but most places were closed and we had very few options. But we had a lovely evening in an Italian restaurant.

We also decided to take a bus to try and get to the beaches, we had asked our B&B owner, but she doesn�t seem to know much about the buses

Puerta de Mercado - the grills!

! So we took a chance and guessed! We did pretty well and had a great ride across the otherside of the town and found the beaches. The sun was going down, but there were still loads of people around. There was a kids football match being held in a small stadium on the beach and also areobics on the beach for free!

We decided to walk back along the board walk towards the town. There were loads of runners, cyclists, walkers and skaters and a really nice atmosphere too. We walked for miles and finally decided to search for a bus back to our area, but without much luck, so we finally gave in and got a taxi!

We met a lovely family here in Montevideo, they are from Brazil and are on their holidays - Bruno, Fernando, Christian and Mum! We had a great time talking to them and we hope to meet up with them again in Florianopolis, where two of them live.

We finally collect Epi�s visa tomorrow for Brasil - fingers crossed. So then on Thursday we are heading up to Punta del Diablo and then on to Brasil.

Internet connections are cheap here, but very slow, so don�t know how easy it is going to be to keep in touch or load photos, but I will try!