Another slightly overcast mid-twenties day in a South American summer, but not at all unwelcome for sightseeing - and my sunburnt legs! (MUCH better than the insane 37 degrees when we first arrived in Buenos Aires).
Montevideo is on the other side of the massive mouth of the Rio Plata from Buenos Aires, but unlike BA it’s on a promontory, so the river (that looks like sea) curves all around it. And all along this curve is the Rambla, a 22km paved path and cycle way, right next to the sea. Our original plan had been to hire bikes to travel from our hotel in the east of the city along the Rambla to the Old Town, but this proved complicated, so instead we decided to walk (to Jemima’s dismay).
Saturday morning, and the Rambla and surrounding areas were full of Montevideans doing various types of exercise - from the old woman in a flowery dress giving it some on the outdoor cross-trainer; kids playing football, and rugby; a lady doing Pilates under a tree; windsurfers, sailers and paddle boarders on the water; to walkers, joggers, skaters, fishermen and of course cyclists along the Rambla itself. A hive of healthy activity, that we were participating in too!
Where we joined it, a few minutes from the hotel, the Rambla started running alongside many indistinguishable and fairly unattractive square apartment blocks - clearly a major residential area. After a while it got a bit posher - more grass, nicer buildings, and with beaches running down to the sea. As we got closer to the main town it became more industrial, with lots of very colourful and rather well done graffiti, and neglected commercial buildings. And then the final leg before we turned into the Old Town was alongside the busy main road. Over 10km in all! And all of it full of Montevideans enjoying themselves. Jemima was mostly good at not complaining - although with 1 hour still to go, I had to find a quiz on my phone to distract her…
The sun was coming in and out so by the time we reached the Old Town we were all pretty hot and sweaty! Priority number one was a sit down - we found a cafe with relief.
First impressions of Montevideo were mixed. The people seemed really friendly - they spoke Spanish even faster than in Argentina, and fewer people spoke English, which was a real difference to BA, where nearly everyone spoke English. But they were so helpful and keen to communicate, it was fun.
The city itself is very different to BA - much scruffier, with many of the few older buildings shut up and covered in graffiti. It felt a lot less wealthy than BA, which is a surprise because it’s a lot more politically stable. It’s also a lot smaller - the whole country has 3.4 million people, whereas there are 3.1 in BA alone.
But after our rest, when we ventured further into the Old Town, its attractive side revealed itself. Lovely little streets lined with welcoming looking restaurants, full of Uruguayans out for lunch with friends and family, and just a relaxed air of enjoyment. (Again, this felt very Spanish to us!)
A highlight was the old Port Market - a much smaller building than its BA equivalent, but attractive, and jam packed with parillas - barbecue/ steak restaurants, heaving with happy customers. We had a big dinner planned so sadly couldn’t join in - another time…
After this, Kevin went off to see a man about a car (Porsche 911 lovers exist everywhere), and Jemima and I kept exploring.
(Another main difference of travelling these days - my phone was running out of battery and I’d forgotten the battery pack, so I turned it off so we could contact Kevin later - we haven’t set up data roaming on Jemima’s phone. So that meant losing my guidebook - on my Kindle app; my map - Google maps; and my camera! So I took photos of everything onto Jemima’s phone and hoped for the best… At least, since this had happened once in BA, I now bring a bank card so I can still pay for things. I can see why people struggle on Race Across the World!)
Our first stop was somewhere I was really keen to visit: the Museum of the Gaucho. This was housed in the old central bank building, which was itself amazing - the flashiest and best kept building we’d seen so far, with an imposing Greek-style facade, and inside, an enormous high ceiling with humongous pink and grey marble columns.
The exhibition was set out in little alcoves around the edge, telling the history of the gauchos - the cowboys of this area, who existed for 100s of years off the land, farming cattle and sheep. Fierce fighters, they played a crucial role in the wars of independence, until their way of life was restricted as land became more fenced in. They’ve since come to symbolise a brave, independent, romanticised way of life - and this was very evident in the brilliant bronze sculptures they had throughout - gauchos catching horses with boleadoras (heavy balls on long ropes they’d throw); or riding bucking horses; or standing proudly with their lances. They oozed power and pride. There were also brilliant artefacts - beautifully worked stirrups, spurs, weapons and tack, in silver and leather.
I didn’t take a picture of them, annoyingly, but some of the most beautiful were the maté kits. All over Uruguay and Argentina you see people clutching tall thermoses with squat little cups full to the brim with some herbs, and we had been wondering about this, so I asked a nice lady at the museum. Originally a custom from the local pre-European people, the Guaraní, this is a caffeinated herbal tea drink that, as she said, Uruguayans drink all day - the thermos has hot water that you add to the herb-filled cup, then sip with a special straw that means you don’t drink the leaves. In the museum they had beautiful old maté kits, with polished horn cups overlaid with beautiful silver filigree, and bone straws with a silver spoon shape on the end, but hollow and with little holes. I also loved the screens showing original photos of gaucho life, from domesticity, to herding, to war.
Jemima’s favourites were the statues, and the reliefs that we were allowed to touch - until we got to the last bit, a room in the middle where they had a recreated “life as a gaucho” projected on the walls. We were in the middle of a herd of horses; we were collecting something in the forest; we were sitting by the campfire under the stars - until other people came in, we lay on the floor and enjoyed it. A really well done museum. (They also include the history of currency in the same space, but that was a bit boring so we gave that up halfway.)
Final Montevidean sightseeing: a stop in the main square - again, more like a small town’s square than a capital’s, but we enjoyed a well-deserved chocolate ice cream for J - two scoops no less, after all that walking!); and a cup of tea for me (black - no vegan/ lactose-free milk in Uruguay, unlike BA where “leche sin lactosa” is everywhere - but I’m getting used to it!). Again, lovely service, so friendly. And a final walk to Teatro Solís, Montevideo’s Opera House, that, much like the rest of the city, looked grand, but like it needed a clean.
We met Kevin back at the hotel - he’d enjoyed his car chat - and after a little rest it was dinner! At a place recommended by his car friend, 30 mins away in a taxi.
We drove through attractive-looking suburbs - until we noticed every plot had 6 foot high spiked fences surrounding it, some with razor wire or electric fences on top, and bars on all the windows, even the top floors. Montevideo had felt very safe, even more so than BA, and apparently is one of the safest South American countries - but maybe not for burglary…
Near the end of the drive we noticed the houses were getting bigger so I asked the taxi driver. “Si, este es el Beverley Hills de Montevideo!” he replied. And you could tell! Huge villas in large plots - and you could see an extremely grand old building towering over it all (this turned out to be a very posh hotel and casino).
Our restaurant was an old-fashioned steak house, or parilla, famous for its “baby beef”. I’m still not quite what this is, but it looked and tasted like a very nice sirloin. Delicious bread and olive oil, caprese and goats cheese salads, vino tinto for me, beer for Kevin and Coke for Jemima - a very successful meal! Followed by the second helado chocolate of the day from a cafe on the chi chi Main Street, before a final taxi home. And that’s it for Montevideo and Uruguay - a lightning stop! Despite its scruffiness it has a real charm. Kevin’s car friend says it’s a better place to live than visit, and I can see that - it hasn’t got the jaw-dropping monuments or boulevards of Buenos Aires, but I can imagine it’s a very easy and fun place to live. I’d love to come back another time to explore life outside the city - maybe even pretend to be a gaucho for a bit - I bet it’s great.
The start of the Rambla:
Odd building sandwiched between the rows of apartment blocks:
Getting greener:
Breakfast pitstop:
Montevideans enjoying themselves:
Egret taking off, with the Old Town skyline ahead:
Industry and graffiti (supporting the new President):
An abandoned church at the edge of the Old Town:
Electric car charging, with a cable out of the top window:
Our sit down!
Jemima was taking photos from here. Montevidean streets:
Inside the market:
Museo del Gaucho:
You can touch!:
Becoming a gaucho:
Off for baby beef Garcia!:
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