Uruguay 1

We arrived in Colonia del Sacramento, a small town in Uruguay, from BA by ferry. As the ride was only 1 hour long and both countries are Spanish speaking, we barely noticed crossing the border. Besides, Uruguay greeted us the same way as Argentina before, with warm and refreshing showers.

Colonia del Sacramento has earned his place in the honorable list of UNESCO world heritage. This sleepy little town with small houses dating back to colonial era and antique cars parking on the cobbled timeworn streets holds a pleasant atmosphere.

Colonia City Gate-  Porton de Campo, erected in 1745 is the pearl of the city. We also climbed up the narrow stairs of 19^th century built lighthouse, situated amongst the old ruins, to receive a better overview of whole peninsula. During holiday season it is hard to find a hotel with reasonable pricelevel in Colonia. Therefore we decided to spend just one night in this city.

From Colonia to Montevideo we headed by bus. The landscape in Uruguay resembles Southern Estonia, nice and well cultivated land with low slopes. The main difference is numerous palm trees pickled inside the huge fields.

In Montevideo we found a charming hotel in a cute 90 year old building, with clean, cosy, high ceilinged airy rooms. The hostess was friendly and helpful, providing loads of information concerning capital of Uruguay, so we decided to prolong our stay for 3 nights.

Describing Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay in few words is complicated. Compared to BA it is more crowded, casual and chaotic. It is the city where beautiful buildings from colonial era are scattered between modern houses and concrete boxes. It slightly reminds City of Havana. The Plaza Indepencia was especially peculiar. In the centre of the square prevails a huge mausoleum in honour of National hero Artigas.

The square is rounded by buildings from different eras and styles. On one side there are remains of colonial City gate, supported  by modern bricks. Across the square, towers a bombastic 26-storey Palais Salvo, one of tallest buildings in Montevideo.  We came to conclusion that Ceausescu had collected inspiration from Congress buildings in BA and Montevideo while establishing his giant palace in Bucharest.

Among generally fairly aged and worn out vehicles, moving on the streets, we noticed lots of pretty new Chinese cars, representing  manufacturers, we have never heard of. Horses and horse carriages can be quite frequently observed on the streets of the City. They are mostly used for carrying houseware, furniture, construction materials and garbage.

Getting bored of walking on the grubby, uneven and bumpy sidewalks you can rest in one of numerous beautiful parks, lie down on the manicured lawns under emerald shaded trees and hide from a summer heat.  The parks have several playgrounds for children and different sporting equipment available. These calm parks provide shelter to everyone- young and old, rich and poor.

With clear weather one can get a good panoramic view of the City from 26th floor of Torre Antel- town’s most modern skyscraper.  Over the Bay, prevails a 132 m high hill Cerro de Montevideo, donating name to total Capital. There is as well a perfect sight of busy commercial port, handling multitude of different kind of goods from all over the World.

Playa Pocitos- one of Montevideo’s several sand beaches greeted us with brownish water of Atlantic Ocean. Despite shade, water was pure and warm. We carried on the athletic afternoon by visiting National Stadium and the football museum, where we found football stars with Uruguay origin, familiar even to me, like Diego Forlan and “man-eater” Luis Suarez. Despite our poor skills of Spanish, it could be learnt that the first football World Cup was hosted by Uruguay and finals were held on this stadium. In the final game Uruguay defeated its big neighbour Argentina 4:2. Uruguay earned the right to host the first World Cup, by winning two Olympic Games football tournaments in row- Paris 1924 and Amsterdam 1928.

As gauchos, local cowboys, play an important role in Uruguay culture and economy, we decided to collect more information about their traditional way of life by visiting Gaucho museum in Montevideo. This exposition was located in a wonderful old building, created by French architect Alfred Massüe in 1896 -1897. As a bonus, the building offered an exposition of monetary system of the Country, presented by National Bank.

Visiting Uruguay, one should not miss gastronomic experience. So far, everything we have  tasted, from empanadas – small pies with different fillings; chivitos – a mixture of fried meat, ham, egg, potato and green salad, served with French fries; gramajo – casserole of potatoes, ham, egg, chilli and cheese; ice cream and finally grilled beef (asado in Spanish), has been delicious. Only problem is the size of the dishes, they are so large that Andrus got tired of chewing.  Although we try to order meat accompanied with salad instead of bread, the food is very nutritious. Continuing eating as much, we will not need the car in future, we can just roll due to changed shape of our body.