Just over 2 months since arriving in South America, we arrived in Uruguay and ready to settle in for a month to improve our Spanish. We picked this place as Uruguay is a smallish country in South America and Montevideo would provide a good base for some trips before school started and on the weekends. In the following post I'll describe the other places we visited but firstly: MONTEVIDEO
With around 1.3 million people, Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and is located on the northern bank of the Rio Plata, just across and east of Buenos Aires. This city has a seen a lot over the years since its colonial times when the city was encircled by a wall. Overcoming the problems of being wedged between Portuguese interests (Brazil), Spanish interests (Argentina but Spanish also settled in Uruguay), and the English invasions and short rule, Montevideo has created some beautiful buildings, which remain the main draw card for short term tourists.
This includes the Teatro Solís, built 1840:
Main foyer chandelier
Main hall
And the grand Palcio Salvo, finished construction in 1928 at 100m tall, was for a short time the tallest building in South America. It included a "lighthouse" at the top but this was in use less than a year as it confused the boats.
Plaza Independencia
Palacio Salvo through the old city gate
Palacio salvo stairs
Original fittings on the 2nd floor of Palacio Salvo
On the 10th floor, an apartment has been completely refurbished for use as an AirBNB but there remains an original WORKING telephone as well as a record player.
We were fortunate to pass these buildings every day on our way to language school, which was located in the old (colonial) part of the city. This meant cruising through the main plaza, through the gate, and finally to school.
Another view of Plaza Independencia and the old city gate at the far end
Main foyer of the language school.
To make the most of our home stay experiences (limiting the amount of English spoken), Claire I stayed with different families whilst in Montevideo. This was my apartment, my host family, and the local feria (market) that would be in front of the apartment building every Friday.
My room...
Alvaro and Estelle
This feria, and the one in the next street over that ran on Tuesady became a regular activity for us, as we bought our fresh fruit. And like going to the feria, we did our best to get into the everyday activites of living in Montevideo.
Buying fresh local cheese - Colonia is similar to Swiss Emental
Torta Frita is an institution in Montevideo. Claire and I were both told, independently, about it on our first day. Apparently these carts come out onto the street when it rains, and the make a dough somewhere between a doughnut and a pancake, then deep fry it and cover it your choice of sugar - Straight sugar or Dulce de leche. Though there was a lot of rain whilst we were there (A LOT) we only found a cart on the last night we were there. And she just sold her last bit of mixture when we got there. Thankfully we'd found some in a market a couple of weeks earlier even though it wasn't raining then.
Like many countries, Uruguay has its own drinking specialties and it was only right that we tried them out. Grapa Miel has been reported a favourite but we weren't so sure.
Of course there is wine. Tannat is there choice of grape and they often will blend it with Merlot. We found the best thing to do was do a wine tasting session.
We also tried the local beer. The funny thin is though it is often as a a litre bottle, which is cold, and served with ice cold glasses. The result being the first pour can occasionally leave you with head ice, a semi solid material that floats just below the head.
We also had to try the local foods. Unfortunately, once we tried some of them, we found a confitería just up the road and it became a regular stop on the way to school. Below you'll see bizcochos which was the Sunday breakfast treat in my house as well as the Monday morning tea at school, and below them you'll see Ojitos (little eyes) and Escones (not scones) which are probably my favourite things I ate here.
During the week we also made sure we ventured out to different parts of the city and immersed into the local scene. We went walking to various neighbourhoods, walking along the water (the Rambla), and visiting some art and photo galleries.
An old prison now turned into a Contemporary art space for young artists.
Walk for long enough along the Rambla and you arrive at the MONTEVIDEO sign
Though many people just take the bus so they can line up for a shot like this one.
Stay tuned for the next installment of when we went to other places. 28 975 Km (14011Km Flights, 7876Km Sailing, 6973Km Bus, 97km Hiking, 18Km Horse riding)