Montevideo City Tour

April 19, 2018 - Argentina\Uruguay Day 2

Ou first full day in Montevideo was pretty fun. I woke up around 7 AM to the good news that the Jazz took down the Thunder in Game 2 of their playoff series. Great way to start the day. I let Denise sleep until about 8 AM when I peeked my head out the window to see it raining quite a lot. It made us wonder what our day was going to be like. Nonetheless, we got dressed and went down two floors to our buffet breakfast. And boy, what a spread it was. We were greeted by a young man named Elias...no...Elias B. he told me. That was his 'stage' name as we was trying to be an actor and needed a shorter name. He wanted to speak English and I wanted to speak Spanish...so it worked out! Anyway, we ate the good food then returned to the room and got showered and ready to hit the road.

We left the room around 9:30 AM thinking that our plan to do the walking tour at 11 AM would not occur. So we thought we'd just buy tickets and jump on the Hop on, Hop off tourist bus. But as we were walking in Independence Plaza, we noticed two guys with umbrellas in light blue T-shirts. The sun was out at that time and we wondered...what is up with those guys. It turns out that they were the leads of the walking tour. I asked them if the tour was going to happen and they said 'Yes'. So although we had purchased our tour bus tickets already, they could be used anytime. So we ended up walking around the Ciudad Vieja for about 2.5 hours looking at plazas, Government buildings, churches and mercado a (markets). The young man who led the tour spoke ok English. I had to listen hard at times to make out what he was saying. But he gave a great narrative about the origins of Uruguay and its history since then. When that the tour was complete, we were a bit a ways from the tourist bus stop. So he escorted us about a quarter mile to the stop and left to go smoke and get dinner. A lot of people smoke here.

The tour bus ride lasted about two hours taking us through various parts of the city, out to the beaches and then back to the city. Montevideo reminds of my time in Colombia. I don't think it is a very rich place. Buildings are in general a bit run down...at least where we went. But having said that, the people are very nice enjoying the great lives that they lead. The bus did provide headsets with English narrative. So it was good to listen about each area as we passed through.

As you can imagine, the moment the sun came out here it began to get warm and quite humid. And we all know how much Denise likes humidity and sweat droplets forming on her forehead! But she was a trooper and survived the walking which made the bus ride feel that much better.

As we walked back from the Independence Plaza towards our Hotel (Hotel Presidente), we dove in some eating establishment. It looked like a cafeteria. Upon entering they were building this tower of ice cream. I was tempted...but we were there for dinner. We got the menu from a waiter and tried to figure out what made sense enough for us to eat. They had burgers, pizzas, and a variety of stuff. We ordered something called Milanesa with papas fritas and Russian salad. Turns out that we got a very thin chicken fried steak buried in cheese with bacon and fried eggs on top. It sat on top of a MOUNTAIN of French fries that no human could ever eat (so many). The Russion salad turned out to be potato salad which seemed odd to have French fries and potato salad together on the same plate. The dinner was for two people...could have fed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...I swear. We did not even dent it. It tasted fine.

To conclude the day, we went and sat in the park next to our hotel for a bit and people watched. It is so strange, people actually just come and sit and stare at the fountains..at least in this park. I did not see them conversing or anything. Just sitting there and using a park like it should be...for relaxation. We then crossed the street to our hotel. Upon entering, we asked if we could reserve a time tonight to use the Jacuzzi. The buy behind the desk (Marcos) said, 'Tomorrow'. I said, 'Tomorrow'? He said 'Si'. I guess you reserve it for the whole evening. So we reserved it for tomorrow night. As we went into the elevator, we decide to go up to the 15th floor and check out this jacuzzi. Well...our bathroom tub jacuzzi is bigger than this thing. It is just a raised bathtub...that is it. Made me smile. Nonetheless, the view of the city and out to the ocean was really nice up there. It really is a port\beach town at the end of the day.

We are both really tired and just enjoying the cold air in our room now at about 7:30 PM. We asked our tour guide about where to eat and eating times. He said the if you go at 7 PM to 8 PM, you will miss the crowds. Most people like to eat at 10 PM! He was dead serious. We just shook our heads. We told him we eat at 6 PM. He laughed at that. Different cultures and worlds people live in. So interesting.

More to come tomorrow....

This is the park that we stopped in before going to our hotel. You can see Denise on the park bench. But I snapped this picture to show the lady with the cup, thermos and straw coming out of the cup. That is called a bomba. It has tea leaves all tucked in it. The thermos has hot water that they poor into the bomba to make a tea. Everyone did this here. I had heard about this...but I got to witness it all day!