South America, 2014: Montevideo, Uruguay

7 March 2014

Even though it is only about 140 miles from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, across the Rio de la Plata, the ship managed to be 2 hours late arriving in Montevideo. It was late leaving Buenos Aires, I think because the refueling was taking so long. I actually think the captain cut off the refueling because as soon as we arrived in Montevideo, a refueling ship came alongside and immediately started fueling the ship. The late arrival didn’t affect the tour Russ was taking today, but they did cancel some of the earlier city tours.

Russ went alone on the tour because we weren’t sure that my scooter would work on the whole trip. Turned out, it would have been fine, but the Princess cruise descriptions were very unclear. My loss…oh well.

The tour consisted of an old steam train ride out to a winery, a tour of the winery and a BBQ lunch with wine, then a bus ride back to the ship including a tour through the city. The wine was wasted on Russ, but he enjoyed the trip overall. The winetasting was carried on with the meal and apparently, the wine was liberally poured – there were several folks who imbibed a bit too much.

The Rio de la Plata is actually the merger of two rivers and the land between the two rivers, known as the Pampas, is some of the richest grassy prairie land in the world. This land, shared by Argentina and Uruguay, is the breadbasket of South America. The train ride went out into this area, passing through small villages and finally into the farming country. The region was the birthplace of the gaucho, so we are seeing lots of entertainment on the ship showcasing gaucho drumming and dancing.

Uruguay is the smallest country in South America with about 3 million residents, 1.8 million of whom live in the capital city, Montevideo. It seems to be a relatively stable country which was once prosperous, but is now struggling economically. We found the area of the country we visited to be clean and nicely kept. The population seems to be relatively young in the city and lots of young families were out enjoying the weather.

We stayed in Montevideo for two days, so the second day, Russ and I took a walk through old Montevideo which is less than a block from the ship. Most of the buildings are very old (Montevideo was founded in 1726, although the buildings we were seeing were from the 1800s and later.) There is a lot of restoration work going on but there were several buildings that looked like they were on the verge of collapsing. This is definitely a working neighborhood, with small shops and restaurants on the first floor and apartments on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors. It was wonderful walking through the several blocks of this neighborhood, the streets were made for easy strolling and there was little car traffic. We made our way to the local plaza where a flea market was taking place. I bought one of the Uruguayan tea cups, made of coconut, which is a mainstay of the country, locals walk around sipping their tea and replenishing the hot water from a thermos they carry with them.

In the afternoon, we took a half-day city tour which took us along the coastline to see their equivalent of Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive. Very expensive apartments/condos lined one side of the street while the other side was a promenade of several miles lining the beaches. I have my doubts about the cleanliness of the water, considering their proximity to the harbor area with its graveyard of ships and all the ship traffic in and out of the port. Perhaps the further away from the harbor, the better. The tour guide pointed out that you could see where the ocean water was mixing with the river water further out from shore and, indeed, about a mile out from shore you could see the brown muddy water of the river then the blue water of the ocean clearly separated. Since this was Saturday, there wasn’t a lot of traffic in the city proper. Like the other areas we have visited, stores are open only until 1 pm on Saturdays and they are closed on Sundays. It was nice to not be caught up in the busyness of commerce.

Overall, I enjoyed Montevideo and Uruguay. We had nice weather, in the 70s. The sights were interesting and the countryside was very pretty. Now, we make our way south to the Falklands and the end of the world.

We have arrived in Uruguay!

The busses waiting on the pier for the ship to dock.

This was a horrible mess of old, half sunk ships just rotting in the water.

The old steam train, restored by an association of train enthusiasts.

The engine was built in 1910 in England.

Tooting it’s whistle.

Inside one of the cars of the steam train. Russ said everyone crammed onto the first car, but the second car was mostly empty. He was glad he picked the second car.

One of the villages the train passed through.

The homes are nicely taken care of, for the most part and almost all had small yards, something that we haven’t seen a lot of in other countries.

The people love their bright colors for their houses.

Starting to get into the farming/ranching area.

The wineries are small compared to the mega vineyards we see in California.

The train arrived in Juanico and people were transferred to the winery via bus.

Entrance to the vineyard.

The grounds of the winery. This is an old establishment, these trees are quite old.

The bus toured around the vineyard.

This is a view from a platform in the middle of the vineyard.

The winetasting and restaurant building was very nicely done.

The winetasting room.

This vineyard ages its wine in oak barrels.

The grounds had several old boxcars and equipment on display.

Cars showing the modes of transportation through the years of the vineyard.

An ancient road grader.

The Government House (Palacio Estevez).

Opposite the Government House on the Plaza de la Independencia is the Palacio Salvo. For decades, it was the tallest building in South America.

Modern buildings were mixed in with Baroque colonial buildings.

Every plaza had a statue or water fountain in its center.

It was interesting that although these buildings are modern (I think this must have been built in the 80s or so), air conditioning was not standard. We saw this kind of thing everywhere in South America.

The main shopping street in Montevideo is 18 de Julio Avenue. Virtually every major city has a street named after their day of independence.

The people take a big interest in the music arts.

Evening entertainment on the ship included tango dancers.

This is a bandoneon, a traditional instrument in tango quintets.

Some traditional Uruguayan drumming.

Not sure the significance of these dancers but they were fun to watch.

Right outside the docking spot for the ship was a memorial to the sinking of the Graf Spee, a German ship that attacked British ships in the 1939 timeframe. This is a range finder, the first ever installed on a ship, making the Graf Spee a state of the art ship for its time.

A small produce store in old Montevideo.

It was very nice strolling through the streets of old Montevideo.

Street murals are everywhere.

Some of the buildings in the old part of Montevideo were becoming quite decrepit – this one had a tree growing on its roof.

The plaza in old Montevideo.

A wood tricycle!

On Sundays, a flea market takes place on the plaza.

Interesting things you can buy at a flea market.

There is a nice cathedral on one side of the plaza.

Not sure of the significance of the mannequin under the altar. It was quite old and depicted a martyr because the mannequin was marked with knife wounds.