Cocktail Total: 0
Sunburn Status: A couple of guys that could be my great grandfathers pointed and laughed at my sunburn this morning as I was getting off the boat. They were speaking french so I have no idea what they were saying, but they were laughing and pointing and smiling at me and saying "ouch." and slapping their shoulders… very odd.
Sleep: 6 hours… stayed up late trying to get an internet connection on the ship… no luck… then up early to get off the ship!
Our ship, the Veendam was scheduled to arrive in the port town of Montevideo at 8am this morning. We wanted to make sure we could spend as much time in the city as we wanted to, so we wanted to wake early, and disembark at 8am, as soon as the let down the gangway. We got up at 7am and started getting ready to go. By 8:30am the ship was still sailing into Montevideo. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm morning, so we watched the city from our verandah as the ship navigated into port. From a few miles out to sea, Montevideo looks like an idyllic seaside town, with architecture dating back to the 1700's. The closer we got to the city, however, the more enveloped in a thick haze of smoke we became. We could see an enormous smoke stack at the city's edge standing up from a grouping of factory looking buildings. The smoke stack tower had a huge flame burning at the top and was producing a thick, dark brown stream of ask and soot -- and as this soot dissipated, it seemed to fall across the city and make a generally hazy scene. We never did discover what the smoke stack was burning to create so much pollution. Once we got closer to the city, the haze cleared, visibility returned, and we disembarked from the ship eager to have a look around.
Uruguay is South America's smallest country- and Montevideo is its capital city. The people of Uruguay are said to be "old school" in their mannerisms and perspectives - and are very fond of their history and traditions. Bruno de Aabaa, an early 18th century Buenos Aires Governor named Montevideo (which translates to "scenic mountain" in english) for the one high bluff on the edge of town where he established a military fortress against Portuguese, British, and Dutch Pirates. The town became wealthy and was a prominent city of the arts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - growing wealthy from mining and agriculture. During that time many europeans, especially the Italians immigrated to Montevideo to live and raise their families. Then came the great depression - much was lost - and was never recovered. The city never really bounced back. Walking the streets of downtown Montevideo, you can literally feel the age of a once great city that the world seemed to somehow pass by.
Once off the ship, Nathan and I had an agenda to get to the closest shopping center to see if we could find a charger for the two digital cameras we have with us (because of course, we forgot to pack them) before we did any sight seeing. Jesse and Maria went on a bus tour of the city in the morning. We had one planned for the afternoon. There were dozens of taxis waiting at the pier for all or the ship tourists, and we easily made it to a mall, via a scenic shoreline drive. We looked for camera chargers in Buenos Aires, but found none that would work with our camera. We were pretty sure this would be the case in Montevideo also, but we decided to try anyway. Of course, of the three electronics stores in the mall, there were no compatible chargers. We left, and took a taxi back downtown to the "old town" area of Montevideo.
Since it was a Saturday morning, most of the city center was quiet, except for the arts and antiques bazaar in the Plaza Constitucion (Constitution Plaza). This plaza, and another called Plaza Independencia (Independence Plaza) are linked by a Calle Sarandi (Serandi Street). Calle Serandi is a picturesque, tree lined pedestrian shopping street, placed oddly in the middle of the Montevideo Financial Center. Since it was a Saturday, there were only a few locals around (not counting the vendors), because all of the offices and banks were of course closed - and the only activity between the two plazas was mainly concentrated on Calle Sarandi -- the majority of that activity being generated by tourists, like us, visiting the arts stalls. There were some locals to be seen --and you could spot them easily for 2 reasons. Reason 1: They were not over the age of 50, and reason 2: They were all sipping Mate Tea out of intricate silver and wood mugs with special silver straws as they strolled through the streets. The tea tradition of drinking Mate is very strong in Uruguay and Argentina, and the tea is usually consumed in the morning and at a mid to late afternoon tea time. You don't see many people drinking coffee. If they do drink coffee, its done in the European tradition of espresso - not drip coffee. You can see locals walking around with thermoses of Mate and their special mugs everywhere you go. I kept looking out for a coffee shop or tea shop where I could maybe try some Mate while we walked around Montevideo, but I never did find one. There are no Starbucks on every corner here - which I am thankful for - but they don't have a local equivalent that is easily found either.
In the city center we saw many historical buildings including The Cabildo (now a museum of history), several cathedrals, the famous old stone city entrance called Puerta de la Cuidadela which was once the entrance to the city a few hundred years ago when the city was walled off from its enemies, The Museo Torres Garcia, The Palacio Salvo, and the famous and grand Teatro Solis. (Which is not quite as exquisite as the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires - but the Colon was inaccessible because it is undergoing renovations, and we were able to see all of the Solis.)
Montevideo is a peninsula - surrounded on three sides by the Rio de la Plata and the Bahia (Bay) de Montevideo. After checking out the old city on foot, Nathan and I took a stroll along the rocky and sea-walled ocean front. The weather was hot and there were hundreds of locals playing in the waves on the beaches and tide pools. We watched from the cliffs above the beaches until we could stand the sun no more.
Before heading back to the ship at 1pm to meet up with an architectural city tour we signed up for, we found one last electronics store and decided that we needed to do something about our camera situation, because we were out of battery life, and didn't want to rely on our iphones for our digital photos. So, we decided to bite the bullet and purchase another digital camera so we would have one to use for the next 5 weeks. The store we walked into appeared to have all of the modern cameras similar to a store in the states, and we easily located a sony camera that was advertised as a 12 megapixel camera with all of the extras that we were looking for. We beckoned a store salesman over to help us, and with my rusty spanish, managed to communicate that we wanted to purchase the camera. The sales man took the camera from the display, and then said "Just a minute, I need to go get the box and papers from the back room," in Spanish, and then he disappeared. A few minutes later, he came over to the register, quickly flashed the camera at me, shoved it in a case, and the case in a box, and stupidly, we handed over almost $400 US and walked out of the store, satisfied. We knew that the camera was not yet charged, so in my purse it remained for the remainder of the day until we boarded the ship again that evening. And by then, it was too late. We had been suckered. Big time. I pulled the camera out only to realize that the salesman pulled a bait and switch on us. We did not purchase the 2010 model, $400 sony 12 megapixel fully featured camera we thought we had, but instead we had been traded for a 2007 model Sony piece of crap in the approximate same size and color. May this be a lesson to everyone else: When buying electronics in a country you are not familiar with - don't do it unless you have to - and if you do, make sure you are actually getting what you paid for before its too late.
Anyway, aside from the camera scam, Montevideo was a pleasant enough town - with a few charming streets and some pretty, although kind of polluted coastlines. I would recommend skipping Montevideo for the international resort town of Punta Del Este if ever your travel plans should bring you to Uruguay - Next time, thats what I will be doing.
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