I said there would be more maté in Montevideo and there was. I never saw so many thermoses in my life and the temperature during our whole time there hovered in the 90s. Below, you can see a thermos and gourd next to an empty security guard seat, plus shelves and shelves of maté in a supermarket...and this photo isn’t representative because it actually filled the entire side of an aisle.
I didn’t really have a plan for the three days in Montevideo, which I’m realizing is often needed after other ports during which my time is more structured. So the first day, we got out and walked. Montevideo has La Rambla, or a pedestrian walkway that runs along the coastline. We had a map and sunblock so we just took in all we could see both along the coast and inland. One of the things that most interested me was all the colorful street art. It was everywhere.
I didn’t see a real gaucho until the second day, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking his photo so I’ll have to substitute this. The gaucho is well-known all over South America as what we would call a cowboy, since one of their primary jobs is herding cattle. I believe they drink a lot of maté as well.
I also loved the sheer number of bookstores throughout the city. Gotta love a city that appreciates books. This place was called Libreria Puro Verso.
I also made a visit to the Museo del Carneval, which celebrates the art of the Carnival. Montevideo’s Carnival is the longest in the world, running for around 40 days, from January into March. People wear festive costumes and dance and play music. The museum also had some amazing masks on display.
Just as you walk in the door, there is an original painting by one of Uruguay’s most celebrated artists, Carlos Páez Vilaró, who was born in Montevideo in 1923. His paintings have a very lively feeling about them that seemed at home with the idea of Carnival. This is a detail of the painting on display.
I love bridges with locks, but this was an entire circular gate in the middle of the city packed full of them.
On the second day, we walked to the Tres Cruces bus terminal and bought round-trip tickets for Piriápolis, a small beach town on the way to the larger beach town of Punta del Este. The bus ride there had some great views.
I was relieved to find a beach a healthy walk out of town that had some nice waves. Clearly, I was being spied on.
The ride back to Montevideo along the coast came at just the right time for the sunset.
On our final day in Montevideo, we spent some time at various artisan markets and also ran into some friends from the ship. We walked for a bit with Isaiah Thomas, and Kierra and Keith Trotter, all of us spending the last of our Uruguayan pesos. Mary finished off some delicious strawberry & vanilla ice cream, which was our final purchase of the day for 20 pesos, about a buck.
Uruguay is the only country so far for which I’d forgotten to take a photo of our ship sailing its flag. Instead, I got lots of photos of the flag in other circumstances. Mary thought it’d be great if I posed like I was hanging onto the anchor for dear life, but I’m thinking, wouldn’t I sink if I were clinging to this thing in water? Anyway, like Joe DeLien, I’m always ready for a photo op.
Of course, the U.S. election claimed international headlines for a couple days. We’d followed the results via a feed from an English-language Japanese station that we received for about fifteen hours on the ship, interspersed with documentaries about how chipmunks store their nuts and the best uses for stevia.
When it was time to leave Montevideo, the seagulls returned to see us off. I know, it’s more likely they wanted to feast on whatever our rotors were churning up. I hate to end yet again with a sunset, but I’m going to do it anyway. It makes every departure a new beginning.
Next stop: Rio de Janeiro. We have but three ports and about a month to go before we are back in the U.S. Unbelievable.
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