South American Tour – Day 13 – Montevideo Uruguay

Day 13 – Montevideo

February 22 we had a nice leisurely morning before heading off for a walk around old town Montevideo on a warm clear day. There is a mix of renovated and ram-shackled buildings. In some places the original buildings have been replaced with new modern ones, but mostly the original buildings persist. There are surprisingly few churches, especially compared to Spain where there seems to be one on every block. The town squares with monuments and beautiful trees are common place however, and make for very pleasant city spaces. The architecture is consuming – so different from our North American style, and Michael loves to try to capture his unique perspective. So we spent much of the day looking up!

We sauntered by the market with lots of leather and animal skins, but no ‘amazing’ deals so haven’t jumped on anything yet. We did come across a stall from a woman who raised sheep, and made some beautiful felted scarves where I did break down! As we wandered around, we kept running into Portuguese speaking Brazilians. Then as we approached the harbour the reason was obvious from the massive cruise ship in port. We ate our big meal at 2pm and of course, had to try the asado at the Mercado del Peurto. The amazing building is an entire warehouse full of parilla (bbq) stalls and every possible cut of beef is available. We went for traditional asado and Mike was able to pre-test his Portuguese listening skills with several Brazilian table neighbours. Beer is the big drink here, not wine. But it is served from a large bottle, in an ice bucket – very classy.

We needed to head back to the main bus station to purchase our next leg of the trip to Punta del Diablo. The bus trip from our BnB to the station was so convenient, fast and easy that we will be able to skip a taxi ride when it’s time to head out – so having to make the extra trip was not a bad thing after all!

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