Montevideo Uruguay

Hi.  We hope everyone has fully recovered from that "over-stuffed" feeling we uncontrollable sacrifice everything that we have pledged "not to do" in order to keep alive the tradition of properly celebrating our blessed American holiday, Thanksgiving.  We sure missed the enjoyment that is associated with this blessed feast and believe me... our thoughts continuously reflected back on previous trips to the seemingly endless trough that represented every food group & beyond.  To compensate for the absence of that juicy plump turkey I'm sure most of you feasted on, we settled on another species of the poultry family, a juicy rotisserie chicken.   When we get back to Texas, I plan to grill up a few jalapeno stuffed turkey legs.  Woohoo!  Can't wait.

In the meantime, we are having a very nice time in Montevideo, Uruguay.  A fellow world traveling friend of ours, Chef John (from Houston, currently living on the isle of Utila); told us to spend more time in this country and especially this city.  Wish we would have taken his advice more to heart.  Unfortunately, we only allowed ourselves 5 days to explore this marvelous city.

Uruguay borders Argentina and Brazil.  It's the 2nd smallest country in South America with a population of 3 million.   Montevideo is the capital and host the largest population of 1 million.   The exchange rate for us Americans is 20 to 1; not too shabby.  But it's all relative, right?


Steaks, seafood and pastas seem to be the common denominator of most restaurants.     

Nothing like the smell of grilling meats.   

Chicken, steaks, sausage, pork loins, etc.. 

Awe... Look it's Babe (Priscilla to Nancy) 

Butterflied, basted and cooking to perfection.

The average cost for a steak is $11.00 plus beverages.  Even though we are on the coast, seafood is a bit expensive.  Those dishes average over $20.  What we found to be annoying is that most restaurants charge a "cubierto" fee of $1.50 - $3.00 per person (depending on the restaurant).  This fee is for the table setting, fresh bread & packaged crackers & bread sticks. What the hell?  We thought we'd beat the charge by seating at a bar with barstools and no tablecloth.  Nope, the charge was still on our bill.  Fortunately we did get a basket of bread and we ate it all. We should have taken all the packaged

bread & feed them to the birds.



Montevideo reminds us a lot of Mazatlan Mexico and its so much more quieter than Buenos Aires.     

An active boardwalk lines most of this city

with walkers, runners and bikers

 

 

Town squares are filled with vendors on Saturdays

 

Mostly with antiques and not my thing.

 

Finally... a sunset!  Been missing these special times.

 

What's this?   A gas station!

How about this for a novel idea?

 

It's a place to hang, drink some gas station brews and watch the sunset. 

Yeah, not the greatest sunset but who cares, it's still

another day in paradise.

 

We've seen several gas stations and convenient stores loaded with

people hanging out and partying thru our travels in S. America,

but didn't see the attraction of drinking beer at a gas station.

But here.. this gas station has oceanfront view and a park.

Family, friends and pets enjoy a few hours as the daylight dissipates. 

We shared a few liters of Cerveza with them and had a great time.

 

Bob humored me and saw the movie Julie / Julia with me.  He's such a good sport... (at times)

"anything for my wife, right?"

Here's my new friend.   She was walking around the square; not a care in the world nor a adult nearby.  Some of the local folks must have known who she was.  I heard them talking to her as she walked around.

She loved the camera and wanted me to take her picture.

I'm thinking 3 years old.  

Maybe? 

Today is the Presidential election and folks are very passionate about their country.   Flags are flowing from vehicle windows, rallies are in full throttle in surrounding plazas and cars are honking showing their support for their political party.

The hotel that we laid our head at over the past 5 days was called Hotel Palacios.  We couldn't have asked for a better staff or location.   This historical hotel was in the Cuidad Viejo (Old Town) area, one block from Plaza Indepencia and on the corner of a pedestrian walkway.

 

This is our hotel.

 

  

Plaza Indepencia

Beautiful Plaza

 

An apartment building with a few

offices.

The architect was fabulous.  

Most of Uruguay is 90% of European decedents

and is reflected in their buildings.

 

 

Of course with a growing city

you'll find several modern buildings.

There's nothing 3rd world about this country. 

It's actually ranked 41st in the world as a top destination 

for living an upscale lifestyle.

Gotta like this stat... 97% literacy rate.

 

Bob can be so creative in his photography skills.

 

The centro area has tons of squares and

these were just a couple.

 

We really enjoyed our time here in Montevideo and look forward to our next destination.  Uruguay is becoming my top pick of South American country's.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to a city called Punte del Este.  This is another coastal town and is compared to Miami Beach (upscale & pricey, Bob would like u to know that we do have a PayPal acct in case u want to support our lifestyle).

Hope everything is going well for our friends and family.  We miss you guys and look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Ciao,

B&B