Early Saturday morning we caught the Buquebus from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay. The ferry's windows were somewhat obscured by old plastic shading, but I did get a window seat to watch the broad Parana river from. Once across, we went through a cursory customs inspection in Uruguay, but did have to throw out the cheese we'd brought along not thinking about the border crossing. They either didn't notice or didn't care about the walnuts. A taxi took us to the London Palace Hotel near the historic part of the city. The hotel lobby was filled with Paraguayans dressed in their soccer team colors of red and blue. There was a game at 5pm in Montevideo between Uruguay and Paraguay. We walked down through yet another Plaza Independencia to a smaller plaza where the sounds of country music rang sweetly on Jake's ears. The American embassy was sponsoring a whole day of country music sung by local bands. We had lunch outside at that plaza and tried a chivito sandwich. In Uruguay it appears that "chivito" means a type of sandwich rather than grilled goat as it was in Argentina. Tasty nonetheless!
Montevideo seemed very quiet after BA. It's a city of a million people, but maybe most of them were at the soccer game or at the beach. Most of the stores were closed although restaurants were busy. The city really has a unique feel to it. It has beautiful late 1800s, early 1900s buildings some of which are in good shape, but others are crumbling. Many of the streets are lined with sycamore trees giving it a leafy, quiet aspect. The city is built on a peninsula and has parks along one side of the peninsula and a working port on the other side. It wasn't until we took a taxi to the airport east of town that we realized how large the city really was, but because most of the buildings aren't too tall it it seemed very pleasant. We'll be back for a day on a weekday, so maybe our impression of how peaceful it seemed will change. There was some excitement around 7pm. We were at another cafe on another plaza and Uruguay won the soccer game to the delight of all the other patrons at the cafe. I have to say we were more engrossed in watching an informal group of dancers dancing tango and some sort of waltz.
Before dinner we watched a performance art piece we ran across on the street near our hotel. It involved a young woman and mirrors, fluids, audience participation and some music and poetry. It had something to do with womanhood. There was another piece we missed most of whose remains were a giant abstract on the street made of apple peelings and corn kernels.
We had dinner at a restaurant featuring grilled meat and sushi (something for everyone?) near the hotel. Jake had an excellent plate of beef carpaccio and I got a piece of grilled chicken and a salad to share with Jake.
Montevideo seemed very quiet after BA. It's a city of a million people, but maybe most of them were at the soccer game or at the beach. Most of the stores were closed although restaurants were busy. The city really has a unique feel to it. It has beautiful late 1800s, early 1900s buildings some of which are in good shape, but others are crumbling. Many of the streets are lined with sycamore trees giving it a leafy, quiet aspect. The city is built on a peninsula and has parks along one side of the peninsula and a working port on the other side. It wasn't until we took a taxi to the airport east of town that we realized how large the city really was, but because most of the buildings aren't too tall it it seemed very pleasant. We'll be back for a day on a weekday, so maybe our impression of how peaceful it seemed will change. There was some excitement around 7pm. We were at another cafe on another plaza and Uruguay won the soccer game to the delight of all the other patrons at the cafe. I have to say we were more engrossed in watching an informal group of dancers dancing tango and some sort of waltz.
Before dinner we watched a performance art piece we ran across on the street near our hotel. It involved a young woman and mirrors, fluids, audience participation and some music and poetry. It had something to do with womanhood. There was another piece we missed most of whose remains were a giant abstract on the street made of apple peelings and corn kernels.
We had dinner at a restaurant featuring grilled meat and sushi (something for everyone?) near the hotel. Jake had an excellent plate of beef carpaccio and I got a piece of grilled chicken and a salad to share with Jake.
No comments:
Post a Comment