Montevideo

To the sunshine country

Country Number 2 on our big adventure

We have arrived in Uruguay!

06/10/2018: Day 1

After an early morning flight out of Santiago this morning we have arrived in Montevideo - Uruguay! The flight had the most amazing views over the Andes as we left Santiago, it was just incredible.

Our arrival in Montevideo started with a slight hiccup as the Hostel we had booked was not quite as expected. The room was basically a storage closet off the main living area, with no window, no lock and a broken door. So we high tailed it out of there pretty fast and around the corner to the lovely Smart Hotel, it was lovely and perfect for us for a few nights!

After checking in to our lovely new hotel we went for a wander around the old part of the city, Ciudad Vieja. As it turns out we are in Uruguay for the Patrimonio festival over the first weekend of October, a celebration of Uruguay. Which meant that there were markets, lots of people, and everyone was in a good mood. We spent our first afternoon in Montevideo mostly just walking around, and getting ice cream. As part of Patrimonio all the Museums and State Buildings are all open for free access to the public, so that is what we will be doing tomorrow.

07/10/2018: Day 2

Day 2 and we started off with a massive sleep in. There was no point getting up early as it was a Sunday (so no shops are open), and the weekend of Patrimonio. This meant that anything that was going to open today was not going to open until 11am.

After our glorious sleep in we headed down to the Port Market for coffee. We have learnt that if we order Cafe con Leche on this continent we basically get a flat white. We then popped over to the Museo del Carnaval. The museums here are very small, just one or two rooms dedicated to one specific topic. While they are very interesting I am glad that the museums were free this weekend (definitely good value for money). Carnaval in Uruguay runs for two months, and while there is the classic parade, the main part of Carnaval in Uruguay is the masive show that happens at the outdoor theatre over every night for the whole of Carnaval. Maybe one day we will come back for it.

After the Museo del Carnaval we headed to the Navy Base across the road. They were having an open weekend as part of Patrimonio. It was a very cool and unique experience to go check out the Navy of another country. Louise was right back in her environment for the morning. We had a great time walking around, checking out the boats (and the sailors) and watching the displays the military were putting on.

We had Paella for lunch at a very expensive restaurant in the Port Market, but it was good (even if it has blown the budget for the day) and massive (so at least we wont need dinner). We both had a glass of Medio et Medio with lunch, a Uruguayan specialty of half white wine, half champagne, and very yum.

After a few more hours of walking around it became apparent that it was just as well we didnt want dinner after our big lunch. By 5 o’clock everything in Montevideo was closed.

08/10/2018: Day 3

Today we are on bikes!

We rented bikes from Orange Bike in Montevideo. It was super cheap, $600 Uruguay Pesos for both of us for the whole day. The aim for the day was to make it the 10km down to the Montevideo sign down the coast. We had a great time on the bikes, the only problem was that we had not checked the forecast and it was 31 degrees! I was in jeans and I was dying! Lunch was the coldest smoothie we could find as it was too hot for anything else.

An awesome day out, no injuries, and only a small amount of sunburn. A successful day if we ever had one.

Tomorrow we head to Colonia del Sacremento by bus, which we are super excited for but we are sad to leave Montevideo behind. Thus far on this adventure Montevideo has been our favourite stop.