Day 157 (November 26): Uruguay, The Rebound

Let's begin with the end: here's a picture of Montevideo's famous letterhead, set against sunset. This is across the street from our hotel.

Okay, we're starting to get our feet on the ground here. We eat breakfast in the hotel. Henry is keen on earning "protein points." We do school. The goal right now is to reach certain milestones so that we can ditch some big books before the flight to Australia (in about two weeks). We get taxis and head to the Old City of Montevideo to do some sightseeing.

Stop one is Plaza Indepencia. I learned from a podcast that Uruguay was invaded during the colonial era by just about every power, sometimes more than once. I learned that Colonia and Montevideo, about two hours apart by bus, are competing attractions because they were the intended capitals according to separate invading/colonizing powers. The plaza celebrates General Artigas; his mausoleum is directly beneath his memorial statue.

The plaza is surrounded by notable buildings, each of which you might visit if you were traveling without my (or any) children.

Flanking the plaza and beckoning you in the direction all tourists on foot should follow is the original city gate. It is cleverly supported on the interior side by a cinderblock wall but still photogenic from the outside.

 We walked on carfree streets from plaza to plaza enjoying a pleasant quiet atmosphere. Montevideo feels like less than Buenos Aires in a lot of ways and the cleanliness and curb appeal of the city streets is one of them. The old buildings in Buenos Aires seem to have been cleaned to fuel economic development (and tourism) in a way that these haven't. But the quiet is worth it. The parks are beautiful.

Finally, we reach the Mercado del Puerto, which feels authentic despite the wholesale (ha!) conversion to tourist-seeking restaurants and tchotchke shops. We pick the first place we see, despite what appears to be its utter vacancy (we learn later there are two other seating areas that are bustling) and this suits us, since there is nobody to scowl at our children here. As it turns out, the parillla (grill) is excellent and our kids uncharacteristically devour what is presented to them. Henry and Lily decimate a large filet mignon ("lomo") and Ali/Cate consume a plateful of prawns, even though they arrive in their armaments and an obvious sauce. I wish I had taken a picture but it might have broken the spell!

After cabs back to the hotel, we returned to the pool, Elise got her exercise and eventually we headed out to dinner. This expedition appeared doomed to fail. The restaurant we sought didn't exist, which was crushing to Lily (she had picked it, hoping for sushi). But we walked across the street to the place where we had eaten lunch the day before and mostly succeeded.

At least now we felt like we had actually seen Montevideo, even if we had only seen a small slice of it. We'd be leaving the next day and knowing there was more I would have enjoyed seems like a good outcome. Also, we had booked a shuttle to our next stop (with the same driver who brought us from the ferry) we felt ready for tomorrow.