Caught the morning ferry from BA, I have always thought arriving in a new country by sea is one of the romantic ways of travelling. My notion of watching Montevideo appear through mist over the River Plate, the smell of sea spray in the air weren't quite met. It turned out the cheap seats were down stairs with no forward view or access to sea air.
Montevideo was probably not alone in being quiet on Easter Sunday but I'm not sure many capital cities would have been this quiet. Benefits of this being early in the trip and being a bit older is that we allowed for the reasons for it being quiet otherwise we could have formed an early negative impression. It just didn't seem to have a lot going for it, most restaurants and bars were closed in the evening as well as shops being scarce in the day.
One bonus was stumbling across a free tango show from some of the city's more experienced dancers.
Montevideo Day 2
A city transformed into a lively, busy, energetic place! The difference was superb and we immediately felt more charmed and much happier. Our first port of call was the Muso Andos 1972, a tribute to the 1972 plane crash high in the Andes which killed 29 people but was made famous for the miraculous survival of 16 people as re-told in the film Alive. A storyboard re telling of the story with artifacts including sunglasses survivors and the sleeping bag made out of air conditioning insulation which made the 10 day trek for help possible.
Lunch was a trip to Mercado de puerto, though recommended as a good place for lunch the Parillas here seemed aimed at tourists with larger budgets than ours. Huge open flame grills stacked with ribs, steak and all kinds of sausage at every turn, it was quite mouth watering. We settled for a couple of Empanadas sitting on a bench and quite satisfying they were too!
We managed to line up a catch up with Joaquin, one of Daniela's students from way back. It was great to see him, I'd met him a couple of times at sporting events in NZ. Armed with more tips on things to see and do we were glad that after the next couple of days our plans become more fluid for a few days. Turn east or west at Tacaruembo?
No comments:
Post a Comment