The City to the Sea

The City to the Sea
Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo, Uruguay

From Fray bentos we were back on another of Uruguay’s lovely hi-class hi tech buses with free wifi to get to the capital city. Montevideo is home to around 1.5million people, which is approximately one third of the country’s total population. We half expected Montevideo to be a sleepy little town after our time in Colonia and Fray Bentos but it was actually a modern, clean and bustling big city.

We had managed to find a hotel discount as hostels were few and far between and were totally overpriced for what you get and we received the most lovely welcome from the poor girl on the reception who was petrified at receiving English guests and smiled sweetly as she regurgitated the few English sentences she had to check us in. One thing was for the sure the people in Uruguay were unquestionably some of the most friendly we have encountered in South America

Montevideo is an awesome city, it has a busy shopping district and also has a quaint port area where the old Spanish Colonial spirit lives on. Montevideo was established by the Spanish and was ruled by Spain, Portugal, England and Brazil until it achieved independence in 1828. Interestingly all the games of the very first ever FIFA World Cup were held in Montevideo in 1930, the finalists were Argentina and Uruguay and Uruguay won 4-2. Surprisingly Montevideo is said to have the best quality of life of any city in Latin America.

Uruguay was a place full of surprises to us and we were so pleased to have visited, whilst there is little tourism here in the winter so sadly no free walking tour we explored the city and took in the sights.

Just 140 kilometers outside of Montevideo is another city called Punte Del Este, this seaside town with a population of just oved 9,000 is the main seaside town in Uruguay where during the summer the population more than triples. We had initially planned on going to stay there, but having read reviews that it pretty much closes down for the winter, we thought better of it and booked a day trip along the coast to visit and see the best sights all in one day.

The first stop on our tour was Pirianopolis another town that we had contemplated staying in, thank goodness we didn’t as the tiny chairlift that was so highly praised in Lonely Planet was the smallest most rickety looking chair lift we have ever seen which was in a totally closed town. Thankfully the bus just took us directly up to the viewpoint without having to risk our lives on the chairlift and we got to take in the views before heading to the next stop, Casa Pueblo in Punta Ballena.

Casa Pueblo is a Gaudi-esque building on a clifftop overlooking the bay of Punta Ballena, it was built by the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró who originally used it as a summer house and studio, it took him 36 years to build. Interestingly this artists son was one of the 17 Uruguayan survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force crash in the Andes on the 13 October 1972, the story behind the movie Alive. We opted not to pay the entrance fee to go into the museum and instead took in the views over the coast in the hope of seeing some whales. Sadly there were no whales.

Finally we made it to the main destination that we had been waiting for, Punta Del Este and what a surprise this place was. Whilst it was mainly all closed up and quiet for the winter, this seaside city looked just like we had landed in Miami, the huge towering apartment blocks, offices, hotels and marina full of yachts were a stark contrast to what we had seen in Colonia just a few days before. Even Donald Trump is in the process of building Uruguay’s very own Trump Towers. We were absolutely blown away by the wealth here in little Punte Del Estel, it is just as well we decided not to stay there as we would have probably needed to sell a kidney to afford dinner. As the town was completely closed up we opted for the first time in ages to actually have lunch in the restaurant that the tour drops you at, usually this is a no, no, but we had no option and thankfully the food was quite reasonable and strangely if you paid with a Visa card you got a 16% discount, now how does that work?

Finally we had time to explore the city and the first place we were headed was the incredible Hand in the Sand sculpture on the beach. This sculpture by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal was placed on the beach in 1984 and has since become one of Uruguay’s most recognisable landmarks which kept us entertained for the full hour that we had to spend in the city.

After a great few days and thankfully a successful shopping trip to purchase some matching his and hers trekking boots for our forthcoming trip to a conservation project in Paraguay we were ready for the off.

We just had one small matter of a 5 hour stopover in Buenos Aires Airport before our onward flight to the next less visited place in South America, Paraguay. Asuncion, we are on our way!