We sleep far too late. Our beds are just right, better bunk beds than most although still squeaky. Hostel Urbano is half built, half a hostel and half a political recruitment office, and to compliment this is also mostly unisex, including the un-curtained bathroom. At least there are locks on the doors.
We are scheduled to return to Montevideo in a week anyway, so today is a brief taster so we are orientated on our return. We are, however, starving, and in need of a Big Feed.
We attempted to find a restaurant by being sucked into the Sunday market. Here we have some flags. On the left is the yellow and black of Peñerol. On the right is the red, white and blue of Club Nacional. Everyone in the whole country is one or the other, and naturally enough when these teams meet it is revered as El Clasico.
Lots and lots of maté drunk here.
We suss out a fancy diner called El Gaucho. It is open on a Sunday and sells real food, which is enough for us. Ok, so our red wine never arrived, but this plate of meat comes from the parilla, or grill, and whilst a barbecue is called an asado, so is this delicious cut of beef ribs. It is man-food, you need to pick it up and tear it apart, in stark contrast to Sarah's delicate entrecot. These two meat-mountains cost, with water, about £15, mas o menos, and had we received our wine would have cost substantially more.
For those who care, like Sarah, an important aside: whilst in Brazil and Paraguay hot sauce is virtually mandatory with every meal (scrambled eggs and Tabasco sauce for breakfast, OMG), in the southern cone countries it is damnably difficult to get salsa de picante. Sure, Argentina has chimichurri, but it is fiendishly tricky to get, and rarely offers the requisite level of spiciness. If Tabasco wasn't about £3 a bottle we'd be buying it in bulk. BE WARNED.
On the other hand, in Rio we saw a Tabasco sauce box set, all five sauces together and presented nicely. £20 for the lot.
Didn't know it, but Montevideo is LatinAmericana City Of Culture 2013. So it says at this museum.
Many cities have these, but not quite to the same extent. This is a fountain, on which you attach a lock with the names of you and your loved one.
Attractive buildings everywhere.
This is Montevideo's famous Plaza Independencia, and if you see a photo of this city it is usually of the building below, which is, of course, very attractive in real life. They never show the view above though, facing west towards the Ciudad Vieja and the port.
In the Old Town we have ice cream. The Uruguayans are famous for their desserts. We were not disappointed (even if a cone cost us about £1.50 !)
The Old Town is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, it just appears at the end of streets.
Montevideo's Ramblas are famous, they stretch on for miles along the coastline of the city, and make for a decent walk. There are some small sections of beach too. However a lot of the seafront at this part of town is dominated by hideous tower blocks, some of which are really old and gnarly! And I don't mean that in a good way!
The view west along Las Ramblas.
If you have ever wondered what such an establishment should be called in Spanish, here it is.
Montevideo is incredibly European. It makes me very curious as to just what Buenos Aires is going to be like. Sections of the city, we could have been wandering Madrid or, like above, London. It is the least Latin American country we have been in yet.
This monument, to those who were imprisoned and disappeared throughout Latin America due to the state terrorism, is a metal spine stretching up to the sky. Discrete and well executed, and typical of this city.
We pick up some food for dinner at the supermarket and decide that shifting to vino tinto might be a good idea, seeing as beer is pretty expensive here, Uruguayan or no, whereas wine is expensive if it hits a fiver. Tannat is the local grape variety and, as it turns out, goes very nicely with a baguette, salami, cream cheese and nuts for dinner. Interestingly, in spite of its name, it seems to be very tannin-light, as we suffer no purple tongues!
If you wondered why I suddenly had time to post a load of these ramblings up, this was exactly it. Watched a couple of ropey movies, like Catwoman, and relaxed for the first time in a long time.
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