South America, Day 5: Montevideo, Uruguay

I crossed two big thresholds in my Spanish today, but explaining them will take a little while. Also, this is a very picture-heavy post.

Got up this morning around 6am to get everything packed for an inadvisably-early 8am boat to Montevideo, and headed out the door at 630 just as my roommates were getting back from their night out (ah, the Buenos Aires party scene...).

The Buquebus terminal in Buenos Aires is very modern and shiny stone-and-steel-and-glass, and definitely does not start doing business until 7am. Arriving ten minutes to seven just meant I was going to stand in a line longer; fortunately, when the staff showed up, everything moved very quickly. Less fortunately, they wouldn't give me a boarding pass.

Threshold #1: knowing enough Spanish to deal with irate immigrations officers
Apparently, the full-page sticker that they put into my passport at Ezeiza airport was not the only thing they were supposed to do: immigration a couple nights ago completely neglected to give me an entry stamp. Not good when you're trying to leave the country, and immigrations can't find evidence that you entered legally. The ticket officer wouldn't give me a boarding pass, and referred me to immigrations upstairs, who sent me off to some guy in a side office. This man was rather disturbed that I was missing the requisite stamps, and spoke no English.

It turned out my Spanish was sufficient to convince him that, look, all they gave me at Ezeiza Airport was this sticker (granting 10 years access without having to repay the entry fee), and they didn't give me any other stamps, and I'm very sorry but I have no idea what they were supposed to do. I suspect this isn't the first time this has happened - he sighed a bit at the mention of Ezeiza - so after a few minutes he sent me...back downstairs to get a boarding pass. Pass in hand, I returned, he had a few words with another immigration officer, who glared at me, and then mercifully proceeded to stamp my passport with an Uruguayan entry and no fines. Hooray!

Victory!

 The 3 hour boat ride to Montevideo was very comfortable. The first thing you see upon getting onto the ship is a cafeteria - brilliant design for a boat leaving at 8am. I'm used to such things being incredibly expensive, but 2 croissants and a coffee only cost about USD 3, so no complaints!

Seating in tourist class is like an especially nice economy class on a US airline. Much better if you get a seat behind an aisle!

First view of Montevideo from the boat

 The Buquebus terminal in Montevideo isn't as shiny and new as the one in Buenos Aires, but it gets the job done. My backpack was waiting for me on the baggage claim conveyor as soon as I was off the boat, and besides a short line to put luggage through an X-ray machine for Customs, there was no delay leaving. Right outside the terminal there's an interesting statue made of concrete planks engraved with the names of Buquebus destinations:

The planks say "Buenos Aires", "Montevideo", etc.

 After checking into my hostel, the first order of business was to scare up some lunch. Two croissants just isn't going to cut it, after all. The Uruguayans are just as known for their love of meat (especially beef) as the Argentines, and will loudly argue that theirs is superior. I went by the Mercado de Puerto, an enclosed structure near the port in Montevideo containing a wide selection of restaurants - kind of like Quincy Market in Boston, except that they're all parillas. What's a parilla? This:

MEAT. MOAR MEAT.

 I wanted to stay light on my feet, so I decided to order the vacίo, or skirt steak, thinking that it would end up being a fairly thin cut of meat like a carne asada back home. Boy, was I wrong:

Great value for $25: sparkling water, fries, and a GIANT steak

After lunch, I went to the Museo de Carnaval, which went over some of the Carnaval traditions in Uruguay. It's free on Tuesdays, which was good - it's not particularly amazing. There were some cool costume exhibits, however, including the best helmet ever.

Carnaval mask

Guys, we need to make one of these for BYOBW next year...

 Leaving the Carnaval Museum (probably not worth it if you need to spend money to get in...), I followed the shoreline counterclockwise around the city. The first half mile or so was all along the port, which is really uninteresting during the day. I'm told it gets sketchy at night, and I believe it. However, once you get past the docks and reach the actual waterfront, it's quite pretty (didn't hurt that it was a beautiful day). Fun fact: the water you see is freshwater from the Rio Plata, not saltwater.

My hair just gets more and more crazy as the day goes on. It was pretty windy.

After maybe another half mile, I cut up into the interior of the Ciudad Vieja district along Treinta y Tres, and then hung a right on the main pedestrian street to get the quick rundown of all the main sights. First up, the main theatre in Montevideo: Teatro Solis, housed in a grand Classical-style building:

In the center of the Plaza Independencia, there is a giant statue of national hero General Jose Artigas. Nice statue, and also a nice place to have a seat and people-watch for a while. After doing that, don't forget to head downstairs, because underneath the statue is Artigas' mausoleum:

Artigas' mausoleum is quite spare: dimly light, with black stone floors and bare concrete walls; the center of focus (and of light) is on Artigas' ashes in an urn in the center of the room. Two men stand guard over the ashes, and concrete text marks the key dates in Artigas' life:

The three-dimensional nature of the typography was pretty cool, as was the illumination.

The plaza also has a few cool buildings ringing it. Indeed, my walk down Montevideo was marked by realizations of "wow, that's a really cool building, right next to a bunch of generic concrete blocks." For example, the Museo de Gaucho y Moneda (Cowboy and Coin Museum) is set in a grand old mansion. It's a shame there's no budget for refinishing of the buildings; if some of the smog and acid rain damage were cleaned up, Av 18 de Julio would be really stunning!

Those rooms in the round tower must be the coolest offices in the world.

The sign on this fountain calls it the Fountain of Locks. Legend has it that if a couple comes here and attaches a lock to the fountain, at some point in the future, they will return to the fountain still together. There are a lot of locks on the fountain.

Not feeling like adventuring too far down the street before it got dark (since I'd heard Ciudad Vieja gets sketchy at night), I made my last stop Montevideo's town hall. It's not that amazing to look at from the outside (despite the presence of a few pieces of statuary), but the interior is quite beautiful:

Artwork inside the Montevideo city government building

So after all of that, what was threshold number 2? Today was the first day where I didn't need to use any English whatsoever to get through the day. Pretty decent for being roughly 10 years out of practice!


Tomorrow: Montevideo, part II