South America, Day 6: Montevideo, Uruguay

The nice thing about staying in hostels rather than hotels is meeting the other folks traveling through the area. Last night while writing my blog post, I met a girl from Austria who had been studying in Argentina for six months and was taking a quick vacation before heading back home to continue school. Karin was a great sport and we had a good time practicing Spanish over dinner. (And I forgot to get a picture.)

After yesterday, I had mostly exhausted the suggestions from the (very limited) Lonely Planet South America guidebook, so I didn't have much of a plan for today. The Fodor's guide had a few suggestions that I figured I ought to check out, in a different district named El Prado. At breakfast I ran into my Austrian friend and accidentally startled her breakfast partner, a Dutch girl, by conversing in Spanish. As it turned out, though, Tialda not only spoke fantastic English, but had some new sights to see and had lost her traveling partner for the day. Serendipity strikes!

First on the list: every Wednesday at 11am, the Teatro Solis has a free guided tour in Spanish. Except for this particular Wednesday, unfortunately, as the Teatro was hosting a TEDx conference:

We weren't on the guest list.

Next stops: The Museo Torres Garcia (dedicated to Joaquin Torres Garcia, founder of the Constructive Universalism school of modern art; museum didn't allow pictures), the Catedral Metropolitana, and the Museo Historia Nacional - Museo Romantico (Museum of National History, Romantic Period). The Catedral is a very Spanish grand cathedral - tons of marble, gold leaf, and rich colors. The Romantic Museum (like many others in Montevideo) is set inside an old house; walking between the different rooms (each its own exhibit) had the feeling of strolling through a 18th/19th-century European mansion that you might see in Paris or Potsdam.

Musical instruments in the Museo Romantico

 In Plaza Zabala, we discovered that the Uruguayan love for cavalry statuary is not limited to Jose Artigas; the plaza features a large statue of Don Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, the founder of Montevideo.

Next to the Plaza Zabala was the Museum of Precolumbian and Indigenous Art - the only museum all day to charge us an entrance fee (60 Uruguayan Pesos, or a bit over $3). While MAPI was housed in the grandest building of them all, most of the rooms were closed (either unused or undergoing renovation), so the exhibits were mostly confined to one floor of three (certainly not what you expect when you go in!). I was a fan of a pair of modern pieces inspired by Precolumbian art. First, a room-size sculpture of hanging faces, hands, feet...:

 Second, a gallery of textile art. The "painting" of Paul Klee below is actually a woven piece of fabric, about the size of a rug made of threads a few mm wide. The neatest thing about it is that the hair (top of the head and the beard) are rendered in a different thread, such that some kind of fiber (maybe hair) actually comes out of the surface like an actual beard would.

For lunch, we went to a small restaurant recommended by the hostel staff as good and cheap (the Manchester bar and pizzeria, on Av 18 de Julio), and ordered chivitos naturales. The chivito is a traditional Uruguayan sandwich; I was informed that today's chivitos (bread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, steak) were actually smaller than the norm, which are often gigantic:

Yum!

After lunch, we decided that we'd pretty much exhausted the Ciudad Vieja, and that it was time to follow the suggestion in my Fodor's guide and take a taxi up to the El Prado district to the Botanical Gardens. On the way, our friendly cab driver cheerfully pointed out a crack house (glad we didn't walk the 6km) and then tried to rip us off at the end. Uruguayan taxi meters count off puntos (which I think are distance-based, but may have a time component to them as well). At the end of the ride, the driver pulls out an official chart converting puntos to pesos, with different rates depending on the day and time of day. Our driver tried to charge us the Sunday (higher) rate, and almost got away with it if not for that meddling Tialda noticing. He still got a 6 peso tip on a 134 peso tab because we didn't have exact change to leave zero. Oh well.

The Jardín Botánico, as the name suggests, is a region of the Parque del Prado reserved for the exhibition of specimens of exotic plants from around the world. There are fountains scattered around the garden, as well as a museum inside. Protip: the museum is free and you get exactly what you pay for, plus a few lungfuls of bug spray. As a botanical garden, this one is not particularly impressive compared to the diversity you would see at the conservatory of flowers in Golden Gate Park or the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney (yeah, I'm spoiled); I'm sure its funding is far, far less. However, it's a fantastic place for an afternoon stroll, especially if the sun is shining. It's almost better to think of it as a great park that just happens to have several exotic plants and nice fountains around.

This fountain looked really cool from the back and totally terrifying from this side. Who thought crafting the mouth like that was a good idea?

The roots of this tree pop up from the ground around it, like big mushrooms or small termite hills. A tree right next to it had even more dramatic root formations, but the rest of the tree was not nearly as strikng as this.

Finally, we struck out to see a large Gothic cathedral that the taxi had passed on the way in. We assumed it was the Sagrada Familia cathedral mentioned in the Fodor's book, but it instead turned out to be the Iglesia de las Carmelitas. We didn't really have any idea where the church was, but some dead reckoning (due to Tialda, since my sense of direction was completely dead today) and directions from strangers (due to me, since she didn't speak Spanish) got us there. Also saw a totally sweet graffito on the way:

When we got there, the cathedral was closed, so we took some pictures of the outside and prepared to head off to find a cab back to Ciudad Vieja:

But, just then, two old women walked up to the side door of the church, mats in hand, to attend a yoga class being held there. We asked if they knew if it was possible to see the cathedral. Completely unbidden, one of them assumed that we were interested in the cathedral as a possible place to get married (...what?) and assured us that she could talk someone into letting us in. Even after we denied any matrimonial intentions, she was still very excited for the church to have visitors (in particular, she wanted to hear the priest speak English, for some reason). After sitting around for a minute or two, one of the church officials very kindly let us in to the empty cathedral. I think this is the first time I've ever been granted a private viewing of a church!

It was dark in there. Long shutters are amazing. Why is it so hard to make a decent HDR image (this isn't one)?

After seeing the church, it really was time to head back. This taxi didn't try to cheat us, but the driver did seem quite annoyed that he had to make 80 pesos change (120 peso fare, and we each only had 100s). Whatever. I got a picture with a most excellent travel buddy, and started working on this blog post for my dear readers:

Next time, I'm bringing conditioner and an clothes iron so I don't look like total crap in all my pictures.

Check in to the boat back to Buenos Aires went very smoothly; while waiting for boarding to commence, I discovered that I'm past yet another important language threshold: I know enough Spanish to coax a wireless internet username and password out of a random Uruguayan guy with a laptop. On the boat itself (same vessel I took yesterday), I ended up with the exact same seat. Nothing to see at night, and it's just as well - it was pouring rain outside, with plenty of lightning. A quick remise (hired car/reserved taxi) ride from the terminal brought me to a new hostel, and with any luck this bloody rain will be gone by morning.

Tomorrow: Buenos Aires, part II

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

South America, Day 4: Buenos Aires, Argentina

What's the best part about traveling alone? If you're in some exotic locate but just want to take a day off to sit around and read, no one can tell you not to.

So I did.


Tomorrow: Montevideo.

South America, Day 3: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Woke up around noon without any plan at all. Decided to wander in either direction down the street and see what I could find. Try #1: turn right. (All the pictures look hazy because it was incredibly humid today. It was like walking through fog the whole day)

Walking down Av de Mayo, I pretty quickly found myself in front of the Argentine Congress building, Congreso de la Nacion. It's pretty:

However, I was looking for the Plaza de Mayo, the central square of downtown BA and the focal point of political activism in Argentina, and apparently I'd gone the wrong way. Try #2: turn around. Maybe a mile down the road, I found what I was looking for, complete with large protest banners:

Banners in support of veterans of the Argentina-Britain war over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), I think.

Casa Rosada, with a symbol of the Bicentennial

 At one end of the Plaza lies the Casa Rosada (Pink House), the seat of the Argentine Presidency. It's quite nice on the outside. The ground floor of the inside has a gallery of Latin American patriots and freedom fighters. It's rather interesting to see the history presented from the other side - many of the pictured heroes are shown in a rather different light in US history. There were tours of the upstairs, but I skipped that in favor of heading down to San Telmo.

Every Sunday, the street Defensa, running north-south from the center through the San Telmo neighborhood, is shut off to car traffic for most of a mile for a giant street fair and flea market.

An outdoor parrilla, or grill restaurant

Booth specializing in antique cameras

And another with tons of copper containers, lanterns, and assorted metal junk.

Continuing down Defensa, I passed the end of the street fair and came upon Parque Lezama, which had a cool statue of the founder of Buenos Aires:

After exhausting all that Defensa had to offer me (sadly, I'm not much of a trinket purchaser), I headed back towards the Plaza de Mayo, but instead of going straight back, walked up a diagonal street towards an Argentine national monument, the Obelisco:

That having been seen, I headed back to the hostel. Not much terribly interesting in this part of Microcentro/Congreso, though...

Um, I guess the hotel next to this sign is uncomfortably expensive?

I escape Palo Alto, and find another Caffe del Doge?

South America, Day 2: Arriving in Buenos Aires

Plane finally left the gate at Dulles closer to noon than 11, so I guess that's around a 14 hour delay. Flight was uneventful. Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires has a few interesting features. As soon as you get past passport control into the baggage claim area (passing through a duty-free shop, first), the first thing you see is a currency exchange booth offering terrible rates on exchanges. How do I know they were terrible? Because just past that booth, the airport authorities put up a board listing locations, hours, and rates of currency exchanges:

The booth in the baggage claim was offering ARS3.50/USD. I can't imagine the company running that booth is terribly happy that there's a board right behind that points out you can get ARS 4.10/USD from the national bank, which is just outside customs and open 24 hours....There was a similar board advertising the appropriate prices for various modes of transportation from the airport. Very cool.

Because the flight got in so late, I had to take a cab into the city; all the cheaper options had shut down for the night. There goes an extra $20. Got to the hostel, where the very friendly staff got me all set up...and was sort of confused to find that the floor of the hallway leading into my 4th floor room was a giant puddle. I didn't figure out why until the following morning:

The hostel is built inside an old mansion, so some of the interior hallways are open to the sky. And it rains here in the winter - hard.

South America, Day 1: ....Washington, DC?

Well, this is unexpected. I left today with the plan to take a 1pm flight from SFO, through Washington, DC, and on to Buenos Aires, arriving at 9am the next day. Short version: it's now 849am (BA time) the next day, and I'm still in Washington, DC.

You see, I got off the plane in IAD and was greeted by the following scene:

About an hour before my plane landed, ALL of United's electronic systems went down. Worldwide. All of them. That meant I got off the plane, and all the flight boards were blank, just showing a United logo. Meanwhile, the line had started at customer service. I thought it was just a Dulles problem, and I'd be clever and call the customer service hotline, who promptly informed me that it was a worldwide problem. Well, OK, they can still manually board me, once I find the gate. I found an agent with a paper printout, but she didn't have Buenos Aires on it. The best advice she could give me was "walk down that way, I think there's one board that's half-working...".

On the way to the board, I encountered a Red Carpet Club. Saved! They'd know what was going on. Unfortunately, "what was going on" was that my flight was delayed from 10pm to 10am the next day. OK, no problem; they'll put me up in a hotel for the night. Except that the hotel vouchers ALSO depend on the same systems that took down all the flight boards, so I'm not going anywhere. In the RCC, I overheard an irate man on the phone with United reservations about rebooking: "What do you mean you can't do anything for at least three hours?!"

Lovely. Time to see if anyone in DC wants to hang out. Except that on this trip, I didn't exactly bring the A-team of electronics; more like the practice squad. So instead of a working cell phone, I have my old phone without a SIM in it. Android contact sync + Gmail "call phone" feature to the rescue! Managed to get Dustin on the phone and (because he is a gentleman and a scholar) convince him to drive out from the District and rescue me at Dulles.

As I was sitting out on the curb for his arrival around 11p EDT, there was an announcement over the PA from United: "Our systems are still down and we don't know when they'll be back up. At this point we suggest you go home and come back in the morning." That's fantastic for people who live in the area; I don't know what the people who were transiting, but weren't lucky enough to know people in the area, did. Probably slept in the airport...

On the way in, Dustin gave me a nice driving tour of all the attractions:

 

Capitol Hill

 

 

Washington Monument

Union Station

Personal chaffeur

After that, we grabbed some dinner, then headed back to catch some Z's. Dustin was kind enough to drive me out to the Dulles bus at 7am (where's my $6, United?). Got to Dulles, got my boarding pass re-marked for today...and proceeded to wait some more. I've just gotten word that the flight has been delayed from 10am to 11am, with a terminal change, so I suppose I'd better get moving...