Argentina and Uruguay, Part 1

The Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo

Old port canon next to an old Bug.

One of the streets leading to the port. Some 

awesome urban art to light our way.

La Plaza de Independencia, the center of 

Montevideo.

Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. Previously a

commercial port built by an architect of the same

name that is now a hot stop for bars and dining.

Well I certainly apologize for the lack of posts recently. It´s not that I have just been sitting around doing nothing. Rather, I had been up to a great deal but nothing that was worth posting about. Mostly I was working and hanging out in and around Santiago, but I will touch on that in another post.

This past Easter weekend, my friend Chris and I, along with a coworker of his, took off from work and left Santiago, heading out to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. You might recall that I had already visited Buenos Aires in January, but the real purpose of this trip was to visit Montevideo and Uruguay. Our original plan had been to go to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Though I can enter freely when I want as a Chilean citizen, my friend Chris, a Canadian, required a tourist visa and the process for obtaining one was too lengthy.

We left Santiago on Thursday night, but when we arrived at the airport we found out our flight was already delayed more than three hours. After negotiating with the check-in attendant, I managed to obtain three tickets to enter the lounge for free. This was important because the clubs here, unlike American clubs, serve unlimited free alcoholic beverages, as well as food and provide free internet.

We finally arrived in Buenos Aires around 1:30 in the morning. However, we did not reach our hostel in Palermo until about 2:30 because Ezeiza, the airport, is very far away from town. We decided this time around to stay in a hostel less centrally located, but in closer proximity to the night life. Since we had already both seen the sights on previous trips, we decided to leave Buenos Aires for shopping, eating steak, and going out.

In the morning we woke up at 6 AM, after sleeping for about 3 hours, in order to catch our 8 AM boat that would take us to Montevideo. However, about five minutes before reaching the boat station, we realized that our phones had not moved ahead by an hour and so therefore missed our boat by about 15 minutes. We did manage to get on another boat later in the morning that would take us to Colonia, another city in Uruguay, and then take a bus transfer over to Montevideo. After having a long breakfast nearby in Puerto Madero, we hoped passed customs and hopped onto the boat for Colonia. The boat ride was a great experience, as the seats were very comfortable, there was a full service restaurant, and a large duty free shop onboard.

When we arrived at Colonia, I immediately realized why this city had been founded where it was. It was a mere one hour boat ride to Buenos Aires. Colonia had originally been set up as a smuggler´s port by the Portuguese in order to smuggle contraband into Buenos Aires. Both Buenos Aires and the enter southern portion of Uruguay lay on the Rio de la Plata. This is an important estuary that is fed by the Paraná River, making it both large and very important for regional and international trade. In the early 19th century, Uruguay attempted to declare independence from Spain, but was eventually defeated. Later on, the country was annexed by Brazil, prompting the Argentine-Brazilian War. A succession of wars were fought by the two regional powers, and even included intervention by the French, British, and Portuguese. Therefore, the country is distinctly European in many ways, though shares the majority of its culture with Argentina, it´s most important neighbor.

In crossing Uruguay from Colonia to Montevideo, I almost felt at home again in Wisconsin. The countryside is characterized by mostly flat grazing land, dotted with cattle and milk farms all over. When we arrived in Montevideo, I was surprised by how picturesque the city was. It reminded me of a calmer and smaller Buenos Aires (BA has about 15 million inhabitants metro, while Montevideo has about 1.3 million metro; Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America). Our hostel was located in the central plaza, la Plaza de Independencia. If you walked east, you entered the old city, and to the west lay the new city. 

In the afternoon, we took a trip towards the port, and in particular, the central market. Similar to the central market here in Santiago, the difference is that opposed to serving a great variety of seafood, the market in Montevideo is famous for having giant grills filled with a variety of meats. We sat down at one of the numerous restaurants, one that had more Uruguayans eating there than the others, and promptly ordered a steak. Though it was not the best I´ve ever had, it was good and you can´t beat the $5 price.

After walking around the old city more, we returned to hostel to rest up for the evening. But for those details, you´ll just have to wait for my next post.