Montevideo

We were surprised by this city, on many occasions. It started already as we entered, on the street to the city center, where we were caught up in an incredibly long queue of trucks with containers. Turned out we were driving next to them on the way to the container terminal, where they were going to drop their load.

Once we left them to it, we found the hotel (we have been staying in Holiday Inns where they are available) and on route we saw Nissan service too, so all very close. The hotel was right in the center of the old city, just next to Plaza de la Independencia. This was not your usual Holiday Inn, but some sort of franchise, so it was not what we expected at all.

The city center was quite worn, and even the main commercial street didn't have too many shops. There were quite a few nice buildings, but walking around was quickly completed. We took a tourist bus tour to see more, and there was particularly one really lovely area, Prado, with many beautiful houses and gardens. We were told that this area developed during times of cholera, as people with money moved away from the city to areas where the risk of being sick was lower.

A newer area, Carrasco, was upmarket but still in development. It had apartment buildings, high rises, all facing the coast, and running by the river along the whole city was the malecon, with walkways, beaches and eateries. In Carrasco we briefly visited the Sofitel, a really fancy hotel building, for Harold to go to a meeting. On our way to Carrasco we learned why there are no taxi drivers to use for our private city tour. The taxis are like sitting in a tank, with aircon in the front seat only and the back seat completely closed off with a very heavy metal construction. It wasn't pleasant back there in the heat, and there was no way to have a conversation with the driver.

Montevideo was different from the rest of the country in that they didn't close the whole city down for the afternoons. Shops and restaurants were open, but nobody local would have dinner before 9pm, so the restaurants were not available, or were more or less empty, after the lunch service and until they open for dinner at 8pm.

Uruguay is a different country. As in the rest of the countries we have visited, people are friendly and nice, but there is something about it that feels different. It is a small place, and coming from Argentina where we were used to having to spend hours to get anywhere, here we had to be awake. It was more like if we weren't careful we would leave by accident long before it was time.

Reading up on the country and it's history online helps to explain some of what makes it different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay