Montevideo, Uruguay

Hola from Montevideo! Well, this is our last night here and then it´s off to Colonia del Sacramento. This blog won´t be as exciting as most, since we kinda came to the city during an off time. We missed out on the nightlife because we were here Monday through Thursday, and not a whole lot is going on. Plus, the city is kinda deadish because Montevideoans go to the beach towns during summer (like Punta del Este, where we just came from).

Okay, we arrived by bus Monday night. Our hostel is located in Ciudad Viaje (the old town), which is close to all the sites and lots of bars and restaursnts. The hostel was pretty nice and fairly clean. However, we came to find out we're in a 6bed room/storage unit. The hostel workers come in and out during all hours to get mattresses and linens. It´s kinda annoying. We ventured out to find some comida on our first night. Barely five minutes into Bartolome Mitre (street with lots of bars and restaurants) we were acosted by a preteen. We gave him 10 pesos (.50 cent) and tried to go on our way. But he kept trying to give us this book. We said no, no gracias, but he was very persistent. We finally took it to get him off our back. A block away we looked at it and discovered it was a daily planner from 1991. How useful!! Before we got to the restaurant several more kids came up to us asking for ¨moneda, moneda.¨ The kids are very persistent and travel in packs. Before we were scared of stray dogs, now we're wary of roaming children. There are like 5, 6, 7 years olds wandering the streets alone begging for money. And they´ll come right up to you and pull on your clothes. It´s really sad, but you have to become immune to it, because you can´t give money to everyone.

We did a city tour provided by our hostel. The guide spoke English pretty well, but wasn´t always so sure of herself. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we got to see a lot of the city we probably wouln´t have otherwise. We saw the first public space, the first church, the highest building in South America in the 1920´s, the futbol stadium where Uruguay won the 1st World Cup, the president´s house (he lives among the people, and he doesn´t even live in the richest part of town). We drove along what we thought was a beach, but it was brown. Come to find out, it´s a huge river, you can´t even see the other side! It was kinda odd. We also learned the origin of the name Montevideo. It means the 6th mountain you see traveling from east to west. The Spanish named it that after coming here from Spain. Also, the originator of tango actually came from Uruguay, and they have the documents to prove it! So that´s a little fun fact, considering Buenos Aires seems to have the monopoly on the tango scene.

The majority of our 4 days were spent sleeping until noon, walking around the city, and visiting some museums. All the museums here are free! And also pretty relaxed on security. We saw some interesting archaeological artifacts from a long time ago. We also visted a museum that housed lots of furniture, clothes, and other things that belonged to the wealthy Uruguayans during the late 19th century - early 20th century.

All in all, Montevideo was a charming and interesting city to visit; kind of a smaller Buenos Aires. However, it would have been nice to be here on the weekend for the nightlife. But I guess it´s nice to have a break every once and a while. Tomorrow we´re off for one more night in Uruguay. Then we´ll be on an overnight bus to Iguazu Falls, which should be amazing!!