Walking in Montevideo

Another "Tours by Locals" excursion today with a walk around the Old Town area of Montevideo.  By the time we had done the tour, then I worked on laundry (yes I did some on my own rather than sending it out!), wandered the ship getting wristbands and passports to depart the ship tomorrow for our trip to Iguazu Falls, I'd walked over five miles and 14,000 steps today.  I'm tired but want to stay caught up so I'll share a few of the things we saw and learned about Montevideo today.

Here's the newer part of the city, the only bit of it that we saw from the ship.  Montevideo is the only major city in Uruguay and about half the country’s population lives here within the metropolitan area.  There is no definitive story of how the town got its name but I'll give you what our guide shared with us a bit later. The city it was founded in 1726 by the Spanish governor of Buenos Aires, he wanted to secure the area from the expanding Portuguese colonies, plus it had a great natural harbor.  For many years this area served as a buffer state between Brazil and Argentina while also spending some time in the hands of the British and the Spaniards.  It has a decidedly European flair as many immigrants from that continent settled here in the late 19th through early 20th centuries, especially people from Italy and Spain.  Fun fact, Montevideo hosted every match of the very first FIFA World Cup in 1930.  If that isn’t a Jeopardy question I don’t know what is! For many years a major part of the economy in Uruguay has been driven by the cattle and sheep estancias throughout the country, it’s said there are three cows and three sheep for each citizen.  Apparently this is the most non-religious country in the Americas, they have even changed the names of major religious holidays, Christmas is called Family Day, and Holy Week is known as Tourism Week.

Here's a sample of the types of cows that are raised here, as viewed by the hides.  Our guide, Gonzalo, told us that the cattle were the first immigrants to the country, arriving before the European settlers, eventually creating free-ranging herds, they're not so wild these days.  The spoons on the right are for drinking maté, which is a type of tea.  The spoon strains out the tea leaves in the cup creating a much better brew in Gonzalo's view, the handle is a straw..

A couple of the narrow streets in Old Town, many of which are pedestrian friendly.

It was 1867 before running water came to Montevideo so there were fountains like this one throughout the city where people could come for their water.  Unlike its neighboring countries, the water here is supposed to be good to drink from the tap, although we didn't try any.

One of the largest buildings in this area was the National Bank, it covers an entire block.  The original was much smaller and it became quite a project to get all the land needed for this monster.  Negotiations went on for a long time with a small holdout hotel on the site that didn't want to sell but eventually gave in.

A couple of interesting plants in the area were the Fake Cottoner Tree, at least that's what locals call it.  The tree has a pod that has a soft cottony interior which gets used for stuffing pillows.  One of the other unique things about this particular tree is that it has chlorophyll in its trunk, you can see the green, which it can send to the leaves if needed.  The scarlet flower is the Ceibo, the national flower of Uruguay, it was lovely.

One of the things I loved about Montevideo were all the plazas throughout the old town, green spaces in the midst of concrete.  This one was called Plaza Zabala and was the former center of the city where the governor's home was located.

Memorialized here on this statue in the middle of the plaza is Zabala, the first governor of Monetvideo,   He brought in the first immigrants from the Canary Islands.

At the base of the statue is the symbol of the municipality of Montevideo.  It was here that Gonzalo explained a version of where the name of the city came from, he said it is an acronym that goes back to Amerigo Vespucci, who. mapped the New World.  When the bits are strung all together it means "the mountain that Vespucci came to in the year 1500 sailing from the east to the west".  I'll take his word for it.

Here's a map of the actual area of the first settlement, the location of what had been the governor's house is the small raised square in the middle.

 

This is one of the few bits of the outer wall of that settlement that can still be found in Montevideo. The wall was completed in 1741.

The gate behind me is a re-creation of the Gate of the Citadel.  It isn't in its original location but closer to Independence Square.

There was a lot of beautiful and fun street art throughout the city.  Some of it had graffitti nearby but the colors made the drab walls pop if nothing else.

This one was over the top of other paintings below but it was a fun one.

I appreciated the diversity of the mural below, it was near a square that celebrated all kinds of diversity in Montevideo.

Another sort of street art made an appearance in the sidewalks.  Apparently there is an artist in the city who likes to replace broken tiles with new designs made with other broken tiles, symbolizing that beauty can come from brokenness..

One of our stops was the old post office with its museum.  It also has one of the prettiest towers in town.  Here we got our first glimpse of the hero of Uruguay, Jose Artigas, who was the first to attempt independence for the nation.

Gonzalo showed us how the Freemason sun is on the Uruguay flag.  The Freemasons had and still have a lot of influence in the nation.  In the picture to the left you can see the spot where people would come to pick up their paychecks, looks a lot like little post office boxes.  

One of the most beautiful spots in the city was the Iglesia de San Francisco, or Montevideo Cathedral.  It is one of the older structures in Ciudad Viejo and kept up so well inside.

The interior is long, light and airy with many sculptures and alcoves along the sides.

This nativity will stay up for only a few more days so I was grateful that we got to see it.  The colors and setting were just stunning.

I also loved this more modern altarpiece of Jesus and the twelve apostles.

This image of Jesus with a child was another lovely one that I wanted to get a picture of.

Only if you look up do you get the view of these pretty stained glass windows.

 

As we left the church Karl wanted a photo of these mounted policemen and they were happy to oblige.

The photo in the postcard at the beginning of this post is a panorama shot of the most famous square in Montevideo known as Independence Square, or Plaza de la Independencia. It is the center of town and was a Spanish citadel in 1741..  

In the next picture you can see the presidential offices, the president currently works in the right hand building, he actually lives somewhere out in a large home in the suburbs.  The smaller, older building on the left is the former presidential office which is now a museum.

In the center of the square is this large statue of Artigas, very imposing and exuding confidence and strength.

Another of the city’s landmarks is the Mausoleo al General José Gervasio Artigas who is, again, Uruguay’s national hero for his efforts to free the territory from Spain in the early 1800s.  He was born and raised in Montevideo, baptized in the city cathedral and now his ashes are here below the Independence Square.  You take two flights down to an underground room that is a memorial to Artigas.

He was eventually exiled to Paraguay, spending much of his life there,  but his ashes were eventually returned to his hometown by two of his daughters after his death.  This relic is so important to the nation that there are always two guards on duty to watch over them, standing so stiff and at attention that they look like mannequins.

Once we had finished our excellent tour we stopped by a restaurant called El Palenque to try some Uruguayan beef with Laura and Bob.  Karl had a Coke, which always tastes just a little different wherever you go.  They brought us some delicious rolls with olive oil and herbs to start with.

Karl had this tasty gazpacho, along with a flank steak, the latter was so large and thick that he couldn't finish it.  We tried to find a stray dog to give the leftovers to but couldn't find one close to the port.  I had the filet brochette on the right.  It was tender and delicious with its pieces of beef, onion, red pepper, and bacon.  They brought some thick, sweet, balsamic vinegar to dip it in.  It was delish!

After lunch we made our way back to the port and I got a photo by this welcome sign that had been at the wrong sun angle when we left in the morning.  My bag I'm carrying is replenishment of snacks.  I know, that seems ridiculous that I'd want to get snacks when there is always food somewhere that you can eat on the cruise ship, but sometimes its nice just to have something sweet or salty in a cupboard in your cabin that you can nibble on if you get the urge.  This should last us until we get to the end of the world in Argentina!

All in all it was an informative and interesting day with a great guide.  We both had the feeling though that this wouldn't be one of the cities that we would want to make sure that we came back to, much as we enjoyed our day in Montevideo.