Fish of the Day

Stuck in a cafe in rainy Montevideo
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We caught a bus from Colonia to Montevideo. Unfortunately we only had one full day in Montevideo as we were using it as a means of traveling to our ranch stay in the north of Uruguay.

As we headed to the bus station in Colonia it was so windy and raining so heavily that the waterproof cover on my backpack was blown into a muddy building site. Gary not liking to waste any money was quick to suggest that he jump into the muddy building site and go chasing the cover that was still moving at a rapid speed. Luckily I convinced him that it wouldn't´t be very comfortable traveling on a bus for hours in South America covered in mud. So feeling defeated he eventually accepted our loss.

When our meal arrived we were surprised to find it was actually 5 fish fingers

The sun comes out on the main plaza
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Once we arrived in Montevideo (apparently a place that Gary has always wanted to visit since he was a child because it has the word ´video´in it) we checked into a lovely little Victorian style hotel. It´s strange in Montevideo, hotels are half the price of hostels. For $20 a night we had a brilliant double room right in the heart of the old town known as the Ciudad Viejo. The room was filled with lovely antique furniture and the hotel had an old style lift in the middle surrounded by a spiral staircase. We felt very spoilt because until this point we had been staying in some very basic rooms the majority being dorms...

After settling in the hotel we decided to venture out into the terrible weather. We couldn't´t use umbrellas at all and struggled to walk down the street due to the extreme wind. We had been warned from our hotel that the old town was very dangerous and not to walk around at night. We saw a few seedy characters during the day but apart from that we managed to stay safe.

Given the weather situation we thought it best to sit in a cosy restaurant and enjoy a nice meal. After choosing a restaurant and studying the menu carefully we decided to opt for ´Fish of the day´. I checked with the waiter that the fish didn´t come with the head still attached. He assured me it didn´t and that it was 5 small pieces of fish Â´like fish fillets?´I asked which he replied ´Yes´to. When our meal arrived we were surprised to find it was actually 5 fish fingers and to make it worse they were in the shape of fish. We felt like we had been given a childs meal. After we had finished, the owner asked how it was and because he had been so polite and chatty to us we felt obliged to say ´Muy Bien´ (very good). What a lie....

In the afternoon we checked out the port area and had a quick meal at a place near our hotel. We then enjoyed the evening relaxing in our hotel.

The following day we had a few hours before our bus was due to take us to the ranch. The weather was now lovely so we made the most of it and walked around the city taking in the main square, some stylish buildings and of course a local market.

Shannyn