Montevideo - Uruguay's Capital

Street scene in downtown Montevideo
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I will begin by saying that Montevideo is a city of surprising contrasts. I know I have said this before about other cities (like Paraty), but it seems far more pronounced here. It is quite beautiful, metropolitan, even exotic, but still has a kind of rural feel about it. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay and 45% of the population live here. I think the guide (of the small day bus tour I went on) said there are about 1.5 million in the city itself. It is very colonial and I'm beginning to notice the colonial features of buildings and roughly tell how old they are by their appearance.

Market area in Montevideo
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Montevideo is situated at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata (River Plate), which is this hugely wide - well I don't even know if you can really call it a river to be honest, more of a bay really. Anyway according to the very proud and parochial Uruguayian guide for the city tour it's the widest river in the world. (I'm sure those people who have the Amazon running through them might disagree!). The original inhabitants of the area were the Chuarrua Indians who were decimated first by the Spanish, then the Portugese and later the French. The last of the tribe was shipped to France as exhibits in a zoo sometime in the mid 1800s. Pretty creepy eh?

Montevideo - Uruguay's Capital

Beginning in the early 1500's, I believe the Spanish and the Portugese fought each other over the spoils of Montevideo and surrounds over a few hundred years, which accounts for both influences in the city. I think the British also had a hand in it somewhere when they were also trying to stop the Spanish dominating the New World. I don't think there's much in the way of gemstones, silver or gold in this country, so greed wasn't the source of battles in this country as it was in other parts of South America, hence it was more about the land.

Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in 1811 and a military fortress was constructed around the city. Some remnants of this still exist as you can see in some of the photos. Montevideo's predominant industry is of course as the hub for Uruguay's agricultural produce and there's quite a sizeable port here. Tourism would also be high on the list judging by the amount of other gringo tourists we encountered. In the late 1600's the Portuguese built a fort at Colonia del Sacremento (where we are going in a couple of days). Anyway the Spanish (seem to have won out for the most part and the main source of conflict seemed to be all about controlling Potugal's expansion in Brazil. The guide told us that Uruguay has nineteen departments, which I think equate to states or counties, and the government is democratically elected, and at the present time (since 2004) is socialist/communist I believe. I found this bit on the internet which is also interesting:

"With a population of only three million, Uruguay has rapidly become Latin America's outsourcing hub. In partnership with one of India's largest technology consulting firms, engineers in Montevideo work while their counterparts in Mumbai sleep." - The New York Times, Sep 22, 2006

Anyway, enough of the history lesson, which I hope hasn't bored you witless! The city itself is another of those divided into old colonial and metropolitan, more contemporary areas. It has a very eastern European feel to it (tho I have never been there, others have observed this to be so). Yes, so very colonial in some areas and modern, more functional (and for this reason, less interesting) buildings in others (as you can see by the photos). The streets in the older parts are cobbled with large stones and in a medium state of repair I guess you could say. It would be a nightmare to maintain I expect. So you often see great holes where the cobblestones are missing or jut out or where they've had to install services, and the workmanship does lack quality control I have to say. Even riding over the streets in a car bumps you around all over the place so bad you can hardly speak. However the little moped things seem to be the way to go. The curbing in much of the city is also large cobblesones, so you could also imagine that it constantly needs maintenance. It makes for an interesting journey tho, as you try and pick your way up the streets trying to avoid slipping in the holes, bumbs and yes dogsh*t! Its everywhere!! So unfortunate, but I guess here as in Europe they love their doggies. Such a pity they don't have some regulation about them pooing all over the place, as its quite unpleasant to say the least (and I'm a dog lover as you know!).

There are all the shops and hotels here you would expect of any nation's capital city. Levis, Motorola, MacDonalds, the Sheraton, Raddison, etc. Its a thriving bustling city packed with tons of interesting (and not so!) eating places. People seem to be well dressed and those wearing business suits carry leather attache cases. For the most part, the women also seem well dressed, but lack the beach pizzaz of say, Rio. Much of the food influence seems to be Italian from what I've seen, but there are tons of "meat" places where they serve chivotos and steak and steak and steak. Yesterday a couple of us went to an all you could eat buffet thing where there was an amazing array of Italian delicacies, including dessert. All this for 120 Ugr Pesos which is roughly USD$5 or 6.

Yesterday arvo, rather than just hang out in a bar like the others, a couple of us decided to do a four or five hour city tour. It was well worth the USD$15 for sure. We went into the Cathedral, which as you could imagine being in the New World (of Spanish influence) was way way over the top! Statues, murals, stained glass, gold (yes real gold!), paintings, marble, etc adorning from one end to the other. You can see by the photos how stunning (but at the same time quite obscene considering how it came about). Although I was awestruck by the thing, and I dont have other European cathedrals I've seen to compare this to, something just didn't sit right with me. But I think that somehow I´ll have to get over that sensitivity before the end of this trip.

Next stop was the parliament building and its adjacent presidential palace (which we didn't go into). Same story with the Parliament building. This over the top ostentatious need to impress with the trappings of extreme wealth. In a nation with consummate poverty, this I feel, is outrageous and doesn't feel right somehow. Probably similar to how the the French feel when they ponder the events leading up to 1789 and the Palace of Versailles. Its certainly not unique to South America, but somehow seems to jar and offend (for me at least). I guess there´s nothing to be done about this now. Anyway all that aside, this building is very very impressive, to say the least! The ballroom on the second floor has a gold pressed ceiling. Yes you read that right. Inca gold raped from Peru is literally dripping all over the ceilings. Emblems of solid gold and huge paintings (only of Spanish colonial times, nothing indigenous of course) adorn most of the stately rooms. A wall to wall library stuffed with antique first editions I imagine, with a completely imported Italian (1850's) wooden structure around it. Amazing craftmanship! You can see a little from the photos how unconscionable this wealth must be when you consider how many people must have died putting it (and keeping it) there. I understand almost 35% of people in Uruguay live below some internationally-recognised poverty line. Its strange, but somehow I just can't get my head around this whole poverty/wealth thing. And the same goes for the rest of this country, which I'll say more about in a moment.

Next stops were mostly for huge sculptures depicting local heroes Artigas and Santiago and some others which I will have to look up some other time (I should have listened more carefully). All that was pretty interesting I have to say. Then we were taken to the more affluent areas of the city which apparently showcase its rich colonial history. Hmm... How right she was! We went through suburb after suburb of Toorak-style mansions, some even rivalling English manor houses! Extreme wealth, and in abundance. I'm not talking about an odd house or two, there are entire exclusive and fashionable suburbs complete with BMW, Audi driving executives and emblonded bimbos. Hmmm ... What's wrong with this picture? On the one hand you see the most beautiful (though ostentatious) houses, manicured lawns, posh restaurants, and two minutes later you will see poor children and horse drawn chariots of people making a living recycling garbage. All this is a constant reminder of the inequalities in Uruguayian (and of course other South American) society.

Therefore I have come to the conclusion from what I have observed, that (for whatever reason) either the rich don't pay enough taxes, or its being squandered elsewhere by corruption in councils or governments. I know this balance must be very complex because of the dependencies on other countries for foreign exchanges/debt etc, but in the end I think it comes down to simple math. Those with it are in more plentiful supply than I imagined, and should give some of it up. Things in some parts of the city badly need doing. Broken pavements, rubbish everywhere, badly maintained footpaths, collapsing services, abject poverty and beggars. Yet quite a number of citizen do enjoy the trappings of real wealth and live in the lap of absolute luxury. This is from my observation, and I have no clue as to why these extremes are tolerated. Anyway from what I understand, recent elections have put a coalition of socialists together to confront some of these problems. The two houses of their parliament are now on the left, so perhaps there may be some real reforms. In some of the poorer areas of the city there is an abundance of political graffiti, evoking Che and the revolution, and even though I didn't understand what it said, was quite obviously anti-US.

Enough of my rantings about this for now, sorry to go on about it, but the inequality of it all just gets to me I guess. And I can surely understand the frustration of those "really" trying to do something about it as opposed to those milking whatever system they can.

Today we are going to Colonia, which is apparently one of the best examples of colonial architecture in South America. Its a four hour bus journey from Montevideo, which (despite all this) would love to return to one day.

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PS. I've had two comments from some random person, not sure where from in UrUguay, but anyway she's had a crack at a few things I said in the above blog. I've fixed the spelling mistakes. Kinda hard to properly edit when its all only written in 20 minutes at some dingy internet cafe somewhere, and you move on to some other exotic place within a day or two. Funny that someone finds this 18 months after I'd written about it. I should thank her for reminding me, so yeah thanks for the memories.

Anyway I've hidden the comments, first because they're offensive, second, I believe she's completely misunderstood what I said. My comments above are based SOLELY on my observations at that point. They were never intended to be a detailed, expert, political comment on the country itself. If I saw poverty, I can hardly UNsee it, can I? If I saw crumbling infrastructure in the city, I'm sure it wasn't from a film set. If I saw many beggars, they weren't figments of my imagination. They are purely my observations.

In hindsight, and after travelling through another 15 countries in Latin America after Uruguay, its certainly not the worst in terms of stark contrast between rich and poor. But for the person to say there's hardly any corruption and the kids get free lunch at public schools. Cool. That's great. There's obviously reform happening. I'm pleased for them. On the corruption thing. Yes Uruguay ranks pretty well on the Corruption Index ranks 25th in the World CPI (Corruption Perception Index). So perhaps things do work quite well in Uruguay and its Nirvana of South America.

This is from the Wikipedia site on Uruguay sourced today>>>"The newly elected Frente Amplio government, while pledging to continue payments on Uruguay's external debt,^[20] has also promised to undertake a Emergency Plan to attack the widespread problems of poverty and unemployment.^[21] In May 2008, the unemployment rate was below 7.2 %" So I don't make these things up. If the Uruguayian (not sure if that's the right spelling) government is acknowledging widespread problems of poverty and unemployment, I'm afraid this must be the case, unless they're lying too. Uruguay also ranks 46th on the Human Development Index (2005). Which is quite good for a Latin American country, only behind Chile.

The point of my observations were that something doesn't work somewhere. Its obvious that there is money around, and loads of it. I observed for myself the very posh and well-heeled suburbs of some Montevideo suburbs. I also observed areas of abject poverty. Of course, this wild contrast is typical in all Latin American countries (and indeed many parts of the world, even in well developed countries like the US). My point focuses on the "contrast" between these two states (rich and poor), with the outrageous suggestion that perhaps the rich and middle class aren't paying enough taxes ... or here it comes ... multi-national companies in Uruguay are "somehow" (surely not through corruption...hmmm) finding loopholes to avoid paying the proper taxes. In my opinion, a country can most certainly be judged by the way its welfare system works, and how it treats its poor. Its complex, but the money to fund this can only be sourced from (amongst other things) a proper taxation system (individual tax and company tax). If there is a stark contrast between rich and poor, something isn't working somewhere, and its not like Uruguay's population is exploding like countries in Asia. I'm by no means an expert, but while you say there's reform happening and kids can read and free lunches, in my humble opinion, there's still much to be done.

So chill out sister! I wasn't having a crack at Uruguay, in fact I thought it was a fantastic country, particularly on reflection after visiting so many other Latin American countries. As my closing sentence said, I'd love to return some day. Perhaps its a personal thing and I just don't like seeing poverty, its something I can never get used to and can never be blase about. Possibly because we don't have that in Australia (the wild contrast between rich and poor), I'm not sure. But I wish Uruguayians (spelling?) well in their endeavours, and hope that new reforms do begin to tackle the systemic problems of poverty and unemployment.