Montevideo, Uruguay

2009-03-12

The bus arrived into the Montevideo bus station at 1:30 pm and it was a ten minute taxi ride to Iguazu hotel, which was located in central downtown. It was another late lunch for us, but Christian took us to a nearby local cafe where Lori had a hamburger and Ian had a chicken sandwich. With our stomachs happy, we walked through the old town, Ciudad Vieja, of Montevideo while trying to avoid the on again/off again rain. The cobblestone streets and quaint shops were nice to wander through. The Plaza Independencia had a striking building on it called the Palacio Salvo, which is 26 stories high and used to be the tallest building in South America. In the afternoon, Lori was happy to hear that she was an aunt again. Her sister, Megan, had given birth to Noah Matthew at 1:23 pm EST. Both Megan and Noah were doing well. We did not want to have a late dinner with the group that night, so we ate at Bar Hispano, as it was mentioned in the Lonely Planet book. Lori decided to go with pizza and what she thought was garlic bread, but was more like eggy bread. Ian had beef. As the hotel was on a busy corner and the windows were not thick, it was a restless sleeping night with all the traffic below.

The Plaza Independencia had a striking building on it called the Palacio Salvo, which is 26 stories high and used to be the tallest building in South America.

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2009-03-13

As we thought we had seen most things in Montevideo the previous day, we slept in and had breakfast at 10 am. We then relaxed in the room until 1 pm, when we met the group for lunch. We went to a restaurant near the hotel.  Lori decided to have another Waldolf salad while Ian had a vegetable omelet. After lunch, the group got tickets to go see Vertigo, which was supposed to be similar to Circus de Solie, but performed by an Argentinean group. After that, Lori and Ian got the 116 bus to the beach with Christian. The beach was a nice fine sand and warm. The water was not too warm, but there were several people swimming in it. We got out our books and spent the next few hours relaxing in the sunshine. When the sun started to fade, we walked down the beach where a national beach football tournament was taking place. We sat and listened to the game for an hour before meeting Christian to take the bus back to the hotel. We were not sure if the circus would have any food, so we had a quick meal at McDonalds. We met the group and took a twenty minute taxi ride with Gary and Lois to the event. We got mid level tickets and were about 20 feet from the front of the stage. As we were just behind the VIP section, we had great views of the stage. While neither of us would say that the performance was anywhere close the quality or difficulty we had seen when we went to the Circ de Solei in Perth, it was an ok show for $10 a person. There were clowns, trapeze performers, acrobatics and jugglers. The show ended at midnight and we went back to the hotel. Ian went out for a drink with the group, but Lori was tired and decided not to join them.

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2009-03-14

As we were going to have a full day on the bus, we slept in again and went to breakfast at 10 am. We checked out and left the hotel at 12:30 pm. We had another very healthy McDonalds for lunch before boarding our 1:30 pm bus. The bus was only three seats across, so they were bigger than we were use to and comfortable.