Uruguay: Montevideo. A quiet town overlooking the "sea".

Prior to coming to Montevideo, I spent a few days in Buenos Aires, but I would like to explore this fascinating city a bit more before posting anything about it. I have decided that I will wait until I come back from my trip to Mendoza to upload some pictures and impressions of Argentina keeping a coherent order this way.

I took a ferry yesterday from Buenos Aires to Colonia (del Sacramento) from where a bus would be waiting for us in order to take us to Montevideo. The one hour trip was nothing special and, unfortunately, I couldn´t get to see anything of Colonia as the bus didn´t even drive through the town. So we finally made it to the capital of this "small" South American country.

How to describe Montevideo? Well, I would use the word "quiet". To be a city of 1.4 million people, it really feels like a small town. Its streets have some charm and somehow it feels like the city got stuck in time somewhere in the past. People here are really laid back and friendly and they can hardly be seen in the streets after 8pm. The main proof is that their national team was playing semifinals of the Copa de America yesterday and the streets were literally empty. Not even people screaming or waving the omnipresent flag. Nothing you could think of in a country like Spain.

The streets don´t have that familiar feeling they do in Buenos Aires and you can see a vague mix of styles when it comes to architecture: small cosy houses, then wild and tall 70´s like buildings with ugly air condition machines in their windows, some palaces, other buildings that would remind you to those of Gran Via in Madrid, etc. Something not especially sophisticated, but fairly appealing to some dreamy mind like mine who enjoys looking up all the time. A few interesting squares here and there, and a long avenue represent the skeleton of this capital but one of the biggest attractions of it is the boulevard by the coast line. What you can see from here it is not strictly the sea, but the beginning of the Rio de la Plata. However, the coast of Argentina is way too far to be seen and the water is really salty (the deep smell of it spreads all along to coast, telling you this is not a river) so the city has all the characteristics of a true sea city. Even the melancholy of its winter evenings by the sea.

I can imagine that this city must have a completely different aspect in summertime, but I think I prefer to have come this time of the year when hardly any tourists are seen in the city and we can blend with the locals more easily.

I am glad I have had the chance to visit the country, but I am already missing Argentina. Thus, I am happy I am travelling back tomorrow to Buenos Aires to take a night bus to Mendoza, where some nice wine tasting sessions are awaiting. And now we are talking about a real night bus, not like the noctural torture on the dangerous roads of Bolivia! So, time to come back to the mountains.

Sleep well my friends.