Hola!
We´ve made it all the way to Montevideo, Uruguay. Jessica´s Spanish improves with every moment and Krisztian grows more in awe. We arrived in Montevideo on the airplane at around 11AM and deplaned into a gorgeous sunny warm flat landscape. To pick up our bags we had to blast through a barrage of mall retailers! We took a bus through the rural and slightly impoverished Uruguyan landscape to reach the increasingly urban and clean downtown core. On arriving at our hotel, Hotel Iberia, we slept for several hours. We cleaned up while watching an EPL match and hit the streets!
After pulling our travel worn selves together we headed out into the barrio surrounding our hotel. Plaza de la Ipendencia was a majestic sight with an ornate statue of the country´s founding father. Nearby was the original gate into the fotified old city. This is where things really heated up with lots of people watching on cobble stoned pedestrian streets and craft wares being sold. Of course there was the ever popular McDonalds, but that didn´t slow us down. We wandered to the sea port where we gazed upon the rio de la plata. Rubbing our weary Montana winter eyes was all we could do. The fisherman tossed their wares into the muddy and churning sea.
It was time for un cerveca or a few by the time we left the sea and we stumbled upon a neighborhood corner bar where we sat in the (finally) waning sunlight and I watched as a street fight broke out between two interesting characters and their girlfriend. Needless to say, we got to watch the police take control! Heading back to the hotel, we regrouped and got a recommendation for the closest decent food which happened to be an amazing restaurant called La Parada sur Parilla and we split a hulking pieces of steak with green salad and fries- and a bottle or Uruguyan wine! This only happened as 9PM approached and we were still an hour early for dinner time! Completely satiated after our first meal since leaving the US, we hopped over to the Baar FunFun where we witnessed the local color and some Uruguyan singers in the blue light of the packed bar. By 1AM, we´d had enough and decided that we had made a good effort to meet South American standards. Bed.
