There is an island off the coast across from Punta del Este that is home to one of the largest preserves of sea lions in the world. But I guess when you can have your own personal chefs slicing up fresh food for you, you might sneak away from your island home and dart off…
Category: Into Argentina and Uruguay we go
Contrasting beliefs
Post by Grubb. On our way to Punta del Este yesterday, we visited a point where the Rio de la Plata merged into the Atlantic. Poking up into the skyline were a meteorological tower and a church. I thought they made a nice balance.
Dodging selfies
Post by Grubb There’s a large sculpture off the beach at Punta del Este of four fingers upthrust from the ground. It’s by a Chilean artist, Mario Irarrázabal, who says he is enthralled by the forces of nature. I wanted to capture a quick shot of the fingers as we were returning to our ride,…
Adios, sol
Post by Grubb The final stop on our Sunday trek was Casapueblo down the road from Punta del Este. This jerrybuilt meringue of a house decorates the cliffs that fall from a small jut of land that pokes into the Atlantic. It began being constructed in the late 1950s by Carlos Páez Vilaró and was…
Where the Rio de la Plata and Atlantic meet
Post by Ella On Sunday, we took a jaunt to Punta del Este, a large seaside resort. We walked on a beach, rode a wavy bridge, saw the largest mountain in Uruguay, learned a little about the current political landscape, watched a few sea lions cavort, admired a giant hand sculpture, strolled a seaside resort,…
Uruguayan dining
Post by Ella There is a lot of overlap between Argentinian and Uruguayan food. Both are heavily beef based. In Uruguay at least, all cattle are grass fed. One dish that originated in Uruguay is the pamplona. Made of deboned chicken or pork, rolled and stuffed with cheese, ham, sweet pepper and sometimes olives, then…
Saturday night
Post by Ella A well behaved rally on Plaza Indepencia. Along with simmering sunsets viewed from our 11th story AirBnB.
Walking guru
Post by Ella Much better weather Saturday, in fact, nearly perfect walking weather. We met Jorge (of GuruWalks) at Plaza Zabala for our delayed historical walk. Uruguay has rich history. Between the Spanish and Portuguese along with the meddling British, they had quite a time until gaining independence. Jorge described Uruguayans as “melancholic “. Argentinians…
The big urn
Post by Grubb. Today (Saturday) our walking tour of historic Montevideo took us to the underground mausoleum in Plaza Independencia where the large urn holding José Gervasio Artigas ashes are guarded by two soldiers. Artigas is the Uruguayan George Washington. He assembled the states that formed Uruguay and declared independence from Spain. As far as…
All in a day
Post by Ella. As mentioned, the day yesterday included torrents of rain and claps of thunder. Our Plan B Museum+Uber strategy yielded an unexpected but interesting tour of the city. Going from one museum to the next through different neighborhoods gave us an idea of the variety and diversity that is Montevideo. When we reached…
Little people poking through
Post by Grubb. Yesterday the second place we stopped during our rainy day Montevideo museum ramble was the Museo des Visual Artes. From the outside it looked like a modernist mid-school painted in bright primary colors with a modest sculpture garden. Inside, it had a large collection of Uruguayan painters whose main purpose was to…
Flight 571
Post by Grubb. It’s fitting that that the first museum we visited in Montevideo on Friday, after having on Tuesday been in the Andes, was the one devoted to the 1972 plane crash of a Uruguayan flight that, leaving Mendoza en route to Santiago, failed to make it over the mountain range. The accident took…
Today in Montevideo will be
Post by Ella Today, April 27, 2024
When you retrofit
Post by Ella. When you update a 1925 building and get the design specs wrong. No where else to run wires
A peek at Montevideo
Post by Ella. This morning we had intended to do a walking tour but torrential rains changed that plan. There is an outfit called guruwalks that provides “free” walking tours all over the world. Not really free. You pay what you want. I had signed us up for a walk with Jorge but as the…