After a week in Buenos Aires, I nipped over to Montevideo, capital of Uruguay. My friend Chris happened to be doing a week’s work in Argentina so we decided to go together.
We had about 2.5 days in Montevideo, which felt like enough.
You’re at Montevideo in just under three hours from Buenos Aires - if the ferry is running on time (it wasn’t on the way back).
The ferry over is not cheap - £170 / $330AUD - and, not gonna lie, you feel a bit short changed when you wake up the next day and the first view you see on your jog is this.
The sea is the colour of the Thames as so many channels run into it. Apparently.
However, the plus side is - Montevideo has some surprises in store.
It has some distinguished architecture.
For example, this building. It was the tallest building in South America in the 1920s when it opened as a hotel.
There’s a slightly random though well meaning ‘sexual diversity plaza’ too
We did an excellent bus tour on day two, and I was blown away by Uruguay’s parliament building. As out coach rounded the corner, it took my breath away.
If you want to get derivative, you could’ve been in Rome!
It feels grandiose for a country of 3.4 million (1.38m of whom live in Montevideo). Uruguay is the penultimate smallest country in South America - only Suriname is smaller (French Guiana and the Falkland Islands are smaller, but they’re not countries, they’re departments/ territories of France and the UK respectively.)
Ok geography lesson over!
The other surprise Uruguay had in store for us was the cost - I’d say everything was approx almost three times more expensive than Buenos Aires.
The local fayre for lunch is called a chivito and was the third nicest thing I’ve ever put in my mouth, FACT.
Just like the best two things ahead of it, it tastes a lot nicer than it looks.
It’s basically a bunch of different, well-cooked meat twatted in a soft brioche-like roll with egg and shit. Food writers beware! Your jobs are no longer safe.
People living in B.A. have been nipping over here to get their passports stamped and renew their 90 day visa-free stays in Argentina.
But I’ve since discovered you can do that in Argentina for a tiny fine of just 12,000 pesos! (About $12usd). That’s almost twenty times cheaper.
So is Montevideo worth the expense? Personally I’d stay in BA and pay the fine. At one point we asked the hotel receptionist what else there was to do that day, after listing what we’d done, and her response was ‘walk further?’ with a shrug.
Walk further along this 🤷♀️
That’s not to say I didn’t have fun with my friend Chris! Always great to see new countries, even if it was just a glimpse.
Go for the much more chilled vibe; stay for the unequivocally delicious chivito and to gawp at one of the most surprisingly impressive parliament buildings in the world, easily up there with Budapest’s gorgeous show-off of a parliament.
If spending a little more doesn’t phase you, there are some amazing hidden gastro hubs with multiple cuisines under one roof in a gloriously buzzy interruption to an otherwise quiet street.
Stay tuned for the next blog, which’ll be on the upcoming Argentinian election, which happens this Sunday.