Well, this is quite “Europeaney”

Montevideo, Uruguay

As has been our primary mode of transport through South America, we arrived in Uruguay on Bus via the border town of Rio Branco.  The night bus left Porto Alegre around 8pm, but due to the increasingly poor roads as we travelled farther south, I was up at 2am when we reached the border.  Mercifully, the road surface improved immediately as we crossed into Uruguay and so did my ability to sleep.  Until the little people woke up a few hours later.

We arrived in Montevideo early morning and headed directly to the hotel to see if we could check in.  Upon entering Hotel Casablanca – and after verifying that it looked like the booking.com profile – I proudly shared with Mel that I was able to book three nights for half the price of the next comparable hotel.  I declared myself the master of booking.com and that I was likely being given preferential pricing because of my great custom.  This turned out not to be the case.  Using my very-limited-and-now-almost-forgotten-Spanish for the first time this trip, I learned that I had not booked for the next three nights, but had in fact booked for three nights in exactly 1 year’s time.  Embarrassing. Still, I was however, able to book for two nights at the current market rate – approximately twice the price as it would cost if we decided to return in 2021.  I was also left with the gift of finding somewhere for our final night.  I told Mel there was a mix-up with the booking system and of the very expensive tourist tax.

I didn’t let our minor accommodation booking hiccup dampen my enthusiasm for Montevideo.  The city, from the Uber ride, looked very nice, and in fact, quite “Europeaney”.  We spent the first day wandering around the old town, vising the port, the various plazas and browsing markets.  And with a small amount of reverse-culture shock, we found ourselves sharing the city with other (mostly American) English-speaking tourists for the first time in a few weeks. 

The highlight of our Montevideo, for me at least, was visiting one of the Carnival competitions at Teatro de Verano.  Throughout February and most of March, the various music schools compete to be crowned the Carnival winner – all the heats (of which this was one), are performed in front of a 5,000 strong audience in an beach-side amphitheater.  The audience was a complete mix – older people, families, groups of teens, children – it was teaming with people and we were lucky to get the last few tickets at the very back.   Of course, everything is performed in Spanish with cultural references to things we didn’t understand, but we had a good time watching and listening nevertheless.  Lucy, in particular, enjoyed singing and dancing along to the performances. 

For our final night, I managed to book a room across the road at Hotel Richmond, which were it not for the sign, we would have mistaken for a nursing home.  Not that this was an issue for us, but – and I’m putting this delicately  our little people can be an “acquired taste” for some, particularly for older people.  In fact, Mary was able to help one lady acquire a taste almost immediately.  As we were being shown to our room of the morning we checked-in, the concierge started to tell us our room number, “deice y ocho” (18), except Mary decided after hearing “deice” that she’d heard enough.  Not waiting to hear if there was more noise to come out of the man’s mouth and before Mel or I realised, Mary had opened the door to room 10 (“diece”) and was halfway inside.  Moments later – without closing the door – Mary sprinted back down the hall to tell us that our room wasn’t ready and there was a very old lady sleeping in “her” bed.  In fact, she was no longer sleeping and instead, shouting at Mary through her still open door.  Of course, this could have been avoided if the lady had locked her door.  Or if Mary was, well, less Mary.  Or if Mel and I were better parents.  Alas.

We saw Mary’s early-morning victim a couple more times later that day and each time, she would scowl at Mary through her very, very tired looking eyes.  Mary would simply smile back with her most angelic smile. 

After a brief, but very enjoyable time in Montevideo, we’re on our way to Buenos Aires in Argentina.  This time by Ferry!

Nick, 12th February 2020