Spring Break in the Fall, Part II: Uruguay

Nobody really talks about Uruguay—probably because it’s a small country squished between South America’s two giants—but it’s a great place, and we had a really fun time there.

Montevideo feels sort of like a European city. For one thing, there’s lots of great architecture (which is a lot more than São Paulo can say). Even though there aren’t a whole lot of tourist attractions, you can walk around for a few days and entertain yourself just by looking at the buildings.

Rocket-ship building

The city also has lots of plazas. And where there’s a plaza, it’s a good bet there’s also a statue of a guy on a horse. Uruguayans really love statues of guys on horses. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time we saw a statue of a guy on a horse, I’d have… three bucks, at least.

A lovely plaza in Montevideo

Man on horse

On Saturday, we were a bit confounded by the fact that just about every store was closed. But then we realized everyone does their shopping at street markets on the weekend. We didn’t really need any vegetables, but that didn’t stop us from walking around looking at all the colorful stalls.

Street market in Montevideo

There’s also a great path that goes along the coast of Montevideo, so we rented bikes and spent an afternoon riding along the ocean. (Technically, they say it’s a river… but if you look at a map I’m sure you’ll agree it’s the ocean.)

Riding along the beach

Anyway, our next stop was a city called Punta del Este, which is a resort town known for attracting famous people. (Brad Pitt is apparently a big fan.) We were there during the low season, however, which meant the town was pretty much vacant. Consequently, we didn’t spot any celebrities. But on the plus side, we had an entire beach to ourselves!

Posing in front of the rich folks’ yachts

There’s no such thing as a budget restaurant in Punta del Este. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a restaurant that doesn’t have a cover charge. So we acted like high rollers and treated ourselves to a great meal overlooking the ocean (or river, whatever). Kim had the best meal of her life—chicken in a white wine sauce.

Sunset in Punta del Este

Famous statue in Punta del Este:

“The Hand in the Sand”

Our own private beach!

After Punta del Este, we went to a little town called Colonia. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, so I was expecting it to be pretty great. Not that it was ugly, it just wasn’t as interesting as Paraty, Brazil (which I described a few weeks ago).

A street in Colonia

Another street in Colonia

Colonia is pretty tiny, and all the museums were closed, so we got bored after a couple hours. To kill some time, we went to a restaurant for the rest of the afternoon. After two bottles of wine, we decided Colonia wasn’t so bad after all.

Adios, Uruguay. Next stop: Argentina.

That night, we took the ferry to Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is only an hour away. I guess I expected a plain old ferry with standing room only, but wow—it was like the Titanic or something, with a grand staircase, a bar, and comfy recliners. Then I realized we were looking at the VIP area. So we walked over to the regular people’s area, which was a bit more… regular.