[The Salvo Palace on Independence Square. Now an office building and apartment complex it was for a time the tallest building in Uruguay. I never saw anyone on the upper terraces; maybe not for tourists? Photo is mine]

Montevideo n. (Portuguese) I Saw A Mountain.

~~Result of my Chrome search.

The Journey and The Arrival~

Before I tell you, my dear readers, about the pre-dawn Uber ride to the Ferry Terminal in Buenos Aires, before I tell you all about how overly warm it was in the section where we were sitting in the aforementioned ferry for the ninety minute crossing of the Rio de la Plata to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, and well before I tell you about the nearly four hour ride to Montevideo in a small coach (with a bathroom!) over a bumpy road…I have to tell you how much I love the Uruguayan national flag.

And here it is:

[Adopted December 18, 1828. Designed by Joaquin Suarez. Image source: Wikipedia]

The sun burst figure is fantastic. We have a piece of outdoor decoration in our patio that has the same smiling face. The white, the blue and the earthy sun is kind on the eyes. The fact that the flag is not flying in one’s face, from every direction, must, I would think, make the banner even more special to a typical Uruguayan. Although I love the whole design, little did I know that the pleasing and innocent sunny face can, in the real world of walking around the city, be quite brutal in its intensity. Yes, it’s hot here. But why Uruguay, one might reasonably ask. The answer is a little complicated but not if you know me and my interests. I have to take you back to my college years…

I went to Northeast Louisiana State College in 1965 and majored in Geology. I wanted so much to be like my older brother, Chris. A true geologist (actually a glaciologist). Several field trips into my freshman year, through the backwoods and bayous of Louisiana and the gritty quarries of east Texas, I began to reconsider my major. We would arrive at a stop. As the others were picking away at an outcrop, finding a crinoid here, and a trilobite there. I stood back and photographed the clouds, the wildflowers, lichens, moss, ferns…and a few interesting minerals. This wasn’t for me. I didn’t care for the Small Details, I wanted to understand the Big Picture. I saw geography as my true calling. And geographers like maps. They look at maps, study them, collect them. I would sit in the library of Owego Free Academy, pull out an atlas and run my finger along the Susquehanna River, the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Nile and the Yukon. I would wonder at the human geography of the people of the Andes, the Alpine valleys of Austria and France, the nomads of Morocco and the stretches of the Gobi and the Sahara Deserts.

The countries in those out-of-the-way places (to us that is, North American-centric) and think about what a house in Argentina would look like. Remember the gauchos? And those countries like Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina…I had to walk a footpath in those places before I couldn’t. So I am, in a manner of speaking.

But I digress.

The Rio de la Plata (River Plata) is an estuary that is formed by the confluence of the Uruguay and the Parana Rivers. It can be considered a marginal sea, a gulf, or a river. If you decide to consider it a true river (by official Geographical definition), then it is the widest river in the world. At its mouth, it is a jaw-dropping 140 miles across! That’s roughly halfway from New York City to Albany.

[The brown mass is the River Plata. Photo source: NASA Image (Public Domain). The clever mark-up is mine]

With the hot wind rushing over the decks of the ferry, I chose to go outside for about a minute, maybe three. The rest of the time I spent in the well air-conditioned Duty Free shop, sampling the cologne, eyeing the ear buds and searching out the granola bars. The Duty Free and the snack bar on the upper level were open for what seemed about thirty minutes. Back in my seat, too warm to nap, I rubbed my restless legs and yearned for the boat to dock so we could get on the bus and I could at last see the countryside. In Buenos Aires for three weeks caused me to yearn for some open spaces.

Soon, I was happy. Rural Uruguay passed by my window. The hills and cultivated fields reminded me of parts of Texas and in some places, upstate New York. The small towns had shuttered storefronts and many car dealerships. And motorcycle repair shops.

But four hours? All I can say at this point is…I wish I had some Dramamine, fresh cold water and a pillow. However, I did have my ear buds and the WiFi was pretty strong. So I settled in to listen to a few true crime podcasts and a little Dylan, Cohen, Prine and Carlos Gardel to mix things up.

We arrived in the chaos of the bus station in Montevideo. Mariam was hearing nothing she understood (she’s pretty good with her Spanish) because it was a blend of Portuguese and Spanish dialects. We called an Uber and were checking into the Radisson before I could say cafe con leche.

A City Tour~

We decided to take the Hop On/Hop Off bus to get an overall sense of the city. A short walk from the hotel, cutting across a corner of the Victory Plaza was our Hop On spot. As I passed a very large equestrian statue, I was distracted by shouting and a drumming from a building that functioned as the President’s Offices. I came of age in the 1960s and I knew the sound of a demonstration when I heard one. I found out later that it was a Union of some kind demanding cleaner water. Always a great idea, I thought. The way things are shaping up back home, we may be asking for the same thing…but that’s for another time and another blog.

[The protest. Video is mine]

Time to shoot a video or two and then catch our bus.

We climbed the chairs and found the upper deck empty. Front seat, ear buds in, window open. Good to go. But, after ten minutes, the air was pretty close and the Greenhouse Effect was getting intense. You were on a double-decked bus, upstairs? You may ask. Yes and no. The first three rows of seats were under a roof of sorts. So not much air moving there. Toward the end of our trip, we moved to the still empty seats in the back. Ahh. Air.

What follows is a brief video. I spent more time using my GoPro, but I haven’t had the time to upload those files and edit them, so this is all I have using an iPhone. We only de-bussed at the bus station where there was a nice shopping mall and a place to grab my afternoon cafe and a small cookie.

[Thirty seconds of a drive along a street in Montevideo. Video is mine]

The Carnival~

We heard talk and read a few passages about the Montevideo Carnival 2025. It takes place late January and last until early March. And, guess what? Last night (January 23) was the first night! Better still, it played out in the square in front of our hotel.

On the way to a great Korean dinner, I shot these:

Enjoy.

[A dancer warming up for the Big Parade. For some reason my iPhone camera kept find this subject. I have no idea why. Most likely reason is that of all the participants, she simply couldn’t stop moving. She burned off a fair number of calories last night, not that she needed to though. Video is mine]

[Sometimes a guy gets to the point when his parade is over and it’s time to go home and chill. Taken on our way back from dinner. The street party continued until midnight. Video is mine]

Well, we come to the end of our three nights in this lovely Uruguayan city. We return to Argentina tomorrow for the final five days of our extraordinary trip. As I sit and type this (it’s 6:22 PM on 1/24/25), I can hear the music getting started in the plaza below our window. This afternoon, we passed new floats being prepared for another night of revelry. Maybe, just maybe if you tell all your friends to read my posts, then I may edit in additional video at a later date.

Or, maybe I will wait and put the whole empanada in a YouTube post.

Anybody’s guess. I’m still in South America and it’s all reversed down here.