Montevideo, Uruguay–December 4, 2023

Today we were in Montevideo, Uruguay. Uruguay is a tiny country, about the size of the state of Washington, sandwiched between the larger countries of Brazil and Argentina. The city was established in 1724 by a Spanish soldier, Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst the Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the Rio de la Plata Basin. Basically, it was a fight between the Spanish and the Portuguese for the port and in this case, the Spanish won.

Our tour guide for today, Alicia, was great and tried hard to make the country sound exciting, but I suppose I have had one too many history lessons lately to have absorbed much. I did learn that the country is the world’s sixth largest beef exporter. In fact, there are about 3 million people and about 14 million cows in the country, so that says a lot.

Montevideo is in a middle latitude, so the city has four seasons. Right now it is spring here, and the cool temperatures were proof of that with the high today being about 65 degrees and breezy. After Recife and Rio, the cooler temperature was a major relief.

One of our stops was the Torres Garcia Museum, who Alicia said was one of Uruguay’s most influential artists. He was the creator of the style “constructive universalism,” which looked like something from a middle school art class. Maybe I didn’t understand it. Before we came back to the ship we had lunch at Bar Facal where they serve their famous sandwich called a Chivito, which was thinly sliced steak with mozzarella, tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise. The restaurant had outdoor seating, and after we ate there was tango dancing on the sidewalk, so that was cool.

All of the locks are in front of Bar Facal are around a fountain called the Fuente de los Candados, or “Fountain of Locks.” The padlocks are put there by sweethearts who are committing to each other and “locking” their love in place. Too bad it doesn’t work that way, but I guess the sentiment is nice. My fellow travelers were fairly tame today. Everyone seems kind of listless and worn out at this point. There are still the same people who crowd around the tour guide and ask a ton of dumb questions, but I just turn my Quietvox’s volume down so I can’t hear.

We left port tonight about 7:30 PM. From our room, we can see all of the preparations for leaving. I had never really thought about how they get all of the supplies on board. It is a major operation with two forklifts loading stuff on pallets onto a retractable plank (?). They pull the plank in, unload it and voila, they do it again.

Remember the ancient couple I have mentioned who are on the ship? Yesterday, I saw them trying to take the stairs down from the seventh floor to the sixth floor. She was laboriously heading down, so he followed her and left his walker on the landing. A nice British couple were trying to help them. They offered to carry the walker down the stairs. The ancient man said he could carry it down. Yet, he was holding on for dear life, just trying to navigate the stairs. What a train wreck. Apparently, the ancient couple was headed to the second floor. I deserted the operation, but I can only hope they got in the elevator for the remainder of their descent.