Today, Tuesday, was a wonderful day. We were back to really traveling. Rio
was fun because it is a great city and we were able to explore on our own. Today
in Montevideo, Uruguay we had the same luxury.
All of the stops in between have felt a bit like a Disneyland ride. "Good
morning passengers. Today we will be visiting Brazilian Seaside Village Land.
You will need an E ticket for this ride." As you have probably been able
to tell, we have not been thrilled with the ports of call or the shore excursions
on this cruise.
The ship docked at 11:00 a.m. and we were again in the middle of a bustling
commercial cargo port. At least here we had an easy 5 minute walk and we were
at the Mercado del Pueto, the Public Port Market. Inside this building were a number of little
individual restaurants and small craft shops. The streets next to the market
also had kiosks and small stores with a variety of interesting Uruguayan
products. The restaurants in the market are called Parradillas. They are
similar to the barbeque restaurant we ate at in Rio, the exception being that
parradillas are not all you can eat establishments. Each of the parradillas had
large wood fired grills where a variety of meats, chicken and seafood was being
prepared. Each of us had a nice steak with French fries and a beer. The steaks
were excellent. Between lunch and shopping, we spent about two hours in the
market area before returning to the boat. In the afternoon we had signed up for
a tour of the highlights of Montevideo. We looked more closely at the tour and
found it was going to be three hours and a bus driving by all of the important
places in Montevideo. We decided to bag the tour and strike out on our own. Lynda
did manage to talk the guide for the tour we were to go on to drop us off at
the first stop, the Presidential Plaza. They begrudgingly decided to do so. It
saved us a 20 peso taxi fare. Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay and the
Presidential Plaza is where the main government building is located. The plaza
is a large beautiful park with several impressive statues and several
architecturally interesting buildings surrounding it. Just off of the Plaza is
the Montevideo Opera House, the principal classical music venue in the capital.
We ventured in hoping to wander around a bit and see the main auditorium.
Unfortunately, that was not allowed. Tim's Michigan School Band and Orchestra
Association member emeritus card did not seem to impress the people at the
Opera. We also found the Montevideo Leather Market on the Presidential Plaza. Probably
should have stayed on the tour bus. It would have been cheaper! Tim now has a
new leather winter coat and gloves and Lynda has a new belt. We spent nearly an
hour and a half at the leather market. It was quite fun. More laid back then the
leather markets we have been to in Florence, Italy. We were exhausted from the
shopping so we took the taxi back to the ship. Tonight we are looking forward
to a special barbeque buffet poolside on the top deck of our ship. It is going
to be a lovely summer evening here so should be fun and delicious.
Wednesday morning found us anchored off of Punta del Estes in Uruguay. We
spent 6 hours today on an Arts and Cultural tour of Punta del Estes. Our first
stop was the Museo Ralli, one of 5 Ralli Art Galleries around the world. This
particular gallery featured a small collection of Salvador Dali sculptures and
a temporary exhibit of Alexander Calder prints. There were also many
contemporary sculptures and glassworks by South American artists that we found interesting.
However, it was a bit disconcerting and highly refreshing that there was no
gift shop in this art gallery. Upon leaving the Museo Ralli we were driven to
the city center where we had an hour and half of free time which we used to
have lunch, do some shopping and take pictures of a locally famous sculpture of
fingers coming out of the sand on the beach near the main shopping area. After
this free time we went to the home and gallery of a local artist by the name of
Villaro. Villaro is 90 years old and still painting. He designed the
home/gallery that we visited and, as you can see from the picture, the home has
a very Moorish influence. As a young man Villaro met Pablo Picasso. Villaro's
work reflects a strong Picasso influence. We had the opportunity to buy works
by Villaro (think gift shop) but were able to resist.
We have thoroughly enjoyed Uruguay. All of the locals we have interacted
with have been very friendly and welcoming. It is probably the favorite part of
our trip to this point. Two points of interest. As we finish this posting on
the balcony of our cabin we can look down and see literally hundreds of Jelly
Fish floating by the ship just below the surface of the ocean. Secondly, for
all of you who ordered marijuana, we have bad news. We saw no shops offering
weed for sale. We will keep your names confidential...for a price.
Tomorrow is our final day aboard Regent Seven Seas Mariner. We will be
docked in Buenos Aires and will try to post one last blog tomorrow night.
 | |
| Montevideo |
 |
| Punta del Estes |
 |
| Meat |
 |
| Punta del Estes |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment