Wonderful Uruguay

After the beach time in Florianopolis in Brazil, we headed south to Uruguay.  Sat between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay is a small country about the size of England and Wales combined.  It is the richest country in South America, and fairly flat, which all made travel quite straightforward.

We started in the capital, Montevideo, and stayed in the historic centre.  This area has lots of grand buildings and long shopping streets, but this part of town is not where many people currently live.  Subsequently, it is a bit run down, but there are signs of gentrification as new buildings spring up in the place of old ones, or the old buildings are restored.  It will be interesting to see how this has changed this lovely area in ten years, because we stayed in a wonderful converted old building and Uruguayans are starting to move back into the centre.

We saw this results of gentrification best when we had a coffee in La Farmacia, which was a beautifully restored pharmacy with all the old features from shelving to wonderful glass panels.  There was also the Puerto Mercado, which was the old Port Market.  This large market and the surrounding streets have been restored and the market itself is now full of wonderful “parillada” grill restaurants where you watch the meat being cooked to perfection in front of you over large fires.  The steaks are superb and a delight, but not a great place for vegetarians.

The new Montevideo is in the various barrios, or neighbourhoods, around the edges.  One evening we decided to visit the area to the east where there were smart new restaurants set amongst brand new apartment buildings.  It was quite an expensive area and looked out over the sea.  We also went to a local vineyard for a birthday lunch, which had fantastic food and a great setting, including a collection of classic motor cars.  

Montevideo is an interesting place, with its dilapidated centre and great new areas, but we then travelled to Cabo Polonio and encountered the opposite extreme.  Set on a sandy promontory, and reached by trucks carrying forty people on a bumpy ride across the dunes, Cabo Polonio is remote.  There is no electricity, except for solar power, and life is at a very slow pace.

There are only ninety permanent residents, and the place is randomly dotted with wooden shacks, small hostels and a few modern, stylish concrete homes.  It is very rustic, where the main street consisted only of sand as it wanders through the shops and restaurants.  It eventually leads to the only smart hotel and restaurant in the town, and the lighthouse.  Underneath the lighthouse is a large colony of sealions on the rocky outcrop, and either side of this there are two beaches, one for surfing and one for swimming.

The place is wonderfully charismatic with people eating outside in the evenings sitting around open fires and listening to music.  The stars are incredible as there are no towns for miles, and we were lucky to have a full moon lighting everything up too.  Visitors range from families wanting a traditional beach holiday to backpackers and misfits wishing to smoke weed on the beach at night.

After the tranquility of Cabo Polonio we moved to the expensive sophistication of Punta del Este.  This is where the rich people from South America come to holiday and party, and the Uruguayans come to retire.  Full of gleaming, tall apartment blocks and large expensive houses, and set on a rocky promontory, it is a complete contrast to Cabo Polonio.

There are some great beaches stretched out over ten miles or so.  Out of town, along one of these beach areas, we went to the Club de los Ballianeros, which was in a complex of large, expensive houses with its own club.  Fortunately, the price of the fantastic baked local fish did not match the wonderful surroundings.  

The centre of Punta del Este is full of large shops, some very expensive, and there is a small marina, which gives the overall impression of being like Marbella.  At night. The marina area comes alive as it is where the large restaurants, bars and clubs are located.  It’s quite lively, but outside of the busy moths of December and January it is manageable.  Punta del Este is a relaxing place, but is being affected by the downturn in the Argentine economy and visitor numbers are well down, so it will be interesting to see how this affects the place in the future.

From the lovely east coast, we moved to the southwest and the area on the banks of the River Plate, which separates Uruguay from Argentina.  We visited a small town called Carmelo, but our visit was largely washed out by the incredible thunderstorm that we encountered there.  In the end we moved on to the colonial town of Colonia del Sacramento.

Colonia was fought over by the Spanish and Portuguese and the historic centre is now a maze of cobbled streets and squares with the ruins of some of the original fortifications.  Some of the streets are wide boulevards lined with plane trees, while the squares are full of trees, shrubs and flowers, which gives the place a Mediterranean feel.

The town is on the main South American tourist trail so has some wonderful restaurants.  It is easy to spend an evening in a lovely restaurant overlooking a square or the sea, and having a delightful meal or a bottle of wine.  It is a great place to wander the streets and is one of the most photogenic places we have been to.

We enjoyed our two weeks in the small country of Uruguay, and it is possible to see the wealth and the calm of the lovely Uruguayan people as you travel around.  It was an interesting step from the partying mindset of the Brazilians, and has set us up for what is to come in Argentina.  When standing on top of the lighthouse in Colonia, you can see the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires, so we are now looking forward to the seventh, and perhaps most varied country of all in South America.