Horse rubbish cart!
Day 318 & 319
Monday, 14th and Tuesday 15th January 2008
Montevideo, Uruguay, South America
Yesterday we explored the little cove at the end of our street, Convencion Street, where there are rocks and a river beach area. They don´t call it a beach because it´s just a little cove area next to a parque. (park) The water is a dirty colour, due to the silt from the river flowing into the area since it´s at the mouth of the river..but against the large rocks overlooking the beach it´s a peaceful and beautiful view.
The weather has been absolutely gorgeous...both days we´ve been here. Around 30-34C.
Yesterday, Monday, we caught a taxi 5 km´s to another beach, called Playa Ramirez which is one of the more popular beaches and it was weird. The place was pretty empty until about 5pm when people started flowing in with their deck chairs (and mate) and their soccer ball´s ready to have a game of beach soccer. We were laying on our sarongs (mine from Brazil, Greg´s from Salvador) for quite a while..on the white beach sand further away from the water where it was a bit warmer.
The wind came up about 6pm so we left..but it was funny to see people laying their towels near the beach, on the grey muddy silt. Ew.
We decided to walk home so we could pass the city and see what was happening...and as we walked we saw heaps of ´rubbish horse carts´..they were everywhere. The people on them come from the shanty towns on the outskirts of town and rummage through the rubbish, piling up their carts with whatever they can find. We saw different ones passing through on every intersection. They must turn up when the main shops finish work for the day.
The colourful street vendors were still out and about. We bought the traditional Uruguay mate pot and metal straw for posterity. Not sure we´ll ever acquire the taste for mate but it´ll remind us of their bizarre habit when we see it on our mantle piece!!!
The streets coming back from the beach were all named after doctors...Dr Juan D Jackson, Dr Emilio Frugoni and then the main streets were called Constituticional and Convencion Streets. Intersting names.
We went back to the local restaurant here in Convencion Street and had Milenesa Neopolatina with the fritas, ensalada, and pan (bread with oil and vinegar) this time..ohlala..very good food here..with that italian flavour and very good copa vino tinto with that incredible price of under 200 uruguayan pesos. (around AUD $10!)
About the Italians..they, and the Swiss, apparently immigrated in droves in early 1900´s, introducing the italian and swiss flavour to the area. In particularly the Little Italy they have here. The dishes are very italian in most restaurants. We found out they have very good gnocchi as well! They also have this tradition where they go beserk on the 29th of every month, selling monstrous amounts of gnocchi on that date. The Swiss introduced cheese making here due to the abundance of dairy cows. Hence the incredible cheeses they also have here!
After dinner..we had some time to kill..so we looked at the ´cine show´ sign over the road from our hotel and decided to go in...
Without going into the details of it...In short, it ended up being a latin porn show...hahahaha and it figured overloaded gross looking characters which was enough to turn anyone off! Not quite THE cultural experience we expected!!!! Geepers...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Anyway...Strolling on the beach and going to a good local restaurant was a good way to end our stay in Uruguay. We totally enjoyed it here. The people are so relaxed and the pace is slow.
Back to Argentina now!!! (BA)
xx
