May 10: Montevideo

I caught an 8:30 bus to Montevideo and took a cab to my hostel.  I enjoyed my hostel in Colonia so much that I agreed to stay at the owners´other hostel in Montevideo called Pocitos.  Positos is situated not so coincidentally in the heart of the Pocitos neighborhood which is right near the beach.  The website describes it as a Bohemian neighborhood, but it´s really more upscale than that.  I couldn´t tell if I was making a good decision or not to stay away from the city center, but thus far I am pleased.

After getting squared away, I got maps, directions, and ideas from the owner of the hostel and grabbed a bus to a MAC store to fix my iPhone.  The store told me to wait until I got to the US.  I then took another bus into downtown.  With walking tour map in hand, I strolled the cobbled streets from Plaza Indepencia to Cuidad Vieja marvelling at the architecture.  I was also surprised to see that Montevideans are sharp dressers and they all have fantastic foot wear.  Indeed, I felt a little under dressed!

Plaza Independencia; the building used to be the tallest in SA

I ate a large lunch in the city market sampling Uruguay´s finest- beef.  The thing about South America is there is no such thing as a lunch menu.  Lunch is typically the biggest meal of the day, so the offerings are large entrees.  The city market, unlike any other city market that has seafood and veggies, proffers beef, beef, and more beef .  Not that that is a bad thing.

Everyone told me that one day was plenty for taking in Montevideo and they were right.  I was done with the centro and Ciudad Vieja after 3.5 hours and caught the bus back for a brisk sunset walk along the beach.  I made the mistake of having my hair cut in an upscale peluqueria.  Even though I said only muy poco and stressed the importance with the upcoming wedding, my hair has been whacked.  I am trying to tell myself that change is good....