MONTEVIDEO - Carnival in Uruguay

Accommodation

Our accommodation was exciting. A collection of renovated two-storey houses from the 19th century surrounding a courtyard/patio. Our host, Tunda, is an artist and hosts all kinds of people: his ex-girlfriend (a famous pianist), his son with his girlfriend, and a single-parent father with a child (who also booked the apartment via Airbnb), etc. Everything has a bit of an artistic touch to it, and you can discover paintings by different artists on the walls, while also occasionally listening to the pianist who is preparing for concerts alone or in a duet with a clarinet. The entire complex, including the kitchen and our room, was quite dark - does that perhaps promote the artistic vein? :D Unfortunately, there were quite a few mosquitos; spraying yourself once a day was far from sufficient. You could curb them a bit with the fan; the wind probably disturbed their flight path 😉. Otherwise, our host Tunda was a super interesting guy, who you could have pleasant conversations with, and he also showed us some of his digital artwork.

SIM Card

Arrived in Montevideo, we take care of Uruguayan pesos, a SIM card and the S.T.M. bus card. Quite expensive here, we're not used to this anymore: For 40 GB, we pay 300 pesos or 7.20 euros per person at Movistar. For the bus cards, another 675 pesos or 16 euros. With the card, you can now travel about 15 times, which didn't pay off in retrospect as I was sick for several days and Pascal had to work. It wouldn't have been much more expensive to pay in cash without the card, but well. It wasn't possible to cash out and donate either, as the cards were linked to our passports. At least now we have a valuable souvenir ;)

Sightseeing

The most famous sights can be found in Ciudad Vieja (old town):

• Antiguo Respirador de Colector (there used to be a citadel, of which this remnant can still be seen)
• Museo del Carnaval (explains the composition of the carnival groups and includes pretty costumes)
• Mercado del Puerto (collection of meat restaurants)
• Palacio Taranco and Plaza Zabala (normally you can take tours)
• Catedral Metropolitana at Constitucion Plaza (pretty cathedral next to a square with stalls)
• Teatro Solis (should normally have free admission on Wednesday, but was unfortunately closed)
• Puerta de la Ciudadela (entrance of the former citadel)
• Plaza Independencia with Mausoleo Artigas (a national hero, who is guarded by two soldiers)
• Palacio Estevez or Museo de la Casa de Gobierno (a small free museum that contains the possessions of former rulers/presidents)
• Palacio Salvo (an expensive palace that sells a combination ticket; you see the outside, some corridors, the roof terrace and a tango museum for 500 pesos, which was too expensive for me)
• Plaza Fabini (for a breather)
• Museo de Historia del Arte (free museum with replicas)
• Mirador panorámico de la Intendencia de Montevideo (free viewpoint)

Na Rambla szuka się jeszcze dużo subsequente do zobaczenia:

• Espacio Libre Alemania (we passed by when we were walking to the summer theatre)
• Parque Rodó with castle and photo gallery
• Playa Ramirez
• Teatro de Verano
• Punta del Papu
• Punta Carretas with lighthouse
• Castillo del Alquimista (we only saw it from the outside, but you can also visit it)
• Playa de los Pocitos (here we also saw the jellyfish (?))
• and of course the MONTEVIDEO letters
• in the north it would have gone even further, but it was just too warm to do anything else

Barrio Prado

• Jardín Botánico with museum (here you can get free seeds for plants! just ask in the museum)
• El Rosendal (lovely rose garden)
• Parque Prado (moderately pretty)
• Jardín Japonés with Museo Juan Manuel Blanes (passable garden with a great free museum)

Divers

• Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (free and highly recommended!)

What I didn't see was in the centre

• the SUBTE (Centro de Exposiciones de Montevideo)
• the Museo de Andes 1972
• the Museo de Arte Precolombino e Indǵena
• the Museo de las Migraciones
• the three museums Casa Rivera, Casa de Lavalleja, Casa de los Montero (for these three you pay a combination ticket for about 4.20 euros)
• the Museo Juan Zorilla de San Martín in the east of the city
• the Parque de las Instrucciones del Año XIII in the east of the city
• the Cerro de Montevideo with Fortaleza General Artigas (I would have really liked to go there, the sunsets are said to be quite beautiful) in the west of the city

Getting Around

Here everything went by foot or by bus. The stops were easy to find, and the bus also ran quite regularly.

Food and Drink

We once went to a very high-priced café called Santa Croce to escape the afternoon heat. We chose two hot chocolates and a piece of orange cake, which was very juicy. Mmmmmh! I went alone to the municipal administration office Intendencia Montevideo on a viewing platform. There was a small café with live music. I chose a tea for 70 pesos and a small chocolate cake (Budín de Chocolate) for 90 pesos, which then totalled around 3.80 euros. We also baked a so-called "cup bread" and a flatbread. We had a strong craving for it, don't know why; D Pascal forbade me to have the churros at Teatro de Verano, such a monster...

Cafés and Restaurants

Santa Croce and Intendencia Montevideo

Plants and Animals

Of course, Tunda's cat Cambá is worth mentioning. Super fluffy and cuddly! And then the mosquitos 🦟. And on the beach there was a stranded jellyfish (?) to see.

Number of Germans in the City

0 observed cases

Contact with Locals

We had very interesting conversations with Tunda. And then there was also an older lady in the café of the municipal administration whose ancestors were from Germany.

People We Met

We had the pleasure of briefly exchanging ideas with KBev, a photographer from the United States. Here is a link to his blog entry about the Carnival in Montevideo. We sat behind him in the Teatro de Verano and watched the various competing carnival groups in the disciplines of "Murga", "Revista", "Parodista", and "Humorista".

Expenses

Uruguay seemed very expensive to us. For two peppers, you paid about 2 euros, for a piece of cheese between 5 and 8 euros. The groceries in the supermarket in general were really ridiculously expensive. Entrance fees were moderate: museums were free or between 4.20 and 7 euros. For the Teatro de Verano, we then spent another 7 euros each.

Laundry

We were able to do our laundry in our accommodation. Only we sadly left our detergent there - thanks, Pascal!

Unsolvable Mysteries

How can people still cheer the 30th carnival group, even though all groups are structured in the same way and only the costumes and flags differ? The whole thing then goes on for two days in a row. The Uruguayans really have endurance when it comes to partying!

Currency

The currency is Uruguayan pesos. Savings are made in dollars. 1 UYU = 0.024 EUR 1 EUR = 41.964 UYU We withdrew money from the ATM of Redbrou, no fee was charged. There were no hidden fees in the exchange rate, so really cool! Then we had another withdrawal at the ATM of Banred, where we paid a fee of 242.20 pesos (about 5.80 euros).

Bus to Salto

The bus agency Grupo Agencia Central took us to Salto for 1469 pesos in 6 hours. There we then had to walk 35 minutes to our accommodation, as the bus only runs once an hour (by the way, this is Uruguay's SECOND LARGEST city, guys). At least we saw a beautiful sunset with afterglow during the walk.

Post Scriptum

More pictures can be found at https://hoenisch.eu/photo/mo/sharing/e8FbFJt9o.