THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17 - Montevideo, Uruguay

Due to strong head winds ever since we left Puerto Madryn, we are about four hours late arriving in Montevideo. We are not docked until 1PM. On the slow approach to the city, up the Rio de la Plata, Terry Breen regales us with the history of the city and the Battle of the Rio de la Plata or Battle of the River Plate in 1939. This is when the German pocket battleship Graf Spee was hounded into Montevideo after a battle with three British cruisers, Ajax, Achilles and Exeter. Not having enough time to repair and unable to reach Buenos Aires, the Graf Spee was scuttled by her crew within sight of the crowds watching from the shore in Montevideo. There is no sign of the ship in the shallow area where it sank as it has been swallowed by the mud. The ship’s anchor, which is surprisingly small, and it’s optical range finder, an early radar system, have been recovered and are on display at the entrance to the port.

 

We have signed up for a walking tour of the Old City and it leaves at 1:50PM. They bus us to the first stop, the Plaza Zabala. It, of course, holds the equestrian statue of some guy named Zabala, of whom we have never heard.

Across the street is the Palacio Taranco, a French style home built in 1908 by three brothers who had made it big in cattle hides.

Unfortunately, no photos are allowed and the docents are everywhere so Carolyn cannot cheat with her quiet little camera.

It was nice to see but, if ours, we would install several thousand tons of air-conditioning. The humid, warm, sea breeze conditions are wreaking havoc on the beautiful plaster work, furnishings and parquet floors.

Moving on, we walked several blocks, while being herded by a mother-daughter team of tour guides, first to Constitution Square to see the Cathedral and visit a neat market in the Square.

A pedestrian street, lined with interesting little stalls, leads us to the Square. It has a very European look to it except for the horse drawn garbage truck! 

There is an antique market around the square that has some really nice silver and china, but with no way to take anything like that home, we settle for an antique lapel pin from a famous Uruguay Rowing Club. Rowing is a big sport in this part of the world.

Next we head to Teatro Solis, the world class Opera House.

Dick finally has enough of the daughter breathing down our necks as we stop to take pictures of the beautiful old buildings and tells her if we can’t keep up, just leave us! We are adults and will take a taxi back to the ship! She stays behind us, but gives us space....there are several others trying to take pictures to, so we have a little sub group.

At the Opera House we are given a tour by local docents and the interior is quite impressive.

It has recently been extensively renovated. From there we walk to Independence Square where, before entering, we see the gate from the original city wall.

The wall was torn down in the 1830's but the gate was left as a reminder and now marks the dividing line between the Old City and the new one. This Square also has it man and horse statue and again is surrounded by impressive old buildings.

After a few minutes here, we board the bus for a return trip to the dock. Upon arrival, Carolyn heads for the ship and Dick goes to take a photo of the Graf Spee anchor. It is now pushing 6PM and it is time to get ready for dinner. Sailing time is delayed to 9PM due to our late arrival and we go up to Deck 12 to watch. There is lightning in two thunderheads in the general direction of Buenos Aires and it is quite pretty to see in the fading light under the full moon.

We will leave it to the Captain to worry about the narrow, shallow channel between us and Buenos Aires, some 145 nautical miles form Montevideo. We are going to bed.