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Uruguay Now.com
First guide to Uruguay in English.
Features on:
Find out the winners of the
UruguayNow awards for:
Best Hotel
Best Value-Hotel
Best Restaurant
Best Dining Experience
First Edition: February 2010
Teatro Solís
Tristán Narvaja Market
Punta del Este
Uruguay’s Food Renaissance
Candombe drumming
Football
Uruguayan Literature
Nostalgia Night
Starting a home in Uruguay
Joaquín Torres García
Uruguay’s Interior
and...
the UruguayNow interview
www.uruguaynow.com
Contents
Fast Facts
3
Getting to Uruguay
5
Getting Around
7
Money, Costs & Shopping
9
Montevideo: What to see
11
Montevideo: Restaurants
13
Montevideo: Bars and Cafés
14 Welcome to UruguayNow!
Montevideo: Hotels
15
UruguayNow Awards
16
Features
Words on the street
Football, football, football
Theatre of dreams
Portrait of the artist
Blast from the past
What a difference a blueberry makes
A resort for all seasons
Uruguay’s Interior: Six of the best
Uruguay gets a female beat
A happy country
Market forces
The UruguayNow Interview: Karen Ann
Inner beauty
“It’s a word of mouth thing”
3
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
In this first edition our intention is to give you a low-down of the sights and attractions
of Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital city. Need some ideas for accommodation or a night
out? Take a look at our reviews of hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés in the city. Want
to know what’s unmissable in the Old Town? Read through our section on what to see
– not just in the fascinating Ciudad Vieja, but also in Montevideo’s seaside suburbs,
and in its nearby wine country.
Sometimes described as a capital with a ranch attached, we nonetheless haven’t
forgotten Uruguay’s provinces (called departamentos in this country), nor have we left
aside its feel-good beach resorts. But with autumn approaching and Punta del Este
winding down for the season, our main focus is on urban life and seeking out what
makes Uruguay tick: Its passion for football, music and art. Its vibrant street markets.
The historical relevance of the gaucho. And, last but not least, we do our best to explain the national obsession with Cyndi Lauper, REO Speedwagon and the rest of the
kitsch pantheon of 1980s rock and pop performers. Nostalgia, you see, is a serious
business in these parts…
UruguayNow is also dedicated to searching out excellence – and reporting back to our
readers. That’s why, starting with Montevideo, our researchers have visited scores of
accommodation and dining options in the city to bring you our choices of Best Hotel,
Best-Value Hotel, Best Restaurant and Most Innovative Dining Experience for 2010.
Please turn to page 17 for the full results. And when hotels and restaurants get things
wrong, we’ll also tell you.
Although the guide is subject to copyright, we are always delighted for brief passages
to be quoted in other publications with a clear indication of the source.
Happy reading!
Nick Foster, Publisher
Credits
Contact
Publisher and writer: Nick Foster
Web design, research and additional content: Russ Slater
Photo credits: All photos UruguayNow except image from Joaquín Torres García
feature, reproduced by kind permission of the Museo Torres García and image from
UruguayNow Interview: Karen Ann by Silvia Andrada.
If you would like to contact the editorial or advertising sales team at UruguayNow
please send a mail to contact@uruguaynow.com. If you would like to subscribe
to our newsletter, please mail the same address with the word “Newsletter” in the
subject field.
2
Fast Facts
Entry Requirements
Citizens of EU member states, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (among
others) travelling as tourists do not need a visa to enter Uruguay. Visitors receive a
tourist card that allows for a stay of up to 90 days. You get an automatic extension
by leaving the country and re-entering. You can also obtain an extension from the
National Immigration Office at Misiones 1513, at the corner of 25 de Mayo (in Montevideo’s Old Town). The cost is under US$20. Be prepared to wait in line.
Immigration at Montevideo’s Carrasco international airport is a breeze compared
to entering Argentina at Buenos Aires and the chaos that is passport control at Sao
Paulo and Rio de Janeiro airports when two or three aircraft land in quick succession.
Customs agents rarely trouble foreign visitors.
Remember that immigration officials have every right to ask you for evidence of funds
to cover your stay in the country, and may also ask to see the return portion of your
ticket. A departure tax of US$31 is levied on departure if you leave by air (US$17 if
you are flying to Buenos Aires). You can pay the tax in pesos.
Climate
Reports of Montevideo’s classic Mediterranean climate have been much exaggerated.
Locals complain that weather is becoming less and less predictable, with occasional
hot periods in early spring and late autumn and – less pleasantly – destructive winter
storms. In any case, the closest European climatic equivalent is Lisbon; if you are in
North America think the shore of South Carolina.
Average highs in the summer (December – February) are 27ºC - 29ºC with lows in
the 17ºC - 19ºC bracket. On the rare summer nights when there is no breeze, the city
can be as breathless as Buenos Aires. Dramatic thunderstorms build up from time to
time in the summer.
You should take precautions against the sun in Uruguay. The rays, both in spring
and in summer, are very strong. Many Uruguayans don’t go to the beach before 4 pm
in the summer after news broke about a hole in the ozone layer directly above the
country. Others have stopped sun-bathing altogether. One Uruguayan dies of skin
cancer every four days.
The coldest month is July with an average low of 8ºC. But watch out for the pampero, a weather system than originates in the northern part of Patagonia and brings
temperatures to the Uruguayan capital that can, on occasions, drop to nearly zero.
Most rain falls in the spring and summer (October to March). Montevideo is a windy
city and winter days – which are invariably sunny – often feel colder than they really
are. Similarly, winter nights feel colder than they really are – not just because of the
biting wind but because of the inadequacy of heating systems in many private homes
and in cheaper hotels. It has never snowed in Montevideo.
Conclusion: expect the unexpected. On 13 February 1914 a drop of 18ºC was
recorded in the river port of Mercedes in the space of an hour and a quarter. Newspaper reports from that month tell of masses of bob-haired young things scrambling
desperately for their cardigans.
Information, Maps & Communications
The official tourist information office in Montevideo is close to the port and a block
from the Port Market (Rambla 25 de Agosto corner Yacaré). It can provide brochures
and advice on accommodation and activities throughout Uruguay.
Maps of Montevideo are available at newspaper kiosks throughout the Old Town,
Centre and beach districts. Free maps of the downtown and Punta Carretas/Pocitos
are often handed out at the larger hotels. Hotels in Punta del Este routinely do the
same. Internet cafés are common in the Centre, particularly around the Plaza del
Entrevero and in the streets around the main University building in the Cordón district.
Wifi is increasingly common in cafés in the Old Town and (to a lesser extent) the
beach suburbs. The tourist information office can supply a simple road map of the
country.
Telephone: Country code is 598. Montevideo city code is 2 (leave out when dialing in
the city). You can rent mobile/cell phones in Montevideo and Punta del Este.
Uruguay’s official language is Spanish. English is spoken in large hotels in Montevideo and Punta del Este, and in some restaurants and shops.
Appliances that function between 220 – 240 volts will usually work without a problem
in Uruguay.
Health
There are no particular health risks in Uruguay. We recommend that your tetanus
protection is up to date. There is no yellow fever, malaria or dengue fever risk; the
authorities constantly monitor the dengue situation in neighbouring Brazil, where there
are outbreaks. Be aware of the strong sun and take precautions.
If you fall ill or have an accident in Montevideo you can go to the emergency room
of either the public Hospital de Clínicas (on Avenida Italia across from the Centenario
stadium) or the private Hospital Británico (on Avenida Italia corner Morales). At
the latter you will need to provide proof of funds or a valid insurance policy before
treatment.
For emergencies in Uruguay call 911.
Words on the street
Evidence of literacy – and
literature – is everywhere in
Montevideo
In recent years, Uruguay’s literacy rate has
hovered around 97% of the total population
– the highest figure in South America.
“Just about everyone in Montevideo can read,” says Andrés Linardi of the Librería
Linardi y Risso, a mainly second-hand bookshop in the Old Town set up by Mr Linardi’s father and a business partner, “but what is striking is that so many butchers,
farmers and taxi drivers, for instance, buy and read books in Uruguay. One of my
regular customers is a policeman with a beat around the Plaza Matriz who chooses
a different book every so often.”
The origins of Linardi y Risso go back to 1944. Previously a pulp fiction writer had
set up shop in the same location. Some 45,000 books are on sale at any one time
in the beautiful, cavernous premises, illuminated by a small winter garden at the
rear of the shop.
Linardi y Risso is one of two bookstores just north of the Plaza Matriz which should
be on every booklover’s Montevideo itinerary. The other is the Librería Oriente Occidente, a marvellously atmospheric single-room reading den with creaking, antique
floorboards, owned by longstanding bookseller Julio Moses.
“When Uruguayans want to find out about a subject, their first reflex is to turn to a
book,” says Mr Linardi. “Traditionally Uruguayan education was based on reading
and analysis. On top of that, Uruguayans are curious about the outside world. They
want to know where they are from and where we, as a nation, are from.”
The voracious appetite of Uruguayans for reading material peaked, according to Mr
Linardi, in the 1960s. “We are a very politicised people, it was inevitable that with
so many changes in the world Uruguayans should look to books for explanations,”
he says.
Mr Linardi concedes that the rise of the internet is making itself felt and the
Uruguayan love of reading is slowly being eroded: “Sometimes I buy a collection
from a widow who will tell me, these were my husband’s books, our children aren’t
so interested in reading.”
Or perhaps their interests have narrowed: a current bestseller in Uruguay is La
socieded de la nieve, a non-fiction work by Pablo Vierci for which all the survivors
of the 1972 Andes air crash (who had to resort to eating the bodies of those who
died on impact) agreed to be interviewed for the first time.
While in the first half of the twentieth century it was French literature – plus works of
Shakespeare and the Spanish Golden Age – that dominated local tastes, from the
end of the 1940s onwards Uruguayan publishing houses began to publish native
writers finding their own voice. The form many chose was the cuento, or short story.
Mario Benedetti, who died in 2009, was probably the country’s best-known
exponent of the form. Born to a well-to-do family of Italian immigrants, Benedetti
was the chronicler of the increasingly prosperous Uruguayan middle class at the
time of the vacas gordas – the period of national wealth (the time of the “fat cows”)
in the years that followed the Second World War. He came to prominence in 1959
with the publication of Montevideanos (Montevideans), a collection of cuentos that
contained more than a nod to James Joyce’s Dubliners. These stories revealed the
frustrations, hopes – and on occasion – joys of the city’s individuals and families,
confronted with situations which could be stifling, but were also sometimes full of
the sense that Benedetti’s creations had the world at their feet.
Meanwhile, in his short 1966 tale La noche de los feos (“The Night of the Ugly”)
two disfigured, lonely people come together in the dark of a cinema and find a
closeness that is, in part, an act of defiance. The story is also a pithy portrait of the
heyday of Avenida 18 de Julio and the city’s downtown, and is worth seeking out.
Benedetti – who spend a decade in exile during Uruguay’s period of military
dictatorship – was one of many writers and eminent guests to make a contribution
to Linardi y Risso’s visitors’ book. He wrote a poem that pokes gentle fun at Mr
Linardi’s father, Adolfo, a lover of books who never forgot that selling them was
also a business.
When Mr Linardi, son, turns the page to Benedetti’s entry, he does so with evident
pride.
Factfile:
Librería Linardi y Risso, calle Gómez corner Rincón, tel. 915 7129,
www.linardiyrisso.com
Librería Oriente Occidente, calle Rincón corner Gómez, tel. 915 4065,
www.mosesbks.com
No sales tax is imposed on books and other reading material in Uruguay.
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010)
3
Fast Facts
Football, football, football!
Twice winners of the soccer World Cup, in 1930 (as hosts of the competition) and in
1950 (when the national team overcame Brazil in the final), football has for generations been at the heart of how Uruguayans see themselves. It is a matter of intense
national pride that they are by a long way the smallest nation in the world to have
won football’s biggest prize.
“At the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth centuries, the population
of Uruguay grew exponentially,” says Juan Carlos Luzuriaga, historian and author
of a book (see below) on the origins of football in Uruguay. “Football gave many
new immigrants their own identity, bringing them together and serving as a kind of
common denominator. In the 1920s and 1930s football, together with tango and the
traditions of Carnival, was the glue that held society together.”
British railway workers, importers and ranch owners integrated into a society of
criollos (native Uruguayans) and Italian and Spanish immigrants in good measure
thanks to soccer. When Uruguay played Argentina in a match in 1909, both teams
fielded players of British origin. A Uruguayan newspaper report of the game (published in Spanish) was nonetheless full of English football terminology: “half-time”,
“shot” and “goal”.
During this period the rivalry between Peñarol, the team of the British, their friends
and local workers (who tended to feel at odds with wealthy criollos), and Nacional,
the club of Italians and monied native Uruguayans, set in.
What to Bring
Uruguay’s supermarkets are well stocked and presented; many international-brand
toiletries, for instance, are available in Montevideo and the larger centres. Shopping
malls in Montevideo have chain stores such as Zara (from Spain) and Hering (from
Brazil). Meanwhile, Uruguayan brands which prospered a generation ago when high
import tariffs made non-Uruguayan colognes, soaps and perfumes exorbitantly expensive, still prosper and appear to have a firm following. The most common example is
the Dr. Selby range of cosmetics, which you’ll see everywhere.
You should bring all the electronic goods you need from abroad, including memory
cards and pen drives, which are typically at least 50% more expensive in Uruguay
than in the US or in the cheaper outlets in Europe. And what if you forget to bring your
camera? Fear not. Travellers arriving at Montevideo airport are greeted by sales girls
from the duty-free shop, which is available for passengers entering the country. Join
the queues of Uruguayans stocking up on whisky and Swiss chocolate. The duty-free
shop is also a good place to buy sun lotion in factors high enough for babies and
children. At the time of writing, it is open to receive customers arriving on all scheduled
international flights, no matter the hour.
If you are visiting in the winter you will need a warm jacket, plus sweaters. These are
also available locally, of course, particularly in women’s styles. Bear in mind that even
good-standard restaurants are often under-heated in the winter.
The Uruguayan league was set up in 1932 following the successes of the national
team. From its formation until 1986 Peñarol and Nacional won all but two of the
league titles. When the Copa Libertadores (South America’s Champions League)
started in 1960, Peñarol won the first two trophies. They and Nacional were regulars in the early years of the tournament, with one or the other featuring in all but
two of the first 12 finals. But the last time they featured was in 1988 when Nacional
lifted the trophy. Since then, globalisation has had a massive impact in such a small
country and has made it nearly impossible for Uruguay to keep their best players.
If you are using budget accommodation in the warmer months, bring a mosquito net.
The most concentrated mosquito repellents (“jungle formula” and so on) are not easy
to find in Uruguay, so consider bringing them from home.
“The rivalry in the early days was intense but it was purely sporting. It was only from
the 1980s onwards that things seemed to change decisively. Supporters certainly
became more ostentatious,” says Mr. Luzuriaga.
Books, newspapers and magazines in English are not commonly for sale in
Uruguay. If you enjoy reading Spanish, however, you will be spoilt for choice in Montevideo’s second-hand bookshops.
Indeed: when Nacional and Peñarol play each other in the local derby (called the
clásico) one side of the stadium is a sea of yellow and black replica shirts, the
other side is a sea of blue, white and red. In British terms, it is an acute, even bitter
rivalry that is more like that which exists between Rangers and Celtic (in Glasgow,
Scotland) than the relatively good-humoured stand-off between Liverpool and
Everton (in England). Violence outside soccer grounds has also become a serious
problem in Montevideo. Experts from England have visited Uruguay to advise on
how to combat football hooliganism.
Etiquette
The Uruguayan national side qualified for the forthcoming World Cup finals in South
Africa thanks to a narrow victory against Costa Rica in the play-offs. “When we
finally made it, everyone was happy,” says Mr Luzuriaga.
No-one in Uruguay is under any illusions that their team can seriously challenge for
the trophy, but there is renewed hope of making an impact. In the 1980s and 1990s
Uruguayan football struggled to produce skillful players and became extremely
defensive (perhaps in some way they were trying to protect their legacy?). This
has now changed and there has been a switch back to a more attacking style of
football.
Watch out for rising star Nicolás Lodeiro in the tournament; he has been labelled
the “new Messi” in the Uruguayan press for his attacking skills. He joined the ranks
of Uruguay’s expatriate footballers when he signed for Ajax of Amsterdam in January for a reported US$5.6 million fee from Nacional.
Hoping to get on the end of his attacks will be Diego Forlán, who some may
remember for a not-so-successful spell at Manchester United (he has scored a
mountain of goals at every other club he has played for) and Sebastián Abreu.
Dubbed the “Crazy Man”, Abreu is a hero in Uruguay, in part for scoring the vital
goal in the play-off against Costa Rica. He is perhaps their most potent threat and
is only three goals away from being their biggest goalscorer of all-time.
Uruguay’s biggest challenge will be to get through the group stages, where they
face France and the hosts South Africa. With only two teams going through and no
hosts ever falling to make it to the next round, this could prove a stern test.
Horse-riders should make sure they have their own appropriate footwear. Campers
may find that equipment available locally (e.g. rucksacks) is not as modern or light as
at home. If you intend to practice any sport other than football and running, you’ll be
well advised to bring clothing and equipment from home.
Uruguay is a Latin American country and shares a number of characteristics with its
neighbours. The tendency to judge visitors on their appearance is hard-wired into
the Latin psyche. Overseas travellers who are poorly dressed or groomed have long
been the object of curiosity since it is (still) a common assumption that people visiting
from overseas are comfortably off – a view that is slowly being challenged by the
influx of foreign retirees of all income types.
Polite forms of address (señor, señora) in shops and restaurants are always
welcome, even though locals are hardly as decorous or deferential in their speech as
Colombians or Chileans, for example. But make the effort and you will make a good
impression.
Business travellers may find a casual and even willful lateness for appointments a
source of frustration. It’s noticeable that when Uruguayans want someone to arrive
on time they will often add the expression “hora inglesa” for punctuality. Even though
bumper-to-bumper traffic can rarely be used as an excuse in Montevideo, delays of
15 minutes or so are to be expected at more or less all business meetings. Make sure
you have a ready stock of business cards as their exchange and mutual admiration
are the prelude to even the shortest encounter.
Uruguayans dress conservatively. Men should wear dark suits for formal business
meetings – and for weddings and Christenings too for that matter. Shorts are uncommon outside seaside resorts, even at weekends. Speedo-type swimwear for men
will elicit stares on most beaches – go for baggy surfer shorts instead. Meanwhile,
women’s fashions tend to be a little dowdy and ladies of a certain age who prefer
a younger look will be the object of a certain amount of eyeballing, even (perhaps
especially) in Montevideo’s chic residential neighbourhoods. Punta del Este in January is undiluted bling.
If you are lucky enough to be invited to a Uruguayan home, be prepared to meet the
whole family. Meals are often barbecue-based and thus quite informal, with the man of
the house fiddling with the charcoal and slabs of meat to the accompaniment of coos
So local supporters can hardly be blamed for dwelling on past glories: On 16
of appreciation from everyone present. Children tend to stay up late in Montevideo
July 1950 some 175,000 spectators, the great majority Brazilian, filed into Rio de
and are both seen and heard; if you have children who are not present, you will
Janeiro’s Maracana stadium. Brazil took the lead but, in possibly the biggest upset
invariably be asked to produce a photo. A gift from your home country will go down
in the history of the World Cup, Uruguay equalised and then scored the winner.
well, otherwise flowers are sold at kiosks on main roads and are a sure-fire token of
The French newspaper Le Monde reported a near complete
appreciation for your
silence in the stadium at the final whistle. Hundreds of Brazilhostess. If a man
ian supporters had to be treated for shock.
celebrates his birthday
at home and invites
El football del novecientos by Juan Carlos Luzuriaga is published by Ediciones
In Uruguay, meanwhile, the government declared a day’s
five guests, he may
Santillana. The book is available at all major bookshops in Uruguay. Price: $450.
public holiday and the party began. But here, too, there was
well end up with five
The best place to see a match is the graceful Estadio Centenario, the national
disbelief. Three people died of heart attacks listening to the
bottles of whisky (and
stadium,
which
is
used
regularly
for
domestic
games.
Nacional’s
Parque
Central
radio broadcast; five more lost their lives accidentally during
no-one will consider
stadium in Montevideo’s Cordón neighbourhood is also a good option. Expect to
the festivities that followed the game. Uruguay’s World Cup
this unusual).
pay
between
US$5
and
US$18
for
a
ticket.
There
is
a
small
football
museum
at
winners were feted as national heroes. The rivalry between
Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario. Opening hours: Wednesday to Friday, 10 am to
Peñarol and Nacional was temporarily put on hold.
6 pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 am to 2.30 pm.
Factfile:
4
Getting to Uruguay
By air
Only two airlines based outside Latin America serve Montevideo’s brand-new,
state-of-the-art Carrasco international airport (www.aic.com.uy). American Airlines
flies direct from Miami and Iberia provides a non-stop connection between Madrid and
Montevideo in codeshare with PLUNA, the national airline. Another useful connection
for North Americans is from Panama to Montevideo on Copa Airlines. Demand is
particularly heavy on all routes at Christmas/New Year, Easter and July.
Theatre of dreams
Montevideo’s Teatro Solís is a great place to hear live music,
opera, or watch modern dance
Several European airlines offer ticketing through to Montevideo with a change of
planes in Sao Paulo, continuing to Uruguay with either TAM or GOL, both of which are
Brazilian airlines. Others – Air France, for example – route travellers through Ezeiza
international airport in Buenos Aires. If you travel via Buenos Aires, ensure that you fly
into and out of the international airport at Ezeiza. Most flights to Montevideo from Buenos Aires depart from the notionally domestic downtown airport commonly referred to
as the “Aeroparque”; crossing the city from one to the other can be a stressful hassle,
so avoid it if possible.
Montevideo’s new US$134 million airport was designed by celebrated Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly and opened for business at the end of December 2009. Although
the main terminal looks rather like a flattened egg, it has the distinct advantage of a
sizeable car park – which its predecessor lacked.
Uruguay has two other international airports: a dinky facility at Colonia del Sacramento across the River Plate from Buenos Aires, and the growing, beautifully sited
airport at Punta del Este which serves summer holidaymakers from Argentina, Chile
and Uruguay, and casino high rollers from Brazil year-round, plus countless private
jets.
By land
You can get to Montevideo by bus from destinations as far away as Santiago in Chile.
The overnight connection from Porto Alegre (the closest big urban centre in Brazil) is
practical and usually comfortable. TTL (www.ttl.com.br) serves this route. Getting from
Buenos Aires to Montevideo or Punta del Este is faster by direct catamaran or ferry/
catamaran to Colonia del Sacramento, with an onward bus connection in Colonia,
rather than by bus all the way (see below). You can also catch a bus direct from
Rosario in central Argentina. Leaving Montevideo, the adventurous can reach Iguazú
Falls by way of a bus to Salto in the north of the country, then crossing the Uruguay
River to the Argentine city of Concordia, and taking another bus from there. More info
on schedules at: www.trescruces.com.uy.
By sea
Unless you are arriving on a cruise ship or are lucky enough to have your own yacht,
you will either cross the River Plate from the port of Buenos Aires or catch a slower
boat from the pretty riverside town of Tigre, some 30 km north-west of the Argentine
capital. From city centre to city centre, travelling by direct hydrofoil from Buenos Aires
to Montevideo takes only a little longer than the plane – and you can take all the
drinks and toothpaste you like. Note that fares and promotions change rapidly; please
consult the websites of individual operators for precise details. Fares from Argentina
are sold in Argentine pesos and the US$ equivalents given here are approximate.
From Buenos Aires:
Buquebus: Offers a direct hydrofoil link between the port of Buenos Aires and Montevideo (the terminal is to the north of Puerto Madero). Journey time: 3hrs15mins. The
cheapest one-way fare of approximately US$75 sells out quickly. Buquebus also offers
a hydrofoil to Colonia (1hr) with a connecting coach/bus service to Montevideo and
Punta del Este. Their car ferries also ply this route and are cheaper, but considerably
slower. Fares from Buenos Aires to Montevideo via Colonia on the fast service start at
about US$35. The last departure from Buenos Aires to Colonia with onward connections leaves at 11.15 pm. Tickets available on-line: www.buquebus.com
Colonia Express: Fast ferry to Colonia with onward bus connections to Montevideo.
Offers a limited number of cheap web fares from Buenos Aires to Montevideo for just
under US$25 single. Day returns to Colonia with guided tour available (US$46). www.
coloniaexpress.com
SeaCat Colonia: Offers a service to Montevideo and Punta del Este via Colonia. Fares
generally comparable to those of Colonia Express. Day returns to Colonia with city
tour: US$42. No on-line ticket purchase available at present. Their office in Montevideo is on Calle Río Negro corner Colonia (Centre). Buy tickets in Buenos Aires at the
port. www.seacatcolonia.com
From Tigre:
Cacciola Viajes: If you have the time, Cacciola offers a boat connection from Tigre
(just outside Buenos Aires) to the Uruguayan port of Carmelo, with onward connections to Montevideo by bus. The first part of the trip takes you through the picturesque
channels of the Tigre Delta. Journey time: approx. 6hrs from Tigre. Recommended.
Cost: US$30 one-way to Montevideo. A minibus service from downtown Buenos Aires
to connect with the boat at Tigre is available. Consult their website for more details:
www.cacciolaviajes.com.
Líneas Delta: Offers a service in the summer from Tigre to the small Uruguayan port
of Nueva Palmira, which lies beyond Carmelo (US$20 one-way to Nueva Palmira).
The journey gives you another good chance to see something of the 14,000 square
km of water, forests and islands that makes up the Tigre Delta. The company also
offers connections to Carmelo and Colonia. Consult their website for more information
as this service terminates for the season on 31 March 2010: www.lineasdelta.com.ar
Legend has it that when the celebrated Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was performing
at Montevideo’s Teatro Solís towards the end of his career he had trouble with a
high note and the audience started to boo him
The story – if true – suggests that Uruguay’s opera-goers a century ago were a
demanding, difficult crowd. But given that, again as legend has it, Uruguay’s ubiquitous Caruso pasta sauce was a creation of the maestro, there is every reason
to believe that there was a good deal of affection for him in Montevideo. (Caruso
is said once to have ordered a local chef to make up a meal with the ingredients
which he had at hand, which were mushrooms, ham and fresh cream – and so a
new sauce came into being.)
Pristine after a massive six-year makeover that finished in 2004, the ghosts of
Caruso, the tango singer Carlos Gardel and others still seem to inhabit this famous
space. And since it is now the turn of the Teatro Colón across the River Plate in
Buenos Aires to be closed for extensive refurbishment, there has never been a
better time to catch a performance at the Solís.
That the neo-classical opera house was built at all was a triumph for its backers,
since the country was at war with itself between 1839 and 1852 and conflict
between the Blanco and Colorado parties would continue beyond 1870: “When
it was completed in 1856, Uruguay was going through a period of crisis, and the
country was mired in poverty,” explains communications director Elena Firpi.
When construction of the opera house began in earnest in 1852 Montevideo had
only 34,000 inhabitants, and the city was at permanent risk of cholera outbreaks,
among other threats.
“On top of all that, there were political squabbles over its design,” says Ms Firpi.
“But over time the identity of the city of Montevideo, the aspirations of its people,
and the development of the theatre, have become closely linked.”
The opera house stands at the edge of Plaza Independencia, on the fringe of the
Old Town, a little set back from the square and in the next block to the shiny, new
Uruguayan Presidency building – architecturally, a huge contrast. It was named for
Juan Díaz de Solís, the Spanish navigator who sailed up the River Plate in 1516
and in so doing was the first European to set foot in what is now Uruguay (he was
probably killed by the local Charrúa people).
Lamps and candles illuminated the theatre’s inaugural performance – Guiseppe
Verdi’s Ernani, which had been premiered in European capitals a few years previously. The first opera season contained ten works in all, almost all by Verdi, who
had overtaken Rossini as the composer of the moment. The European tradition
of the Teatro Solís was underscored in its choice of English chandeliers and the
prominent inscriptions of names of European composers in its interior, as in the
legendary opera house in Manaus, Brazil.
Milton Schinca notes in Boulevard Sarandí, his anecdotal history of Montevideo,
that a few days after the Teatro Solís opened, and in the middle of a performance,
members of the public seated in the stalls began to pelt those in the galleries with
oranges. We can suppose from Mr Schinca’s account that bad feeling between
supporters of the Blanco and Colorado political parties was the cause.
Teatro Solís ceased to function as a private concern in 1947 and was bought by
Montevideo city council. After its US$20 million facelift, the theatre has 1256 seats
and capacity for 60 musicians. And if you are in Montevideo in season and you are
lucky enough to get a ticket, you can still see opera there.
Factfile:
Depending on the performance – plays are generally less expensive than opera or
dance – you can get tickets for between 150 and 1500 Uruguayan pesos (US$7.50
to US$75). Tickets are not available online. Guided tours of the building are
generally held at 11 am, 12 noon and 5 pm every day except Monday. Tours cost
20 pesos in Spanish and 40 pesos in English, but they are free on Wednesdays.
We recommend you consult the theatre’s website for the latest information: www.
teatrosolis.org.uy; tel. 1950 3323
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010)
5
Getting Around
Getting around Uruguay
There are presently no scheduled domestic air services. The train network only carries
cargo, except for a limited number of services connecting Montevideo with some dormitory towns in the nearby department of Canelones – one of these is worthwhile and
we list it below. Leaving aside walking and riding a bike, you have two main options:
Buses: Long-distance bus (coach) services connect Montevideo with all of the
departmental capitals. There are departures to the northern cities of Paysandú, Salto,
Rivera and Tacuarembó at around midnight and also early in the morning. Expect to
pay about 1 Uruguayan peso per kilometre travelled. There are departures for Punta
del Este at about 15 minute intervals in season ($142, 2 hours). There are also regular
connections to Colonia ($176, 2 ½ hours). All long distance buses depart from the
huge Tres Cruces terminal at the edge of the Centre. From there, the CA1 bus takes
you downtown for $9 or take a taxi from the rank at the terminal (count on US$4-5 to
Pocitos or Punta Carretas). You can find out which bus company goes where, and
more information on schedules at: www.trescruces.com.uy. Tickets are available at the
terminal. Book a few days ahead if you are travelling out of Montevideo on a Friday, or
back from the provinces on a Sunday.
Car hire: All the international brands are represented, both at the airport and at locations downtown. Expect to pay more than in the US or in many places in Europe at
peak times (Christmas, New Year and Easter Week) when prices are hiked principally
due to massive local demand. At such times you may have to pay US$750/week for
an intermediate model (Fiat Siena or similar); the same car will cost US$450 outside
peak times, including tax and unlimited mileage. You can find details of local car
hire companies in the yellow pages. These usually rent larger vehicles; in provincial
centres they are often the only option.
Train to Santa Lucía: You can reach the time-warp town of Santa Lucía in about
90 minutes from Montevideo’s Central Station, located 8 blocks north of Plaza del
Entrevero (next to the port). The line goes as far as the provincial town of Florida, with
a branch line to San José. Note that, as this is essentially a commuter service, there
is only one train to Santa Lucía in the morning, and one train returning to Montevideo
the end of the afternoon (more services operate in the opposite direction). A separate,
shorter line that terminates north-east of the capital in Sudriers is unlikely to be of any
interest to visitors. Fare to Santa Lucía $30; to Florida and San José $40. Timetables
at www.afe.com.uy.
Driving in Uruguay
Speed limits: 110 km/hr on highways; 90 km/hr on other roads outside urban areas.
Main roads are good and (inexpensive) toll roads are excellent. Local roads in rural
areas are often dirt tracks, but may be reasonably well maintained nonetheless. Many
streets in urban parts of Canelones (Solymar, Pinamar, etc.) are unpaved and deeply
rutted. At unmarked crossings the priority to the right rule applies. You need to keep
your lights on (dipped) at all times, day or night, and may be fined by the police if you
forget. Avoid the Rambla in Montevideo on weekend nights; it is used by local youths
as a race track. One curiosity: if not marked otherwise, the car approaching a narrow
bridge that is driving away from Montevideo has priority. N.B. Make sure you use a
credit or debit card to pay for your petrol/gasoline. If the card was issued outside
Uruguay, you’ll be refunded the tax on your statement.
Getting around Montevideo
The Old Town and the Centre (downtown) of Montevideo are compact enough to
explore on foot. To get from either to the beach suburbs of Punta Carretas and
Pocitos you will probably need transport: taxi or bus. Montevideo has no underground
(subway).
Taxi: Good news! Montevideo’s taxi drivers are, in our opinion, honest and invariably
helpful. Taxis are hailed in the street or picked up at a taxi rank. They use a meter
that clocks up a number of units (fichas) which have to be converted into the fare
you pay by consulting a fare chart, which is displayed in the back of each cab. Flag
drop is $22 during the day (not Sundays) and $26 at night and all day Sundays and
on Bank Holidays. The chart is shaded light pink on one side to show the Sunday and
night-time fares. Taxi drivers are duty bound to take the shortest route, but depending
on your destination may prefer to take the Rambla as it is often faster: they will ask
you about this first. The average fare from the Centre to Pocitos is US$4 or US$5.
Note that it is sometimes difficult to find a taxi in the Centre from about 4 pm to 7 pm
weekdays. It can also be difficult to find one at Montevideo port (where the catamaran
from Buenos Aires arrives). Note, too, that you’ll test the good humour of your driver if
you had over a $1000 note and expect him to give you change.
Bus: Montevideo’s bus system is safe and cheap, if not particularly clean. Problem
is, there are no maps of the system or timetables posted at stops. Taking a bus will
often mean checking your route with a local; os do this all the time. You pay the driver
or conductor as you enter, always at the front of the bus. You do not need exact
change (as in Buenos Aires) nor is there a turnstile to pass through (as in several
Brazilian cities). Fares: short hop in the downtown district plus bus CA1 to Las Cruces
long-distance coach terminal, $9; standard fare city-wide, $17; express bus, e.g. bus
D1 to Carrasco, $21. The 121 bus route is useful and very frequent. It runs from the
Old Town through the Centre to Pocitos (along Avenida Brasil) and then makes a right
to Punta Carretas. There are no day passes or similar time-saving products on offer
to visitors.
6
Portrait of the artist
Joaquín Torres García changed Uruguayan art forever
Upside-down maps, strange symbols in primary colours, fish out of water? If you
have seen paintings containing any of the above recently, chances are that you
have been in Montevideo.
The man responsible was Joaquín Torres García, and he set in motion an artistic
revolution. Torres García was born in the Uruguayan capital in 1874 and – still in
his teens – emigrated to Barcelona with his family with the plan to learn to paint.
His trademark style came to be constructivism, founded in part on the inclusion of
indigenous elements in artworks. Despite the profusion of his work on posters, in
coffee table books and even on mugs (if not on canvas: many of his paintings were
destroyed in a fire in a Brazilian museum in 1979) it’s a difficult style to pin down.
According to Alejandro Díaz, director of Montevideo’s Torres García Museum, it’s
easier to give examples of what it is – and isn’t:
“First of all, it is the opposite of the kind of art that aims to reproduce a given reality
in a painting. What constructivism does is create its own truth, which only exists in
that particular work of art. References to the world as we know and see it appear
as signs and symbols, which don’t intend to imitate anything at all. Add to this the
intensity of the colours the artist uses and you get a harmony which is rather like
that you experience when you hear a good piece of music.”
Although he mixed with such artists as Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, Torres García
knew spells of hardship in Europe. He took on teaching jobs and for a while, and
quite successfully, made toys. From Spain he moved to New York and later Paris.
Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee were key influences. The Uruguayan art world was
fundamentally unprepared for what was coming.
Torres García returned to his homeland in 1934 to find artists mired in excessively
conservative habits: much painting tended to ape traditional European styles; the
stapes were portraits and pastoral scenes. His outlook was bound to be controversial, and constructivism did not take root in the country until the 1940s when
encouraged a diverse group of young artists (including José Gurvich, Manuel Pailós
and Julio Alpuy) by holding classes at his studio, later dubbed the Southern School.
Constructivist works by Pailós in particular are a mainstay of the auctions of
Southern School artists that are now a regular feature of the Montevideo art scene,
particularly in the run-up to Christmas. A medium-sized canvas by Pailós currently
fetches around US$1500. Minor works and sketches by other School members can
go for as little as a couple of hundred dollars.
Auction rooms are invariably crowded: it’s not about a cosmopolitan few fighting
over works worth millions, but rather about how a coherent national style is collected en masse by ordinary people who – if they didn’t live in Uruguay – might not
collect anything at all. In this country, constructivist works don’t just hang in the plus
lobbies of city centre banks, they brighten up the offices of suburban estate agents
and even the walls of at least one beauty salon.
Mr Díaz takes the view that it was Torres García who essentially introduced modern
art to Uruguay. But there are questions left unanswered.
“There’s no way of knowing if it was Torres García’s intention, but his use of primary
colours and repeated symbols – fish, anchors, the sun and so on – have become a
key part of Uruguay’s visual identity,” says Mr Díaz.
What we do know is what Torres García himself said and wrote. Famously, in his
pamphlet on Constructive Universalism, Torres García explained that “I have said
School of the South, because in reality our North is the South. Therefore we now
turn the map upside down, and then we have a true idea of our position…” Would
he have been pleased that populists like Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez latch
on to his upside-down map to push an argument about the rich north oppressing a
poor south? We cannot know.
But Torres García certainly believed that there was something special about his
home town. Soon after returning to Montevideo after his years of self-imposed exile
he wrote: “We are here, buffeted by winds that shake up minds and bodies in this
special place on the River Plate shore, almost a peninsula, as if it wanted to lead a
march into the continent. It is our geographical position that gives us our destiny.”
Factfile:
The Torres García Museum is on pedestrianised calle Sarandí between Plaza Independencia and the Plaza Matriz. Opening hours: Mon-Fri, 9.30am to 7.30pm; Saturday, 10am to 6pm; closed on Sundays. Consult the museum’s website for details
of guided tours and temporary exhibitions: www.torresgarcia.org.uy. Art auctions:
The friendly and knowledgeable father and son team at A & A Subastas in Pocitos
(www.subastasarteya.com) hold regular auctions of Southern School works, as does
Castells (www.castells.com.uy) at its atmospheric auction room in the Centre.
Money, Costs & Shopping
Banks and money
The most convenient place to change money in Montevideo is an exchange house
(casa de cambio). You will find them at regular intervals on Avenida 18 de Julio in
the Centre, and also in the Old Town. There are several in Pocitos and a couple in
Carrasco. They are open standard business hours. The rate you see posted is what
you get; there is no additional commission. Note that banks are not open in the morning. ATMs dispense Uruguayan pesos and US dollars. In the guide the “$” symbol
indicates pesos (US$ for American dollars) as is the custom in Uruguay. There are
money changing facilities at the international airport in Montevideo.
Most Uruguayans save in US dollars. Nonetheless, euros and (to a lesser extent)
pounds sterling and Swiss francs are easy to exchange.
You should keep hold of the purple Uruguayan $100 note as it is useful for taxis. The
$1000 note is difficult to change outside large supermarkets.
Need to change money in the middle of the night? Try a casino. There is one usefully
located next to Parque Rodó; you’ll find another less than a block north of Plaza
Independencia (Centre).
Cost of living
Never a bargain-basement destination, Uruguay has nonetheless given tourists and
expat residents good value for their euros or dollars over the past seven or eight
years. But with the Uruguayan peso hardening against the dollar in particular, the
country is getting more expensive.
Books
There are two unmissable antiquarian booksellers in the Old Town :
Librería Linardi y Risso, calle Gómez corner Rincón
Librería Oriente Occidente, calle Rincón corner Gómez
On calle Bacacay (also Old Town) there is a nice selection of travel and children’s
books, plus the odd title in English at La Lupa. They also have a small exhibition
space upstairs. For art, design, photography and advertising titles – plus some books
in French – try Graffiti on calle Río Negro, corner San José (Centre). On calle Tristán
Narvaja, corner Paraguay (in the Cordón neighbourhood) Montevideanos and
Babilonia are two good options.
Grooming
In the market for a haircut? Montevideo’s hairdressers and barbers offer walk-in
service. Prices are reasonable. We can recommend the multi-lingual service at Garbo
in Pocitos (calle Scosería a few yards from the Rambla). Caters to men and women;
also offers manicures. Open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 9 pm. Tel. 712 2581.
Blast from the past
Uruguay’s Nostalgia Night is a national excuse for a huge party
A dollar buys just under 20 pesos at the time of writing, meaning that for food and
eating out the country is more expensive than Argentina but not as pricey as Brazil.
At the beginning of 2010 local newspaper El País asked a panel of economists
how many pesos they thought a dollar would buy at the end of the year. Almost all
estimated a value between 19 and 21. Where we give a price in dollars in the guide,
we assume an exchange rate of US$1 = 20 pesos.
A couple staying at a 4-star hotel in Montevideo and eating out in good restaurants will
spend between US$200 and US$300 a day in Montevideo, and perhaps half as much
again in Punta del Este in season. Budget travellers staying in hostel accommodation
(or the cheaper hotels downtown) and using public transport might budget for US$50
per person per day. Where hotels and restaurants in the capital offer particularly good
deals. Imported foods and other goods can be very expensive in Uruguay, e.g. a
standard tin of Illy coffee sells for US$28 in supermarkets.
Uruguay offers a tax refund for goods made in the country which are exported unused. Look out for the Tax Free for Tourists sign in the windows of participating shops.
Important! You should always try to use a credit card to pay for restaurant bills as you
will receive a rebate of 9% of the value of the meal in your credit (or debit) card statement. Buying petrol (gasoline) with a credit or debit card also triggers a refund. Hotel
accommodation is zero-rated for foreigners who are not resident in Uruguay.
Shopping in Montevideo
Shopping Centres/Malls
These are hugely popular. The easiest to get to are Montevideo Shopping Centre
in Pocitos (the first and still the largest, at the intersection of Rivera and L. A. de Herrera). Punta Carretas Shopping is also very good. Both have restaurants, cinemas,
supermarkets and exchange facilities. Open 7 days a week.
Clothes and shoes
Manos del Uruguay (“Manos” for short, “hands” in Spanish) is a national institution,
selling wool, alpaca, cotton and silk clothing made using tradition techniques such
as knitting, manual looms, crocheting. Uruguayan wool sweaters, cardigans, shawls,
scarves and ponchos are mainstays. Apart from scarves, Manos caters almost
exclusively for women. Manos also sells some upmarket handicrafts and jams, and
yarns too. The company has shops in Montevideo Shopping Centre (Pocitos), Punta
Carretas Shopping and Portones Shopping Centre (Carrasco). There is a small shop
on calle Sarandí corner Bacacay (Old Town) and another, larger one, recommended,
on calle San José corner Río Negro which also has discontinued lines and special
offers. Also has shops in Punta del Este and Colonia; www.manos.com.uy.
For a more cutting-edge look, there are several trendy boutiques in the pedestrianised stretch of calle Sarandí. La Pasionaria has some beautiful clothes and shoes.
Women will also be able to indulge a passion for shoes, belts and bags at a clutch of
outlets on Plaza Matriz and calle Gómez in the Old Town. The designs of Victoria M.
Ortiz are popular: branches in shopping centres and at Avenida Brasil, corner Libertad
(Pocitos).
For leather jackets (men’s and women’s styles), wallets and impressive cow and
sheepskin rugs, you should not miss Las Magnolias on Plaza Zabala, a few steps
from the Palacio Taranco (Old Town). Everything on display is of the highest quality.
Gifts
Most supermarkets have a small selection of bottles of Uruguayan wine in wooden
presentation cases that should survive the trip home in your luggage (starting at about
$US15). For locally made chocolates and sweets, including candied orange peel, try
Esencia Uruguay (calle Sarandí corner Zabala, Old Town). Uruguayans often encourage visitors to take home a jar of their ubiquitous caramel spread, dulce de leche.
Crafts
Crafts: Best option for its sheer variety is the Mercado de los Artesanos on Plaza
Libertad, a cooperative with many stalls. We also recommend La Pasionaria on calle
Reconquista corner Gómez in the Old Town, which has a hand-picked selection of
excellent handicrafts, particularly ceramics.
Keen on Kim Wilde? Ready for some REO Speedwagon? Or would you rather
stretch your limbs to a high-volume rendition of YMCA?
If your answer is “all of the above” then think about grabbing a piece of Uruguay’s
unique Nostalgia Night celebrations.
The roots of Nostalgia Night go back to the late 1970s. A disco in town looking for
an original wheeze to attract custom on the night before Uruguay’s Independence
Day holiday decided to play nothing but oldies (in this context, music from the fifties
and sixties). At the time, Uruguay was living through the dark days of dictatorship.
Legend has it that the disco was packed out.
Since then Nostalgia Night has become a massive popular and commercial success. Every 24 August local radio stations – whose output year-round is dominated
by hits from the 1980s as it is – ensure that every tune they play is at least twenty
years old. Function rooms throughout the country prepare elaborate parties. Fancy
dress is de rigueur: think John Travolta’s white dancing suit, think big hair, think
leg warmers.
This is the biggest night out in the year by some distance and a godsend for
stressed parents and older folks. “Middle-aged Uruguayans don’t have so many
possibilities to hit the dance floor and let their hair down,” says Montevideo
translator Jorge Meyerheim. “It’s basically just weddings and fiestas de quince (the
Latin tradition of offering a party to girls when they turn fifteen). So it’s not difficult
to understand why they grab the chance to have fun on the night before a public
holiday when everyone is off work.”
Local websites list the entertainment on offer this year. Neighbourhood parties in
working-class boliches (dance halls) charge as little as US$5 a head for a ticket.
One or two make “good security” a prominent feature of their offer – a sign of
the times perhaps. But others are more elaborate affairs (full barbecue! imported
whisky!) with unlimited food and drink and, of course, live music – often a Beatles
tribute band. For these, expect to pay US$180 and more per couple.
At the beginning of this new decade, the Cantegril Country Club in Punta del Este
is daring to promise “the best tracks from the 1990s”. But they are in a minority – for
now.
Are Uruguayans more prone to nostalgia than other Latin Americans? After all,
Brazil has no equivalent celebration, nor has Argentina. Perhaps the experience of
young people growing up in the 1970s and 1980s has something to do with it. Unusually, this was a generation with less optimism than that of their parents. For the
latter the relative prosperity and wellbeing of the 1950s (the tail-end of the mythical
“Switzerland of South America” period) amounted to a golden age. Meanwhile,
shanty towns were mushrooming on the fringes of Montevideo. The middle classes
had to ditch their trips abroad. Were those youngsters encouraged by their parents
– nurtured, even – to look back? Economically, of course, today’s Uruguay is on a
roll. But is nostalgia an old habit that’s hard to kick?
It’s something to ponder as you walk home from your party in the chilly dawn of 25
August with Smoke On The Water ringing in your ears.
Factfile: You can find a list (in Spanish) of Nostalgia Night events at
www.clubdeturistas.com.uy/fiestas_24deagosto.html.
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010)
7
Money, Costs & Shopping
Montevideo on a budget
Food
Expect a fundamentally European cuisine, with a few local flourishes. You can get
chivitos, the local variant of the steak sandwich, plus milanesas (like a wiener
schnitzel) and pasta dishes in most restaurants for around US$5.
Other options are hot dogs and hamburgers,
found in restaurants and – cheaper still –
from street vendors. There are a couple of
vans selling hot dogs for $8 (40 US cents)
a shot around Plaza Libertad in the Centre.
You’ll also notice empanada shops which
sell pasties typically filled with meat and
olives or ham and cheese for about US$1
each. There are plenty of options in the Old
Town and in Pocitos. Iruña on calle Sarandí,
corner Misiones, offers delicious take-out
quiches. Take away pizzas usually cost no
more than $30 (US$1.50) for a slice with a
simple tomato topping or $60 (US$3) for a
muzarella – a substantial cheese pizza with
the only faintest smear of tomato.
Our favourite budget restaurant is Rincón
de Zabala in the Old Town. On Plaza Libertad you should check out the friendly
La Biennale, which offers a dish of the day and a drink for $112, or US$5.50 (they
sometimes have music in the evenings). There is a cheap chivitería (chivito joint), plus
a large pizzeria with regular special offers and an ice cream shop handily located next
door, on Calle Ejido, between San José and Avenida 18 de Julio (Centre).
If you have a sweet tooth try any of Montevideo’s massive number of bakeries. Croissants and the like are usually sold by weight. Street food is generally unexciting, but
you can find churros (a Spanish variant on the doughnut) in a number of locations including Parque Rodó, and tortas fritas (like a fried biscuit, made of flour) by the beach.
Put off by the crowds at the Mercado del Puerto? Want to save a little money? Try the
Mercado de la Abundancia on Calle San José at the corner of Lanza. There are several meat restaurants in this wonderful old market hall, which contrives to feel off the
beaten track in spite of its location around the corner from the Intendencia (town hall).
Perhaps the nicest option is El Esquinazo, which offers a steak and a glass of wine for
$165 (US$8) at lunchtime on weekdays. As soon as they get the barbecue going in
the morning you can snack on choripán (spicy grilled sausage in a bread roll).
Markets
Tristán Navaja market is rightly the most
famous market in Montevideo, due to the
sheer breadth of goods on offer, but there
are plenty of other places to pick up a bargain. Feria Villa Biarritz (Vázquez Ledesma
and Leyenda Patria, Tuesday and Saturday)
in Punta Carretas has a seemingly endless
array of clothes, from cheap replicas to
quality local-made goods and designer
accessories, including costume jewellery.
Meanwhile Feria Parque Rodó, next to the
park of the same name, has handicrafts,
clothing and food.
Outside Montevideo: For good deals on hotel accommodation at the beach out of
season (particularly November and early December, and April) check out the Sunday
edition of the El País newspaper, which carries regular advertisements of special
offers. Inexpensive coach trips to inland attractions, notably the thermal springs
around Salto and Paysandú, are advertised at travel agents (there are a cluster on
Calle Colonia around the Plaza del Entrevero, Centre) and even on flyers pinned to
trees downtown.
Arts and culture
There are plenty of cultural activities taking place in Montevideo, many of which
won’t cost you a penny. The Subte exhibition space (Plaza del Entrevero) offers a
constantly-changing programme of visual arts treats. Meanwhile, public museums
are generally free or have a very low admission price. National Museum of Visual
Arts at Parque Rodó offers a mix of photography and video as well as fine art, and
the offer generally changes every month. The dynamic Centro Cultural de España
(www.cce.org.uy; Rincón corner Bartolomé Mitre, Old Town) has exhibitions, talks
and workshops. You may see exhibitions at various embassies advertised in the local
press. Admission to these will almost always be free.
There are also possibilities for free or cheap cinema. The marvellous Efecto Cine
group (www.efectocine.com) has been travelling around Uruguay for the past couple
years showing a variety of films projected on a huge inflatable screen. For cinema
buffs the Cinemateca Uruguaya (www.cinemateca.org.uy) offers seasons of films by
European and Latin and North American directors, plus different genres – anyone up
for a week of vampire flicks? They have screens all over the city with some showings
for US$2, around a third of the price of a ticket to watch the new blockbuster at a
multiplex.
Montevideo has a huge tradition of theatre with shows taking place in large
auditoriums but also in social clubs and on bandstands on the streets. Street theatre
is most common in the month before, and during, Carnival. The excellent culture
page (cultura.montevideo.gub.uy) of the city government’s website has details of
many events. Look out for murgas (a mixture of comedy and music), parodistas and
humoristas. Some of these events are free but most will cost US$2-5. It’s all authentic
Uruguayan entertainment.
Candombe is a hugely popular style of drumming in Montevideo. There are hundreds
of different groups that, often accompanied by dancers, pound out an incessant
rhythm as they move through their neighbourhood. It’s something special and unlike
any drumming style you will have heard elsewhere. The most famous group is Isla
de Flores in Palermo, which performs every Sunday at 7 pm (Isla de Flores corner
Gaboto). Tambor Brujo is a new group meeting every Friday in Pocitos (Charrúa
corner Ponce, beginning at 8 pm) Pure Uruguay, and there’s no need to dig into your
pockets.
Football
Football is the national sport of Uruguay. For a country of its size, the national team
has been hugely successful, and there is a massive rivalry between its two biggest
clubs, Nacional and Peñarol. Additionally, it can be incredibly cheap to watch. The
Estadio Centenario is the home of the national team and the venue for the PeñarolNacional derby. Tickets for international games are the most expensive and start at
$200 (US$10). Prices for local matches, including many of Peñarol’s home games,
start at $100 (US$5). Tickets can normally be bought directly from the stadium or from
Accommodation/Hostels
Hostels in Montevideo are bunched in
three main areas, Ciudad Vieja, Palermo/
Barrio Sur and Pocitos. In Ciudad Vieja, the deceptively-titled Posada al Sur (dorms
from $15, Pérez Castellanos corner Washington, www.posadaalsur.com.uy, tel. 916
5287) is – despite its name – a cheerful hostel with dorm prices from US$15 per
night, which includes a good breakfast, access to the rooftop terrace and super-clean
rooms. The brand-new Green Hostel (US$15 for a dorm bed, 25 de Mayo corner
Colón, www.thegreenhostel.com, tel. 916 9789) and Boulevard Sarandí Hostel (beds
from US$14, Sarandí corner Zabala, www.boulevardsarandihostel.com, tel. 915 37
65) are also decent hostels in this area.
The Art Hostel in Palermo (from US$14, Gaboto corner San Salvador, www.palermoarthostel.com, tel. 410 6519/411 8366) is a huge building with large dorms and plenty
of common spaces. Their newly-decked-out rooftop terrace is especially nice and has
its own bar, open from Thursday to Saturday. El Viajero (US$17, Soriano corner Rio
Negro, www.elviajerodowntown.com, tel. 908 2913) and Planet Montevideo (US$14,
Canelones corner Paraguay, www.planetmontevideohostel.com tel. 900 0733) are
recommended. El Viajero also runs hostels in Colonia, Punta del Este and La Pedrera.
Unplugged Hostel and Pocitos Hostel are both cheery places in the upmarket residential neighbourhood of Pocitos. Unplugged (US$14, Luis de la Torre corner Bulevar
España, unpluggedhostel.com, tel. 712 1381) opened recently but has been getting
good feedback, especially for its location; only 5 minutes walk to the beach. Pocitos
Hostel (US$14, Sarmiento corner Aguilar, www.pocitos-hostel.com, tel. 711 8780) has
energetic staff and regular barbecues.
8
the many Abitab shops that can be found around Montevideo. Bear in mind that the
cheapest tickets are also the ones for the most popular areas. This shouldn’t be a
problem unless you are attending the clásico (Peñarol-Nacional derby) when for the
sake of your ears it may be best to pay a little bit more. But we advise caution outside
the stadium: the clásico has a history of violence between rival supporters.
Other options are the Estadio Luis Franzini, home of Defensor Sporting, and Nacional’s Parque Central. These are cheaper still with tickets starting from $30 and $80
respectively. Tickets do not need to be bought in advance for Luis Franzini, just arrive
a little before the game starts and pay on the gate.
There are very few accurate fixture lists for the Uruguayan league in English. The
best one by far is at ESPN’s Soccernet site (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/fixtures?lea
gue=uru.1&cc=3888). When buying tickets make sure you state which team you want
to support. Some ticket sellers are can be a little “careless” when selling tickets to
foreigners. If you want to sit with the main bulk of supporters ask for populares. These
will also be the cheapest. Tickets are referred to as either boletos or entradas.
Montevideo: What to See
Introduction
Some 1.3 million of Uruguay’s 3.4 million inhabitants live in the capital, which dominates the country economically, politically and culturally. The city was founded by the
Spanish in the early eighteenth century; its first European settlers were a boatload of
young families from the Canary Islands. Freed slaves from Brazil and Argentina came
in the city in the nineteenth century, attracted by rumours of fair treatment. In time,
more immigrants would arrive from Italy, Spain (particularly Galicia), Portugal, Germany, France Great Britain (the British built the country’s first railways) and Poland.
Most emigrated in the hope of escaping poverty at home; others to escape repression.
Montevideo also has a substantial Jewish community.
The city expanded from the original colonial settlement (now the Old Town) inland,
through vegetable gardens and pastureland that is now the city’s Centre, and along a
series of beaches, now the modern residential suburbs of Pocitos and Carrasco. Less
brash and frenetic than its neighbour accross the River Plate, Argentine writer Jorge
Luis Borges described the city as “the Buenos Aires we once had, that slipped away
quietly over the years…”
In the chapters that follow, references to streets (calles) and squares (plazas) are left
in Spanish.
Old Town
The only significant remaining piece of the 6-metre thick wall that in colonial times
surrounded the Old Town, and protected the city against its many invaders, is the
ornamental gate at the entrance of the Old Town (Ciudad Vieja in Spanish). The
district – a finger of land jutting out into the River Plate – is a curious and fascinating
mixture of financial centre, working port, restaurant hub and low-rent housing laid out
on a precise grid plan.
The pedestrianised calle Sarandí leads from the ornamental gate to the Plaza Matriz,
the heart of the Old Town. Don’t miss the wonderful art deco Ferrando building,
constructed in 1917, as you walk down the first block of Sarandí. The ground floor is
given over to a bookshop; take a look at the beautiful stained glass above the stairway
at the back of the store (there is a café upstairs). In the same block is the Torres
García art museum ; to the left is pretty calle Bacacay with its cafés and restaurants.
There are plans afoot to put a glass roof over this street, which has the width of a
passageway. Nearby calle Bartolomé Mitre contains several well established antiques
shops. The Teatro Solis, the city’s beautiful opera house, can be reached by walking
down calle Bacacay and crossing calle Buenos Aires. .
Plaza Matriz (also known as Plaza Constitución), a block distant, is the true heart
of the Old Town. There are often tables of old books, postcards and bric-à-brac to
browse in the shade of the trees in the garden at the middle of the square. On one
side is the old Spanish Cabildo, or government building (1804), which now contains
a small museum of furniture, clocks, maps and documents from the earliest period of
the colony. The large rooms on the ground floor are given over to rotating exhibitions.
The first formal reading of the constitution of the new republic took place here on 18
July 1830.
What a difference a blueberry makes
The Old Town’s eclectic architecture is evident as you walk west from the square.
The modernist Stock Exchange (built in 1936, at the corner of calles Misiones and
Rincón) contrasts with the handsome, neo-classical former headquarters of the
Montevideo Water Company (corner of Rincón and Zabala).
If you take Sarandí as far as Alzaibar and turn right, you’ll find the attractive Plaza Zabala, with a pretty garden in the middle full of screaming pigeons. This area of the Old
Town is currently the focus of good deal of gentrification. We don’t recommend that
you go any further west of this square, as the area is unsafe, despite the presence
of special tourist police. But make sure you visit the Palacio Taranco, a remarkable
mansion that occupies the whole of an (uneven) city block on Plaza Zabala.
The Palacio Taranco is the former home of a wealthy merchant who imported all
his fixtures and fittings from Europe. Built in 1908, but furnished to evoke an earlier
era (there is very little evidence of art deco in the building, for instance) the building
intrigues from the first sight of a life-sized marble flamenco dancer in the hallway. The
most impressive room is probably the dining room, with its exuberant panelling and
moldings, and tapestries depicting idealised rural scenes. The mansion is sometimes
referred to as the Museum for Decorative Arts and is open from 2.30 pm to 6 pm every
day except Monday.
A few steps away from Plaza Zabala on calle 25 de Mayo, you’ll find the Romantic
Museum, which contains a beautiful, quiet patio and as well as furniture and
household objects dating from the Uruguay’s independence (1830) until approximately
the turn of the twentieth century (opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 12.30 pm to 6
pm; Sunday, 2 pm to 6 pm; closed Saturday, Monday). Close by on calle Zabala, the
Andalusian-syle home of General Juan Antonio Lavalleja, who led the liberating
crusade of the Thirty-Three Uruguayans, is one of the oldest buildings in the city. The
house contains documents and artifacts relating to the country’s rather convoluted
struggle for independence, plus some nice moldings and furniture. It is currently
closed for renovations.
Meat lovers will want to make a pilgrimage to Montevideo’s famous Port Market
(Mercado del Puerto), across a busy dual carriageway from the waterfront and about
ten minutes walk from Plaza Zabala. The cast-iron Victorian structure was forged in
Liverpool and was, so the story goes, originally destined for a buyer in Chile. The
restaurants inside the Port Market are open at lunchtime; only a small number with access from the street outside open in the evening. The Mercado del Puerto is thronged
at Sunday lunchtime and on any day a large cruise ship is in port. There many
souvenir shops in the vicinity, but avoid changing money here, as the rates are poor.
While a visit is a must, it has to be said that the service in some of the restaurants has
become a little charmless as the number of overseas visitors has risen. You should
take caution in this area at night.
as now, the calorie-rich pizza slice.
Newsflash: Uruguay’s cuisine has been catapulted into the
twenty-first century
At the beginning of the 1800s an English visitor wrote that Uruguayans “prefer meat
to any other food, and eat it almost raw and in quantities that Europeans would think
impossible”.
For much of the next two hundred years there was little change. But then came
Canal Gourmet, sushi and lamb. Not to mention the humble blueberry.
“Of course we still eat a lot of meat,” says Alberto Latarowski, director of the Francis
restaurant in Punta Carretas – and the winner of UruguayNow’s Best Restauarant
in Montevideo 2010 award. “But the cuts of meat have changed somewhat. We now
eat a lot more of what we export – the better cuts such as ribeye and rumpsteak. We
also eat more lamb than in the past.”
According to Mr Latarowski, cable TV stations like Canal Gourmet, which features
Spanish-speaking chefs cooking what are usually fairly inventive dishes, have played
their part.
“One very standard dish at home would be milanesa con papas fritas (schnitzel with
chips). But now people like to experiment with Asian and various fusion recipes, for
instance. They like to eat sushi when they go out. And at Francis we serve an excellent ceviche (a marinated seafood dish).”
Certainly the expectations of diners in Montevideo’s restaurants have risen over the past
twenty years or so. Apart from Chinese food
and overcooked pasta dishes, it was unusual
to eat out in the 1980s and order anything
other than (usually very good) meat. The
ubiquitous Uruguayan take-away was then,
The renovated neo classical Cathedral faces the Cabildo and is the venue for many
of the city’s society weddings. On the same side of the square you’ll find the Gurvich
Museum, which contains a small collection of paintings, ceramics and wood carvings
by José Gurvich, one of Uruguay’s leading constructivist artists. Gurvich, who could
turn his hand to most anything, would no doubt have become better known internationally had he not died at the age of 47 (opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6
pm; Saturday, 11 am to 3 pm; closed on Sundays). Another building to look out for is
the Club Uruguay, on the south side of the square, with its gorgeous, partly baroque,
façade. Meanwhile, Plaza Matriz has two fine antiquarian bookshops in its environs.
Now Montevideo has its own upscale restaurant
district in Punta Carretas where you can eat
everything from seafood to game, driven by the
construction of four-star (and one five-star) hotels
in the vicinity. Still, of the estimated 12 or 15
restaurants that open in the capital annually, fewer
than half survive their first year.
Mr Latorowski also puts down improvements to
the wider availability of key ingredients such as good olive oil. Following the example
of Chile’s excellent home-grown organic olive oils, a delicious and fruity oil marketed
under the Colinas de Garzón label is now sold in the country, although production
is in its infancy.
Which in a roundabout way brings us to the story of the Uruguayan blueberry. A few
years ago, not only were there no commercial blueberry farms, most Uruguayans
hardly knew that the fruit existed. With one eye no doubt on the profits that were
starting to be made in neighbouring Argentina, an initial four hectares were planted
in 2001. By 2008 the figure was 800 hectares, driven by a constant demand for
fresh and frozen blueberries from the United States in particular. Producers got a
lucky break, too, during President Bush’s state visit to the country in 2007. In a press
conference he professed admiration for the quality of a local berry that, at the beginning of the decade, was practically an unknown quantity in the country. But unknown
no longer: Uruguayans have taken blueberries to their hearts. They feature on the
menus of several top restaurants. You can buy them easily at farmer’s markets and
the local Conaprole dairy makes a blueberry ice cream which is a huge seller.
Factfile:
You can check out the menu at Francis at www.francis.com.uy. Colinas
de Garzón olive oil is available in the duty free shop at Carrasco international airport (US$7 for a small bottle) among other locations.
Feeling thirsty as well as hungry? Order a
bottle of the oddly grey-toned Paso de los
Toros fizzy grapefruit drink, available everywhere (often listed as pomelito on menus). It’s
one item that thankfully doesn’t change.
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010)
9
Montevideo: What to See
Centre
A resort for all seasons?
Punta del Este is thriving, but what can it do to extend its
short summer season?
Punta del Este is the country’s – and arguably, the continent’s – most prestigious
resort, attracting a core clientele of fashionable and wealthy holidaymakers from
business, political and show-business circles in Buenos Aires.
The town’s permanent population of a little over 15,000 swells to as many as
250,000 in January and February, with Argentine visitors in the majority, followed by
Brazilians. Domestic Uruguayan tourism tends to be concentrated in March at the
tail-end of the summer. Europeans and North Americans are also starting to discover Punta del Este, but in absolute terms their numbers – though rising – are still low.
For the rest of the year Punta del Este (or “Punta” to its regular visitors) is very
quiet and most hotels and restaurants close their doors until the resort stirs again
in December.
According to Edgar Feredjian, director of the Conrad Resort & Casino, his property
has made successful efforts to draw business to Punta de Este in the shoulder and
low seasons.
“When we opened in 1997 our first priority was getting the hotel running to the
standards our guests expert. But we also wanted to devise ways of shortening the
low season. Part of our strategy was to attract more conventions and business
meetings. We also hold concerts at the property five or six times a year, which give
visitors a specific reason to make the trip,” says Mr Feredjian.
Bob Dylan and Latin crooner Julio Iglesias have performed at the Conrad recently.
Catwalk and celebrity shows broadcast from the hotel are a staple of the programming of Buenos Aires television stations during the summer months. Year in, year
out, the dominant January image is that of ageing Argentine model agency mogul
Pancho Dotto dressed head to toe in white with a young protégée on either arm. At
such times, fashionable Punta becomes something of an irony-free zone.
Meanwhile, Uruguay’s tourism authority has built whale-watching platforms on the
coast between Punta del Este and the Brazilian border, and promoted the hinterland as a location for ornithologists, to draw in more visitors out of season. A Jewish
film festival is now in its seventh year.
The “punta” of Punta del Este is a narrow peninsula jutting out into the South
Atlantic, with a much-photographed lighthouse close to its tip and a marina on
its sheltered, western flank. A landmark “wavy” bridge (characteristically likened
in verse by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda to the curves of a woman’s breasts)
connects the town with neighbouring La Barra, where much of the resort’s nightlife
is located. Behind the high-rise coastal strip either side of the peninsula summer
houses nestle among woods of pine and eucalyptus.
“The town is safe and beautiful, and has excellent beaches. Visitors love it here,”
says Mr Feredjian.
Everyone seemingly wants a piece of the Punta action. Such is the demand for
space, hoteliers such as Brazil’s Fasano are setting up in Punta del Este in secondary locations away from the shore that would raise eyebrows in a less confident
resort. And nowhere else in Uruguay could a wine merchant – Vinos del Mundo, in
this case – hope to sell a bottle of admittedly sublime French wine for in excess of
US$1000 (a Château Lafite Rothschild 1999 for US$1155, since you ask).
Meanwhile, the Colombian singer Shakira has a ranch close to the resort and her
arrival by private jet has marked the unofficial opening of Punta’s season over the
last couple of years – at least for the Uruguayan press.
British novelist Martin Amis has a home in the über-chic enclave and one-time
fishing village of José Ignacio, just east of Punta del Este (his wife is of Uruguayan
descent). Ralph Lauren, Mick Jagger and Naomi Campbell have all vacationed
here. Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Kevin Bacon holidayed (separately) in and
around Punta del Este in January.
Many of the estimated 300 Americans who settle in Uruguay each year invest in
Punta and its environs. The town has a solid expat community which enjoys the
peace and quiet, and rather bracing weather, when the tourists have packed their
bags.
But visitors cruising the empty seaside promenade in the winter can hardly fail to
notice the rows of virtually empty apartment blocks. Could they one day be filled by
students? Currently there are few further education courses available in the town
apart from physical education.
“The town is likely to continue to grow, although
plans to site a fully-fledged university campus
here appear premature” says Martin Egozcue,
an economist who lives in Punta del Este. “More
visitors are choosing to come in the spring, and
the new local airport has provided a boost. But
setting up a tax-free zone near the town would be
a real spur to the year-round development of the
community.”
10
The Centre of Montevideo is the district to the east of
the Plaza Independencia, straddling the Avenida 18
de Julio, the main downtown drag. Plaza Independencia is not the official “point zero” of the city (this honour
goes to Plaza Libertad) but it feels as though it should
be. On one side is the Palacio Salvo, which was South
America’s tallest building when it was unveiled in 1928.
It is still a symbol of the Uruguayan capital, as many a
postcard will prove, but the washing hanging to dry out
of some of the upper units and the occasional broken
shutters look a little incongruous.
In the middle of the square is the equestrian statue and tomb (down the steps) of
Uruguay’s great patriot, General José Artigas.
The Avenida 18 de Julio (“Dieciocho” to everyone in the city) was, until twenty years
ago, Montevideo’s undisputed shopping and entertainment district, with hundreds
of stores packed into numerous galerías (arcades) running off it. While many shops
and cinemas have decamped to the shopping centres of Pocitos, Punta Carretas and
Carrasco, the theatre district has remained. Evangelical churches and slot machines
have moved in as rents drop. But the Centre is, and has always been, a popular (if
noisy) place to live, with sumptuous apartment blocks lining Plaza del Entrevero and
Plaza Libertad, two downtown squares along the spine of 18 de Julio.
You’ll find airline and ferry (to Buenos Aires) offices near the Plaza del Entrevero
(sometimes called Plaza Fabini) which has a park with a fountain that is a pleasant
place to rest. It’s a curious combination, but a gaucho and coin museum is located on
the square (opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 4 pm to 6 pm). A block to the east,
the eye-catching London-Paris building was an early department store and is crowned
with a strange cupula. But many visitors also look down: on Plaza del Entrevero you’ll
find the entrance to Montevideo’s most original exhibition space, the “Subte” (from
“Subterraneo”, meaning Underground).Check out www.subte.org.uy for details of their
programming.
The Plaza Libertad (another square with more than one name, it’s also known as
Plaza Cagancha) is just two blocks distant and the venue for the city’s main – and
very friendly – crafts market. The Supreme Court is housed in a substantial, suitably
sober building on the square’s southern side, backing on to the pretty, sycamore-line
calle San José, which has a cluster of restaurants.
Although the main downtown sights are grouped between Plaza Independencia and
Plaza Libertad, it is worth seeking out the mysteriously overlooked Mercado de la
Abundancia on calle San José at the corner of Lanza. It’s a marvelously atmospheric
market hall containing a selection of parrillas (restaurants specializing in barbecued
meat dishes) and so a less expensive and quieter version of the Port Market. But the
Mercado de la Abundancia is not entirely given over to restaurants: there is also a
fishmonger and even a shop selling tango gear. If you are hungry, pull up a stool at
El Esquinazo.
Not far away, at calle Yi corner Colonia, you’ll find the newly reopened tile museum
(Museo del Azulejo), containing 4500 decorated antique tiles from eight different
countries. You can visit the museum every day except Mondays from noon to 6 pm.
Back on Dieciocho it’s difficult to miss the towering, red-brick town hall, always
referred to as the Intendencia. The justly famous Tristán Narvaja street market, by
the way, is in the district of Cordón, fifteen minutes brisk walk from the Intendencia,
away from the Centre. Although the market only operates on Sundays, the antique
shops lining the street are usually open during the working week.
Parque Rodó, Pocitos & Punta Carretas
One of the city’s nicest parks is the Parque Rodó, in the genteel but shabby residential district of the same name. This is the area just above Ramírez beach, where the
people of Montevideo started to enjoy days out at the seaside. It’s the closest stretch
of sand to downtown. The graceful former hotel building standing on the Rambla
(promenade) at the edge of the park now houses the administrative headquarters of
the Mercosur trade bloc.
Full of palms, eucalyptus and the native ombú tree, Parque Rodó was conceived
as a traditional French-style city park. It’s at its most lively on Sundays, but don’t
forget mosquito repellant if you visit in the summer months. Find time, too, to visit the
National Museum of Visual Arts nearby, for the city’s best overview of Uruguayan
painting. There are some Southern School artists (Joaquin Torres García, Jose
Gurvich) represented here, but it really excels in its permanent collection of works by
painters such as Pedro Figari, whose sympathetic portraits of carnival dancers and
country life are a highlight. The quiet streets (look out for some wonderfully ornate
wooden doors) of Parque Rodó run seamlessly into the Palermo neighbourhood. This
is the venue for Sunday night drumming sessions, a little bit of Carnival year-round.
Getting to Punta del Este
Bus: You can get to Punta del Este by bus from Montevideo’s Tres Cruces bus terminal. There are departures every
15 minutes during the day in season. The bus terminal in Punta is next to the ocean and across the road from the
Monument to the Drowned, a sculpture of five fingers partly submerged in the sand by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal.
Plane: There are direct flights from the Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires. There are no regular flights from Montevideo.
Car: Allow 90 minutes from Montevideo by car outside peak times. There are two stretches of toll motorway; cars are
charge $90 in all for the journey. For a scenic alternative to the motorway you can take Route 12 through the hills to
Minas and from there connect to Route 8 to Montevideo. Access to Route 12 is well signposted at a large roundabout
just beyond Punta Ballena as you exit Punta del Este.
Montevideo: What to See
A city with a central golf course? Yes, you’d better believe it. The 18-hole course,
designed by a Scotsman, is on the left hand-side of Bulevar Artigas as you walk up
the artery, with Punta Carretas on your right. If you’re not a member, or invited by one,
you’ll only get past the security guards on Sundays between 2pm and 6 pm if you ask
to be admitted for a stroll.
Punta Carretas used to be the location for the city’s main prison, which gained notoriety due to the massive incarceration of dissidents during the twelve years of military
dictatorship which started in 1973. During this period, one in every 50 Uruguayans
was arrested at some point for supposed subversive activities and one in 500 was
jailed for terms of six years or more: one of these was Uruguay’s new president, José
“Pepe” Mujica.
The prison is no more: it has become a huge shopping centre (McDonald’s occupies
one of the original administration buildings). Just behind it, the sleek new Sheraton
hotel dominates the horizon. What used to be a middle-class neighbourhood of pretty
yet modest two-storey houses, where everyone knew everyone else, has changed as
money poured into the district. Now Punta Carretas is the city’s most exciting dining
quarter: our choice of best restaurant in Montevideo, Francis, is located here.
The beach suburbs stretching east of the lighthouse at Punta Carretas are mainly
modern, with 10-storey apartment blocks fronting the water the norm. A surprise, then,
to stumble on the Juan Zorrilla de San Martín museum, the summer house (built
between 1910 and 1922) of the Uruguayan poet of the same name. The museum
contains some of the poet’s personal belongings, but the most pleasant aspect is the
beautiful formal garden with its wealth of original tiles. Note that there is no café in the
museum or anywhere to buy drinks or water.
Adjacent to Punta Carretas, the wealthy neighbourhood of Pocitos has a popular
crescent-shaped beach with water theoretically clean enough for swimming. Many
more people, however, use the Rambla to jog, stroll, people-watch or eat ice cream.
Early in the morning teams of dog walkers can be seen with their charges. It can be
difficult for visitors to get a handle on Pocitos. We suggest that you take a walk up
Cavia street to see something of the “old” Pocitos: graceful old mansions alternate
with apartment blocks amid exuberant greenery. The ivory-white Italian embassy,
perhaps the most sumptuous residence in the district, is a short walk left on Ellauri
street. When you reach the junction of Cavia and Libertad streets, turn right and walk
as far as Avenida Brasil. Walking down Avenida Brasil towards the shore, you’ll
see another beautiful mansion opposite the Bar Valerio, complete with stained glass
windows and ornate flourishes on its outside columns. The building is now used as a
women’s arts and dance centre.
Outlying districts
Carrasco, at the eastern end of the city,
has little to see as such but is perfect for a
stroll along the beach, which is usually quite
empty. The dilapidated hulk of the Casino
de Carrasco is slated to become a Sofitel.
There are some good dining options but if
you are based in Punta Carretas or Pocitos
there is no reason to make the trek out this
far for dinner. The Rambla hugs the coast
from the Centre all the way to Carrasco,
passing the marina at Buceo and the
crowded beaches at Malvin (take care of
your belongings if you visit on a busy day).
Between Buceo and Malvin, the building next to the water with what appears to be a
minaret on its roof is a small naval museum. Meanwhile, the grassy bank below the
west-facing row of houses at the Playa de los Ingleses in the Punta Gorda district,
close to Carrasco, is a wonderful place to watch the fiery Uruguayan sunset.
The Rambla continues past the departmental line in Canelones, although most traffic
takes the faster Ruta Interbalnearia. Solymar and El Pinar have pleasant beaches
and are good for walking, kite flying and swimming.
The Prado neighbourhood north of the downtown is a curious mix of grand old homes
and poorer sections, plus the occasional shantytown. Take Avenida Millán north to the
Juan Manuel Blanes museum, a gorgeous residence partly given over to the work of
(and named for) a nineteenth-century artist whose paintings show a marked dramatic
realism. The museum is pleasant, but the surrounding Japanese garden is simply
delightful. The Prado, attractive oasis of greenery that it is, is only unmissable during
the gaucho fair at Easter, when a thoroughly enjoyable rodeo competition in the local
showground attracts riders from all over the country. A pleasant agricultural show is
held in the same location every September.
The Cerro faces the Old Town across Montevideo harbour. The hill (“cerro”) is
the highest point in the city and there is a fine view from the fort on the summit.
Completed in 1811 and ringed by old cannons, it was the last military structure built by
colonial Spain in the country. It is also the only one that has survived intact. There is
a small military museum inside the fort but most people come for the view. Note that
you will need a taxi to take you to the summit of the Cerro as there is no convenient
public transport.
Wine country: On the border of Montevideo and Canelones departments there
is a flourishing wine industry. Many of the boutique vineyards offer tours and wine
tastings to visitors. Food (cheese, ham, empanadas, sometimes barbecued meat and
sausages) is often part of the package. Particularly recommended are:
Bodegas Carrau: Very friendly and informative; they have a small vineyard at their
winery just within the city limits. They also grow grapes in Canelones and in the
sandy soils of Rivera, in the far north of the country. A traditional winery with a long
and distinguished history of producing Tannat, Uruguay’s signature varietal. www.
bodegascarrau.com; tel. 320 0238
Establecimento Juanicó: Across the departmental line in Canelones, the attractive
estate house is the venue for polished and professional tasting sessions that comprise
eight or more different wines. A roaring fire makes the building cozy in the winter. The
estate has a viewing platform which gives a great view of the vines plus, if you’re
lucky, various species of birds which make their home here. www.juanico.com; tel.
094 847 482
For more information on visiting Uruguay’s vineyards: www.caminosdelvino.com.
Santa Lucía: Something of a time-warp, this town of 16,000 inhabitants in rural
Canelones makes a nice day out for train buffs. It can claim to be the place where
tourism started in Uruguay. In 1872 the first hotel in the country aimed at leisure
travellers opened here. As the Hotel Oriental, it was the summer office of choice for
Uruguayan President Máximo Santos in the 1880s; its name was later changed to the
Biltmore. An attractive Italianate structure, the Biltmore is surrounded by graceful palm
trees and now functions as a technical school. Have a drink at the pleasant Plaza
Tomás Berreta and take a look at the gardens of the Quinta de Capurro (Calle Federico Capurro corner Roosevelt) which has many plants brought from Asia & Europe.
Uruguay’s Interior: Six of the best
Crowd pleaser: Colonia del Sacramento is an easy day trip from Montevideo or
Buenos Aires; as a result it can be packed during the day at weekends. It comes
into its own, though, on a summer night when its antique street lamps illuminate
cobbled alleyways and quiet squares. Not a lot has happened here since the Portuguese founded the town in 1680 as a rival to Buenos Aires. Streets like the quaint
Calle de los Suspiros, with its row of colonial cottages, are a total contrast with
the Argentine capital just an hour away. Find time to visit the Portuguese Museum
which has an excellent collection of colonial furniture. But the biggest pleasure is
just to stroll through the narrow streets; shopping for crafts is also good here. The
town has generally high levels of accommodation and dining options. One of the
longest established hotels is the pleasant El Mirador, some six blocks from the
port; www.hotelelmirador.com. The best hotel in western Uruguay is undoubtedly
the Four Seasons resort at Carmelo, some 45 minutes drive from Colonia (www.
fourseasons.com/carmelo).
Off the beaten track: Near to the point where the Río Negro meets the Río
Uruguay, Villa Soriano is the country’s oldest European settlement, dating back to
1624. Little more than a village, some 1200 people call Villa Soriano home; many of
these earn a living from fishing. There is little to do here other than to stroll around
the quiet streets, visit the old colonial church, one of the first built in Uruguay, and
walk along the pleasant wooden jetty. In summer, the loudest sound may be the
chirping of crickets. Villa Soriano is connected by local bus to the regional centre of
Mercedes, 45 km away.
Something wild: Quebrada de los Cuervos. Near the town of Treinta y Tres, this
is a canyon surrounded by dense forest, 12 km long and over 100 metres deep
in places. Subtropical plants prosper in microclimate at the bottom of the gorge.
Check out Expedición Uruguay’s 2-day camping trip (www.expedicionuruguay.com).
For art’s sake: San Gregorio de Polanco in the department of Tacuarembó is
a resort with a difference. On the northern bank of the Rincón del Bonete (manmade) lake and surrounded by copses of pine trees, you have the choice between
swimming from its pleasant beaches or admiring the murals painted in 1993 on
many of the town’s buildings by artists from the country’s Fine Arts Academy,
among others. Some have deteriorated but the effect is still bold and unusual.
Perhaps fortunately, tourism in the town has subsided somewhat from its rather
frenetic peak in the mid 1990s.
Back at the ranch: short breaks on Uruguay’s estancias (cattle ranches) give
a glimpse of the traditions of rural life. It is usually possible to borrow a horse to
explore the property with one of the ranch hands. Expect to eat a lot of barbecued
meat. Generally, these are good options for families. Note that many estancias
(such as the partly colonial San Pedro de Timote in the department of Florida, 160
km from Montevideo, www.sanpedrodetimote.com) are run essentially as country
house hotels. You can obtain a leaflet with a full list of options from the tourist
information office in Montevideo or check out www.uruguaynatural.com.
Water world: Uruguay lies on massive reserves of water. The same water table
that produces Salus, Nativa and other local brands of mineral water is also responsible for the thermal springs (termas) in the departments of Paysandú and Salto.
Water temperatures typically range from 34°C to 46°C. There are six main commercial thermal springs and the offer is similar at each one: hotel and often camping
facilities, outdoor and indoor pools, all set in green parkland. At the Termas de Salto
Grande, the Hotel Horacio Quiroga has 80 pleasant guest rooms and 3 thermal
swimming pools for the exclusive use of residents (www.hotelhoracioquiroga.com).
A note about this feature: Background for the story of José Suárez and the Marquis
de Malherbe is drawn from El Norte profundo, an account of a drive across northern
Uruguay by Argentine writer Carlos María Domínguez, published by Ediciones de la
Banda Oriental (2004). It’s highly recommended if you read Spanish.
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010) 11
Montevideo: Restaurants
Introduction
Although not as varied as the offer in Buenos Aires, Montevideo’s dining scene has
diversified and improved greatly in recent years. Best deals are at lunchtime (usually 1 pm onwards). Almost all restaurants offer a set lunch, often including a glass of
wine and cover charge. Uruguayans dine late, almost never before 9 pm and often
not before 10 pm, and still later in the summer months.
Service is generally not included. It is usual to leave 10%, although some Uruguayans leave as little as 5% in simpler eating places. Note that if you pay for food and
drink in a restaurant using a credit or debit card issued outside Uruguay, you will be
refunded 9% of the bill. This will be visible on your statement as a credit.
Uruguay has excellent sparkling mineral water. Salus is a recommended brand. It is
unheard of to order tap water in a restaurant.
Restaurant Reviews
Rara Avis, in the Teatro Solís building, Old Town
Feel like being serenaded by an opera singer moving from table to table while you
eat your main course? (Nessum dorma since you ask.) Or eating desert to the
accompaniment of cool jazz numbers played by a pianist on an elevated stage?
Then Rara Avis is for you. The restaurant opened in March 2009 and has already
hosted Mercosur presidents – for 2010 it is the winner of our Most Innovative Dining
Experience award. The wine list is excellent and varied and the menu caters both to
traditional tastes (king prawns, Patagonian lamb) and also the vaguely outlandish
(sweetbread and marrow bone risotto). Expect to pay around US$70 – 80 per head
when eating à la carte in the main dining area – a cavernous space that is cleverly
illuminated to make it appear intimate – more if you choose a stand-out wine. Midday
fixed-price menus in the downstairs bar area are a steal at US$15 – 20, including a
drink. Closed Sundays and Saturday lunchtime. Reservations recommended. www.
raraavis.com.uy; tel. 915 0330
La Cavia, calle 26 de Marzo corner Cavia, Pocitos
One of a slew of neighbourhood parrilladas (steakhouses) in well-heeled Pocitos – a
district of apartment dwellers who have limited possibilities of firing up a barbecue at
home. Well executed and a notch above some of the others in the district (such as
the nearby La Otra). Excellent tournedos with pumpkin mash; great fries; many barbecued meat and chicken options at US$10 – 12 for a main course. A pretty curved
bar and art deco lighting are easy on the eye. La Cavia offers a set-price lunch weekdays. A million miles away from the tourist frenzy of the Port Market, this is a place
hardly frequented by foreigners, except the staff of a couple of nearby embassies.
Family-friendly and ideal for a long Sunday lunch. A couple of blocks from Cake’s
café on calle Ellauri if you have room for a sugary dessert. Tel. 706 8253
Uruguay gets a female beat
The drummers of La Melaza have broken into a man’s world
When La Melaza, a group of female drummers, formed in 2005 it was out of a sense
of wanting to do something together. Choosing candombe, a style of drumming usually performed by men, meant they were bound to raise a few eyebrows.
The idea for the group came as a way of celebrating International Women’s Day.
Candombe was an obvious choice. It is the nation’s most distinctive beat, created by
African slaves in Montevideo as a way of expressing themselves. They would use
scraps of wood to create barrel-shaped drums, similar to ones made from tree trunks
in their homelands. Candombe was the name of the rhythm they played and its
popularity soared when European immigrants began to take an interest.
With candombe chosen, word was sent out for any women who might be interested.
La Melaza (“treacle” in English) now has 78 drummers, including psychologists,
teachers, carpenters and publicists, many of whom were completely new to drumming, never mind candombe. After a few practice sessions they took to the streets
on International Women’s Day, attracting a huge crowd of onlookers on Avenida 18
de Julio, the main artery in downtown Montevideo.
“What people found interesting was that we were women. At the time, it was only
men who played candombe. For everyone to see all these women drummers who
sounded tremendous – it was incredible!” says Laeticia Lonchar, one of the group’s
founders.
After such a positive response – and with so many drummers taking part – giving up
was out of the question.
“As we started to learn from nothing, or close to nothing, we developed a very clean
style with a total respect for the traditions of candombe. With time we found the right
style for our physiques and levels of energy,” says Ana “Chacha” de León.
Panini’s, calle Bacacay, Ciudad Vieja
Probably the best option on the short, pedestrianised calle Bacacay, Panini’s serves
traditional Italian food to a predominantly business crowd during weekday lunchtimes, attracted in the main by a US$11 two-course menu including wine or water
and delicious freshly-baked bread rolls. Good range of risottos and pastas. Some
main courses are large and filling but ultimately a little expensive (rack of lamb and
entrecote both cost over US$25), even though the presentation is excellent. Good
seafood. Huge windows make the dining room light in the winter. Tel. 916 8760. For
coffee after your lunch, consider the lovely Café Bacacay at the end of the same
street. There is another branch of Panini’s in Pocitos just below the World Trade
Centre at calle 26 de Marzo corner Bonavita.
Los Leños, calle San José corner Convención, Centre
It’s not difficult to figure out why Los Leños is so popular: this is a great place for
barbecued meat, particularly the national staple asado de tira (beef ribs). You might
even summon up the courage to order mollejas (sweetbreads) if you are curious to
discover the taste of the pancreas of a calf. Service is brisk and professional. All in
all, this wood-panelled dining room with whirring fans overhead is a classic downtown dining experience. But be careful in this area in the evening as it is unsafe;
have the restaurant phone for a taxi to take you home. Not perhaps an obvious
choice for families with young children, but Los Leños is a Uruguayan rarity: it has a
baby-changing station. The weekday lunchtime menu is good value at US$12 (main
course, dessert, coffee). www.parrilla.com.uy; tel. 900 2285
Ricci, calle Joaquín Núñez corner Miñones, Punta Carretas
With its ochre walls and starched white tablecloths, no other restaurant in the
burgeoning dining district of Punta Carretas pulls off a more accurate homage to
a southern French neighbourhood restaurant than the excellent Ricci. Meat and
seafood dishes are very well prepared. The menu also contains some oddities
(lamb ravioli) and items that reinforce the continental European feel (stuffed rabbit at
US$16, pheasant at US$23). Serves lunch and dinner every day. Service is welcoming and professional, but also discreet. At US$15 the weekday 2-course set lunch,
including wine and water, is one of the best bargains in town (but bring some cash –
they don’t accept credit cards for the set lunch). Highly recommended. Tel. 712 0030.
Rincón de Zabala, calle Rincón on the Plaza Zabala, Old Town
Red brick walls and comfy seating are the first things you notice in the excellentvalue Rincón de Zabala. The next think you see is handsome Plaza Zabala through
the large windows. Merits a mention for its hugely friendly welcome and low prices.
If you are looking for a good-value lunch spot in the Old Town, this is it. Open from
weekdays until 5 pm only. This part of the Ciudad Vieja offers little scope for strolling
after dark, so in the evening the Rincón de Zabala offers delivery service. And the
menu? Pure Uruguayan comfort food: milanesas (schnitzels), meatloaf, fish stew,
spinach ravioli in Bolognese sauce, pancakes. They have a very filling set lunch for
US$8. The Palacio Taranco is in the next block. www.rdz.com.uy; tel. 915 1617
They are all keen scholars of candombe
and stress its historical importance.“The
difficult thing is to generate interest that is
not just about having fun. Candombe has
such a strong significance that you have
to care for it a little too,” says Fernanda
Bértola.
This sense of building on the AfroUruguayan roots of candombe finds its
expression in the home-made chains they
wear round their ankles – but most especially in the music itself. In a piece called
El afro, the dancers rise up from the ground as if to free themselves, before the
drums explode in a frenetic rhythm that constantly changes before finally subsiding.
Here, the women opt for a traditional African beat rather than the normal candombe
rhythm. In the world of Uruguayan drumming, this is an unconventional departure.
Are the ladies of La Melaza a little self-conscious in a man’s world? “Not at all,” says
Fernanda Bértola, “we care about what we are doing and anyway there are so many
of us. It’s a natural thing now. These are women who play candombe really well and
no longer need to worry whether it sounds good. That’s a feeling that we didn’t have
at the beginning.”
The group is now a fixture in Montevideo’s Parque Rodó every week (see below), as
well as in the Carnival parades and the Llamada de Los Reyes, historically the most
important date in the candombe calendar. Their participation in the 2008 Carnival
was the first time an all-female group had been admitted. They finished eighth in the
competition, a sign of their growing prowess. Since their debut at the International
Women’s Day celebration in Montevideo in 2005 more groups of female drummers
have formed, spurred on by La Melaza’s success. But women drummers are still in
a minority.
Surprisingly, at the end of the nineteenth century there are records of female
Uruguayan drummers. According to historian Oscar Padrón Favre, 14 out of 34 comCandombe drums are struck with either both hands or one hand and a stick, and
parsas (groups of drummers and dancers)
performances can last up to two or
in 1870 were women-only. At the time, they
three hours. The women knew that
generally appeared at family gatherings and
it was never going to be possible to
masked balls. Newspaper reports from the
You can find out more about La Melaza and their plans for International Women’s
match the unrelenting power of some
inland city of Durazno in 1889 tell of a female
Day on 8 March – plus details of appearances around the country – via the
of the men’s groups. Instead, La
group, the Negras Orientales, which would
group’s website: www.lamelaza.com. You can see the group in the Parque Rodó
Melaza alternate explosive sections
perform in white and sky-blue dress. So why
neighbourhood every Sunday starting on calle Blanes street at around 7 pm (the
with calmer periods allowing them to
did women in Uruguay stop drumming? The
route takes them to calle San Salvador). Just follow the sound of drums. On the
rest a little.
history books give us no convincing answers.
last Sunday of each month La Melaza encourages male drummers to join them.
Factfile:
12
Montevideo: Restaurants
Fellini Ristobaretto, calle Martí corner Benito Blanco, Pocitos
While the best traditional Italian pizza in Montevideo is probably at Don Ciccio (calle
Bonpland corner Williman, Punta Carretas. Tel. 710 5151), Fellini serves good pizzas
and pasta and has the advantage of being a block from the Rambla in Pocitos. Busy
and very popular meeting spot for groups of friends of all ages, including Englishspeaking expats. When it’s full, Fellini can feel rather cramped. Easy to eat well for
US$20. Short dessert menu but there is a pleasant ice cream shop diagonally opposite. One of a number of places in Montevideo that keeps up the tradition of serving
gnocchi on the 29th of each month. Often has live music at Sunday lunchtime, plus
regular cooking demonstrations and literary evenings. Closed on Sunday evening,
otherwise open for lunch and dinner every day. Tel. 706 9252.
La Corte, Plaza Matriz, Old Town
Excellent option in the heart of the Ciudad Vieja and the perfect antidote to the pushy
service found at several of the Mercado del Puerto eateries. This side of the Plaza
Matriz is slowly giving itself over to fast food outlets and tourist tat, so we can be
thankful that under the stewardship of Marcelo Angres, La Corte is offering quality at
a fair price at lunchtime (try the filling steak with fried onions and mozzarella cheese
topping) and a more refined menu at night. President Bush dined here during his 2007
state visit. Well-prepared sauces accompany many fish and meat dishes. Excellent
and sometimes extravagantly presented desserts. Unusually for Uruguay, La Corte’s
menu flags a number of low-calorie dishes. Recommended. www.lacorte.com.uy; tel.
916 0435
A Happy Country
We think Uruguay is getting plenty of things right
Tannat/Locos de Asar, calle San José corner Río Negro, Centre
Tannat offers a tango show with dinner featuring two singers, two dancers (of course)
and live tango music. The restaurant has even hired a mime artist to enliven proceedings. This all takes place on Tannat’s upper floor in a plush dining room that is much
more intimate than the “pack ‘em in” feel of many outwardly similar places in Buenos
Aires. Mainly meat options; reservations essential (tel. 900 8127; info@tannatytango.
com). Downstairs is a clean and bright steakhouse with a large soup and salad bar
which has the same menu and prices as the Locos de Asar restaurant next door, and
is under the same management.
Francis, calle Luis de la Torre corner Montero, Puntas Carretas
And our award for Montevideo’s Best Restaurant for 2010 goes to… Francis! Located
on a quiet street in Punta Carretas, Francis is a class act. It started out as a fish and
seafood place and the seafood dishes (an exceptional squid with caramelised onions,
two very fine paella options) are still what draw the regulars. This winter, though,
Francis is due to light up a new barbecue, so expect more meat options. Meanwhile,
the lamb and mushroom risotto is moist and fragrant – and the portions are huge –
and the crème brûlée is a must if you have a sweet tooth. Perfect for a business lunch
or a romantic dinner, Francis is fundamentally the choice of people who care about,
and enjoy, their food. The US$15 set lunch with a drink is the best deal in town. Open
every day for lunch and every day bar Sunday for dinner. www.francis.com.uy; tel.
711 8603.
in an 8-hour working day and other labour rights, women were now able to initiate
divorce proceedings, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church was reduced, and
the death penalty was abolished.
UruguayNow is optimistic about today’s Uruguay because – at the risk of gross
generalization – the country displays an inherent sense of reasonableness and
a respect for the rule of law. The new tax code is far from perfect and the state
payroll is still bloated, but this is a good country to do business in – so good that the
economy grew by 2.5% in 2009 while the world was mired in recession. The previous
year Uruguay managed to export more meat than mighty Argentina (thanks, it must
be said, to its neighbour’s idiosyncratic economic policy). The country would do even
better if more Uruguayans could be encouraged to set up their own businesses.
Meanwhile violent crime, though less rare than in the past, is still relatively uncommon. No metal detectors stand at the entrance of secondary schools. Private cars
are not kitted out with bullet-proof windows.
“On bad mornings,” Nobel-laureate and newspaper columnist Paul Krugman remarked recently, “I wake up and think we are turning into a Latin American country”.
Dr Kruger was talking about inequality and social mobility, but it’s our guess that
Uruguay wasn’t at the top of his mind when he appeared on an American talkshow
and made that – now much reported – comment.
Uruguay certainly shares a history of unequal income distribution with other Latin
American countries. According to the World Bank, the richest one-tenth of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) earn 48 percent of total income,
while the poorest one-tenth earn only 1.6 percent. Inequality in the least unequal
LAC country – Uruguay – is higher than that of the most unequal country in Eastern
Europe and the industrialized countries, the Bank found.
But can the case be made that structural problems are being met with practical
solutions? According to research from the University of Montevideo, the Uruguayan
government increased the minimum wage by 56% in real terms over the period 1998
– 2007. Since the presidential elections that brought the left-leaning Frente Amplio
party to power in 2004 (for the first time in Uruguay’s history) the tax code has been
reformed, a comprehensive system of cash payments to poor families has been
rolled out, and every child in state education has the right to a laptop.
Uruguay was the first country in the world to implement a “one laptop per child”
scheme, which according to the BBC cost US$260 per pupil. Thanks to the initiative,
many children – particularly those in rural areas – gained access to computers and
the internet for the first time.
According to a recent Latinobarómetro survey, Uruguayans are much more likely
than any other Latin Americans to be satisfied, or very satisfied, with the way that
democracy works in their country. They are more likely than any other Latin Americans to support parliamentary democracy and political parties. And when asked the
question: “Do you consider your country is governed for the benefit of a few powerful
cliques, or the benefit of everyone?” Uruguayans were those most likely to reply
“for the benefit of everyone” (58% of the total versus 7% of Argentines polled when
asked the same question). A return to the military dictatorship of 1973–1985 seems
out of the question.
Graft is not a significant problem: According to the pressure group Transparency
International, Uruguay and Chile currently vie for the title of the least corrupt state
in Latin America, and are rated on a par with France. Traffic police won’t demand
money from you for imagined infringements. And although there is some evidence
that the bronca (sharp temper) said to be characteristic of nearby Buenos Aires is
gaining ground on these shores, British novelist Martin Amis told local paper El Pais
that the Uruguayans are “the most charming and civilized” people he’d ever met.
We’ll give the last word to a group of academics from the University of Texas at
Austin. They looked into the likelihood that a policeman would be convicted for killing
a fellow citizen. The result was not just that Uruguay consistently outperformed its
neighbours (there was a 50% chance of conviction in Uruguay, compared to 20% in
Buenos Aires and just 5% in Brazil) but that the Uruguayan criminal justice system
“responds equally well, if not better, to the claims of the underprivileged as it does to
the claims of those with more resources”.
None of this has prevented the appearance of high fences and electric gates in
middle-class districts of Montevideo. Rubbish collectors riding horses and carts still
rummage through the city’s dustbins while BMWs and SUVs speed by. Montevideo’s
northern suburbs contain shanty towns with inadequate facilities. Uruguay has
received a hugely favourable international press in recent years (your correspondent
was responsible for some of it) but anyone flying south with the intention of putting
down roots should be aware that though the country may offer heavenly beaches,
life remains a struggle for many folk.
Perhaps a little surprisingly, Uruguay introduced a very early version of a progressive, modern state at the start of the twentieth century. Surprisingly, because this followed hard on the heels of a period of bloody civil war between the supporters (and
their foreign allies) of Uruguay’s two “traditional” political parties: the Colorados and
the Blancos. Known as the Guerra Grande, this was essentially a long and hugely
destructive squabble between the country’s leading families (think the English Wars
of the Roses rather that the American Civil War). It left the country looking for a new
direction. This was provided by Colorado president José Batlle y Ordóñez, who took
advantage of the country’s growing prosperity to institute major reforms: he ushered
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010) 13
Montevideo: Bars & Cafes
Introduction
Bar and Café Reviews
In Uruguay, almost all bars serve food, so the distinction between restaurant and bar
is less clear than in some other countries.
Bar Roldós, Mercado del Puerto, Old Town
Founded in 1886 as a grocery that served booze on the side, the Roldós is the most
enjoyable watering-place in the Mercado del Puerto and (along with a score of other
historically notable cafes in the city) gets tax breaks to prove it. Long before the Port
Market became a tourist attraction, the Roldós was serving its trademark medio y medio – a mix of white wine and spumante – to thirsty workers propping up its polished
wooden bar. The drink ($130 a bottle; $30 a glass) makes a great aperitif before attacking a plate of barbecued meat and chorizo at Rol2, its sister establishment across
the passageway. Bar Roldós also serves decent coffee. Open every day from 9 am to
7 pm. www.roldos.com.uy; tel. 915 1520.
Many locals in Montevideo eat their breakfast in a café, often a croissant (medialuna)
which is generally served filled with ham and cheese. A coffee with frothed milk on
top is a cortado.
When pizzas are served in cafes, they are usually thick-crust pizza slices freshly
baked in a charcoal oven. Pizza has a tomato topping but no cheese; muzarella is a
cheese pizza with the only fainest smear of tomato. Fainá, meanwhile, is a cornmeal/
chickpea crust baked in the pizza oven and served with pepper. It’s something of an
acquired taste. Oddly enough, round pizzas are called pizzetas in Uruguay.
Cafes usually serve a large selection of desserts generally displayed in brightly-lit
cabinets. These are usually not prepared on the premises.
Try a chivito, the Uruguayan take on the humble steak sandwich and a café classic.
Order it canadiense (“Canadian”) and it will arrive piled high with a topping of bacon,
fried egg, grilled peppers, lettuce and tomato.
While we don’t particularly recommend any of the pubs just below the World Trade
Centre in Pocitos, we do include one here for the sake of comparison (Barba Roja).
What we left out: The beautiful Café Brasilero in the Old Town which is closed at the
time of writing; the Baar Fun Fun in a quiet section at the edge of the Old Town (and
a great late­night option if you want to hear tango music, but the area is sadly unsafe
at night); and the famous and venerable El Hacha a few blocks from the Mercado del
Puerto (we prefer Roldós).
Market forces
Don’t miss Montevideo’s wonderful Tristán Narvaja street
market
Cervecería La Pasiva, Av. 18 de Julio corner Ejido, Centre
With its bland formica tables and mainly middle-aged clientele, La Pasiva’s main
drinking and dining area appears at first sight no different from the countless other
cervecerías (taverns) in the city centre. But take a moment to admire the swirling art
deco lamps, the self-conscious columns that ring the bar and the decorative beer
barrel that stands in splendid isolation in a corner and it may occur to you that this is
somewhere a bit special. Best known in town for its hot dogs ($18 each) eaten with
mustard prepared to a recipe that’s a closely guarded secret. Befitting their almost
mythical status, the dogs at La Pasiva are kept in huge pans of simmering water in full
and admiring view of the punters. Attracts a younger crowd at night. Open every day
to 1 am weekdays and 3 am at weekends.
Bar Tabaré, calle Zorrilla de San Martín corner Tabaré, Punta Carretas
Ninety years ago the space now occupied by the über-trendy Bar Tabaré was a
general store catering to local fishermen. Just a little of those less fashion-conscious
times remains: A cozy bistro-like space (the original shop, to the left as you enter)
with a wealth of exposed wood harks back to an era before BMWs and gold Amex
cards. Additional seating on a mezzanine level at the rear of the bar affords a good
view of the customers downstairs in the bar, or the perfect spot for an intimate drink,
depending on the table you choose. Long drinks list; good, brisk service. A pity, then,
that the food (amateurish chicken curry, uninspiring fish dishes) is so underwhelming.
Main courses, should you be tempted, average US$15. Close to the Sheraton. Has
live music from time to time. Open every evening except on Sundays. www.bartabare.
com; tel. 712 3242.
Café Philomène, calle Solano García corner Miñones, Punta Carretas
A little jewel. It’s difficult to imagine a better refuge from Montevideo’s biting winter
winds than the Café Pilomène. This is a coffee and cake shop which serves homemade quiches at lunchtime (just US$5 with a side salad) as well as alfajores (large
cookies with a caramel filling) and brownies. Not the first establishment in the city to
plump for a Beatles-meets-bossa nova soundtrack set on a seemingly permanent
loop, but somehow it works in the cozy, stress-free interior, with its period wooden
floors and colourful choice of wallpaper. Has seating outside in the summer months.
Open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 8 pm, Saturday from 11 am to 8 pm. Tel. 711
1770.
Looking for a panama hat? Or a new pair of laces? Or a gerbil?
Come to the Tristán Narvaja flea market on a Sunday morning and you can buy any
of these things – and much more besides. For many Montevideo residents Sunday
would not be Sunday without a stroll through “Tristán”, often with their mate gourd
and thermos flask in hand, to thumb nostalgically through stacks of old LPs, squint
at pages of stamps, or just buy the week’s fruit and vegetables.
Few market traders have been associated with the market longer than Wilson de
Sosa, who has worked a stall at Tristán Narvaja for “almost 51 years”.
Mr de Sosa sells mainly sheet music spread across a couple of tables in the blocks
given over to booksellers on calle Paysandú, to the right as you walk down calle
Tristrán Narvaja. And what kind of sheet music, exactly? “All kinds. Whatever I
can buy cheap and sell with a big mark-up,” says Mr de Sosa with a smile, as he
glances at piles of Schubert and Rachmaninoff, tied up neatly with string. Opposite
him, one stallholder asks another for some change, offering him a pat on the back
and a cigarette as he does so.
Many of the stalls hereabouts sell second-hand books written by figures of the
Uruguayan left: Titles by Eduardo Galeano appear regularly, the face of Mario
Benedetti smiles up from a number of dust jackets, and there are compilations of
speeches and articles by one-time guerilla fighter and new Uruguayan President
José (Pepe) Mujica. Sandwiched in between are coffee-table books with pictures
of millionaire residences in Punta del Este; others sport pretty whitewashed ranch
houses and gauchos on horseback on their covers. One lady has a pile of old Hola
magazines. The dominant aroma in the market is woodsmoke.
Celebrating its centenary, the market appears to grow and grow. But apart from
expanding, what other changes have there been over the years?
“The thing is,” says Mr de Sosa, “Tristán has changed very little. Most of all it’s to
do with technology. Cassettes started appearing, then CDs and DVDs. And then
there’s the recession. People bring what they find and show up at the market
hoping to make a little money. Before they know it, the market has become a habit
and they stay.”
14
Only partly regulated, the market sprawls for five or six blocks along calle Paysandú
and neighbouring streets, away from the booksellers. Here there are no stalls, just
sheets laid out on the pavement, their corners pinned down with stones. One man is
selling a 1970s cream-coloured dial-up phone and a box of old keys of different sizes.
Nothing else. Another is rather despondently hawking a box of porn and some aprons
and tea towels.
At the fringes, sounds drift in and out. Teams of traditional candombe drummers beat
out a ferocious rhythm, collecting coins in a plastic cup as they drift down calle Tristrán
Narvaja, the spine of the market (this is traditional carnival music but they are here
in all seasons). A knot of street singers pumps out ballads, holed up in a busy spot
next to a van selling hot dogs and hamburgers. “The market has always attracted
musicians,” says Mr de Sosa. “Youngsters come here to try out. It helps them beat
their stage fright.”
The section of the market given over to antiques is the part most visited by tourists:
silverware from a time when Uruguayans had the resources to import massively;
faux-Oriental vases; coins from all over the globe. And what is the human version of
a traffic jam? Well, there is one of those when a family with a stroller tries to navigate
through the roots of a sycamore tree that have broken free of the paving. The wheels
get stuck next to a stall selling T-shirts with MVD across the front. Others say: “La feria
de Tristán Narvaja”. It is late spring and the T-shirt seller is doing a brisk trade.
Not a huge change, maybe, but a sign of the times nonetheless.
Factfile:
Tristán Narvaja street market operates every Sunday from early in the morning to
about 2 pm. Calle Tristán Narvaja is perpendicular to Avenida 18 de Julio and very
close to the main University building.
Montevideo: Bars & Cafes
The UruguayNow Interview: Karen Ann
In a journey from a small mining community in South Wales
to Montevideo, by way of Buenos Aires and Washington DC,
Karen Ann has become a fixture of the local music scene,
first as a singer with Celtic group Grianan, then teaming up
with one of Uruguay’s most famous guitarists to start her
own project, Trelew.
First of all, why Montevideo?
We [Karen, her partner and son] had previously been living in Washington and what
interested us about Montevideo was that there were a lot of similarities that we
really liked, such as the size of the city and the population. We liked small cities that
are capitals as well because there is a certain amount of culture. The other thing
that I really appreciated was that you can easily get out of the city. You don’t have
to go through a lot of traffic to get to the beach and to the countryside. I came here
for a week to check it out and fell in love with the place.
Had you been involved with music before arriving here?
Prior to coming here I had never done anything that was related to Celtic music
apart from when I was at school, and when you’re Welsh that is a huge part of your
upbringing. In the Eisteddfod, a musical competition, you’d be encouraged to sing,
or do some poetry or art. It was something that I did as a kid, together with all my
friends. Even people who felt that they couldn’t sing would get up in the choir and
do something, and you’d be doing it in front of more than a thousand people, so
that was brilliant training.
How did you get involved in the music scene here?
When I came to Uruguay I really started to feel like I was losing my voice, so I
decided to take voice classes gain. I went to a teacher, a great guy called Fernando
Ulivi, who is well known here in theatre circles. I really enjoyed it and wanted to do
more. I remembered that a few months earlier I had seen an Irish-music band playing. They were Uruguayan but they sounded completely authentic and I thought:
this is amazing! So I found their number and they said they already had a singer.
I said that’s fine, I’ll come anyway, there can be two of us! It makes me laugh now
because I was quite brazen and was muscling in, but I really wanted to sing. And
so I went and auditioned and they said okay, you can start. That’s how I became a
member of Grianan.
At what point did Trelew begin to form?
Grianan was great but I wanted to do something more creative and their project
was basically cultural. It was about showing people what Irish music is. I told them I
wanted to put my energy elsewhere and set about looking for a guitarist. I imagined
a young musician from the faculty might be interested. I started to ask friends, and
I was about to stick some ads up in the University when Fernando Ulivi, my old
voice coach, called and said that Jorge Galemire might be interested in the project.
He has played with Eduardo Mateo and Jaime Roos – some of the greats. When
I also found out that he counted Celtic music as one of his biggest influences, I
couldn’t believe it! We met and seemed to like each other, and it went from there.
Initially he [Jorge Galemire] was cautious about getting involved because of his
lack of Celtic heritage. He said that he wouldn’t pretend to be an Irish musician; he
would give it his own stamp while trying to respect the forms. So it was a fusion of
this woman from Wales and this Uruguayan musician who is known for music from
another genre.
And where did the name come from?
I decided I wanted to associate the band with something that was Celtic or Welsh
and, at the same time, something that was from this part of South America, so I
thought about the names of those towns [in Argentine Patagonia] that were started
by Welsh people, and Trelew I liked the most.
Where do the ideas for the songs come from?
When we started composing it was the first time since I was a teenager that I had
written lyrics. The first song that we did was called For Patagonia and it’s about the
journey of the Welsh to Patagonia and it starts with some words from a diary that
was written in 1893 by a Welsh colonist. In Wales at the time they were trying to
encourage people to emigrate to Patagonia, but also to protect their own culture,
which was not happening when people emigrated to [North] America.
Was Welsh history something that you’d always been interested in?
When I was 7 years old I had a teacher who had been a sailor and one of the
places he told us about was Buenos Aires and the gauchos. I was fascinated. We
have a song called May Day which is based on the story of my grandmother who
lived in a mining community. Her dad had been in a mining accident and couldn’t
Café Misterio, calle Costa Rica corner Rivera, Carrasco
Attracts more blonde ladies than any other bar in the city. On weekend nights this
otherwise calm corner of the wealthy residential district of Carrasco is a veritable
chaos of Mercedes and SUVs looking for a suitable berth. Very select, if more than a
tad superficial, the Café Misterio is a rarity in Montevideo: a bar that has a proper bar
area for socialising. So it’s good to know that subdued orange lighting makes everyone look just that little bit younger and more alluring. Ostentatious displays of fizz and
scotch purposelessly adorn the bar – which is a shame as the interior is actually quite
nice. Expensive drinks; acceptable food. Open at lunch but really a night-time place.
Tel. 601 8765.
Bar 62, calle Barreiro corner Chucarro, Pocitos
Longstanding watering hole in the city’s southern suburbs. Named for the number
62 tram line that, starting in 1951, connected Pocitos with the Plaza Independencia.
This is the place to go if you’re in the mood for a mojito or a caipirinha. Trendy but
essentially unpretentious and popular with students, the gilded youth of Pocitos,
media types and resident foreigners. Serves full meals and has a rather idiosyncratic
menu ranging from sushi to grilled meats. Works best as a place for a drink and a
nibble given that the downstairs space especially (there is upstairs seating, too) can
get noisy. Watch out for the $50 cover charge if you eat here. www.62bar.com; tel.
707 3022
El Viejo y el Mar, Rambla Gandhi corner Solano García, Punta Carretas
A short walk from the Sheraton, El viejo y el mar serves fish and seafood dishes in
a dining area with a strong – verging on overbearing – nautical theme. Come in a
gale and you will hear the wind roar around the simple wooden structure as you eat
seafood spaghetti (US$12) or scampi (US$18). But what makes the place so attractive – and why it’s listed here as a bar rather than a restaurant – is the large outdoor
seating area with uninterrupted River Plate views. A good place to nurse a cool drink
and watch the ships sailing by on a hot night. Feeling especially romantic? Esperanto,
further along the Rambla to the east (at the corner of calle Comercio, in the Buceo district) has indifferent food but unbeatable views of Montevideo’s sunset. Tel. 710 5704.
Expreso Pocitos, calle Benito Blanco corner Av. Brasil, Pocitos
Now 100 years old and a classic. Popular with the city’s well-heeled political class
(and particularly the leading lights of the Blanco party) the Expreso is a joint with a
split personality – but in the nicest possible way: there is hardly a customer below
the age of fifty during the day, while on weekend nights the place is a favourite pit
stop for local youth out on the town. The owner stated recently that his establishment
had never been burgled. Its long operating hours might be the reason – the Expreso
is almost always open for business. Serves nice hot sandwiches and Irish coffee.
Courteous and brisk service. On exiting glance upwards: the bar is on the ground floor
of the El Mástil building, an art deco masterpiece. Tel. 708 1828.
Bar Tranquilo, calle 21 de Septiembre corner Roque Graseras, Punta Carretas.
It may seem unimaginative to call this bar tranquilo but it sums the place up nicely.
When the sun sets on Pocitos beach and the crowds begin to disperse, Bar Tranquilo
starts to fill up – despite its location a little distant from other watering holes. The
outside tables catch the sea breeze on balmy nights, making it a great place to relax
and chat into the early hours. A favourite of couples and groups of girls discussing the
details of their days. The food ticks all the boxes: tapas, milanesas, salads, pastas,
good homemade chips and meat and fish specials that change frequently. They aural
menu is no less varied: British/US indie, reggae grooves and offbeat dance tracks.
Open every day from lunchtime until 2 am on weekends and 1 am on weekdays. www.
tranquilobar.com; tel. 711 2127
Barba Roja, Av. L. A. de Herrera corner Iturriaga, Pocitos
Until a couple of years ago the city’s youthful drinking scene was concentrated in the
Ciudad Vieja. It has since migrated to the stretch of Luis Alberto de Herrera just below
the gleaming towers of the World Trade Centre. Here you’ll find Barba Roja. It’s the
kind of place you’ll either love or hate: its patrons ooze money (or pretend they do);
a bouncer stands at the door, arms folded; and its brew-pub beers are served in tiny
measures. On the other hand the booths are comfortable and the Tex-Mex food is
broadly acceptable. Enough, therefore, to serve as a decent venue for a previa – a
“warm up” – before hitting the nearby Lotus nightclub at 2 or 3 am. One nice touch:
the menus are made from old LP sleeves. Less nice: sullen service. Open every day
from 9 pm until late. Tel. 622 1256.
work and so they depended on the charity of the church. My Nan [grandmother]
was a really good singer and the choirmaster had told her parents that she was
so good, if she took singing lessons she might become an opera singer. But there
was no money and my Nan ended up being a barmaid. That was a kind of debt
within the family. She always used to say that she could have been a famous opera
singer. So to have the opportunity to write a song for and about her was great.
What’s the plan for the rest of the year?
We are going to do just a few shows. Our focus is to do more distribution internationally. We’ve already had people buying from Japan. The market here is very
small and what we do is quite unusual. We could easily saturate it, so the plan is
just to do a couple of well-produced shows.
Factfile: Trelew will be playing at Teatro Solís on 5 May with their 5-piece live band,
including bandoneón (an accordion-like instrument, famously used in tango music),
bass and percussion. Their album, Trelew, is available from Shannon’s in Montevideo, www.cdbaby.com, and Karen will even hand deliver a copy if you ask nicely
enough. Her details are on their website at www.trelewmusic.com.
Karen has also recently opened a guest house, Casa Sarandí (Buenos Aires y
Ituzaingó, Old Town). The rate is US$50 per night. Rooms have balconies looking on
to the sea. Reservations can be made on (598) 0997 07068.
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010) 15
Montevideo: Hotels
Introduction
Our selection of Montevideo’s best accommodation options includes a number of
recommendations in the Centre, and also in the beachside districts of Punta Carretas
and Pocitos where properties are often more modern.
Note that some budget options in the Centre are noisy and may not be well maintained. Heating can be insufficient in budget hotels in the winter in Uruguay as a
whole.
For chain hotels, in Uruguay as elsewhere, the internet booking systems of each
brand are likely to give you competitive rates, particularly if you book well in advance.
Foreigners are not charged VAT (sales tax) on hotel stays in Uruguay.
Please note that the prices given here are approximate rates for two people staying
midweek. They are based on information provided either directly by the hotel or via
their websites. Note that internet brokers may also offer discounted rates and that
cheaper weekend and other special deals may be available.
Hotel Reviews
Radisson, Plaza Independencia, Old Town
European-style hotel that makes a distinction between concierge and front desk. Its
restaurant has panoramic views of the port and is doubtless the best hotel restaurant
in town. Good meeting facilities that are only bettered by the Sheraton; nice pool.
Guest rooms a little dark. The building is an eyesore but this is hardly a worry if you’re
inside it. A very professional operation to be sure, but many business travellers will
prefer to be based in Punta Carretas – a more salubrious district altogether. Room
rates start at US$170. www.radisson.com; tel. 902 0111
Sheraton, calle Solino (next to Punta Carretas Shopping), Punta Carretas
Our award for Best Hotel in Montevideo for 2010 goes to… the Sheraton. Has the
advantage of location over the Radisson, and while its restaurant isn’t in the same
league as that of its main rival, its guest rooms are brighter. The views from the gym
over the River Plate are amazing. No concierge – you’ll have to wait in line at front
desk if you want a table booked in a local restaurant (most of the fine dining options in
Punta Carretas are but a short walk away). Offers a good brunch on Sundays (US$27
per head) A popular place to hold meetings and seminars. Rooms: US$185 – US$285.
www.starwoodhotels.com; tel. 710 2121
Holiday Inn, calle Colonia corner Andes, Centre
Our pick of the city centre options if you’re looking for four star lodgings. Nice pool
with a view (but creaking gym equipment), friendly, popular with Brazilian tourists,
good breakfast, well managed. Nice feel to the place all round. Good deals available
via the HI brand’s main internet booking system. Published room rates start at US$98.
What’s not to like? www.holidayinn.com.br; tel. 902 0001
Regency Golf, calle Solano García corner Ellauri, Punta Carretas
Our choice for Best-Value Hotel in Montevideo for 2010. This boutique hotel opened
its doors in March of last year and has already secured a loyal following. 65 rooms, all
beautifully designed and all with kitchenette, plasma TVs, parquet floors throughout.
Small gym and sauna, but the Rambla is on your doorstep if you feel like getting some
exercise. Nice, bright breakfast room. Full access for wheelchair users. Free parking.
Rooms US$110 and up. www.regencygolf.com.uy; tel. 710 4444
Sol Meliá (former Tryp Hotel), calle Miranda corner Bulevar Artigas, Punta
Carretas
Sometimes referred to as the Sol Meliá, sometimes the Tryp (even in the hotel’s own
literature). But not to worry, because the service is spot on, as is the food. Light, airy
Mediterranean feel to the lobby; guest rooms kitted out in a similar style to Meliá properties the world over. Overlooks the city golf gourse. Free parking. Recommended.
Room rates start at US$120. www.solmelia.com; tel. 710 3800
Regency Suites, calle Otero corner Arocena, Carrasco
In the heart of Carrasco and convenient for the airport. Like an English country house
hotel. This 4-star property has 30 very comfortable suites all with kitchenettes. Common areas are beautifully maintained and have comfy chesterfield sofas if you feel like
taking the weight off your feet. The hotel makes good use of its space in a relatively
small plot; nice deck with a pool in an urban garden at the rear. Great choice for business people in town with their families; good choice for anyone seeking peace and
quiet. Rates: US$145. www.regencysuites.com.br; tel. 600 1383
Bremen Aparthotel, calle Aquiles Lanza corner Maldonado, Centre
One of a kind. German-owned operation offers small to medium sized self-contained
apartments that cost from US$45 (for one person) to US$110 (for five people) per
night. Wealth of early twentieth-century detailing inside and out. Cable TV; internet access. Some units may be a little noisy. A bit distant from the city’s better dining options
but quite the thing if you are homesick for a beer in a German Kneipe (pub) – there’s
one on the premises. www.bremenmontevideo.com; tel. 900 9641
Hotel Ermitage, calle Benito Blanco at Plaza Gomensoro, Pocitos
Montevideo meets Eastbourne at the Ermitage, a cozy hotel near the Rambla that
evokes a time when Pocitos was a popular seaside resort. Rooms at the front catch
the sun and have a view of the water across pretty Plaza Gomensoro. Bedrooms are
nothing special but bathrooms are very nice and have been updated. Hallways a little
faded, though. Breakfast a bit patchy. Friendly service. A double with sea view for
US$95 (rack rate) is good value. www.ermitagemontevideo.com; tel. 710 4021
16
Balmoral Plaza, calle San José at Plaza Cagancha, Centre
A hotel with a faintly regal name that it doesn’t quite live up to. Rooms a little worn;
popular with business travellers. The hotel’s pleasant lobby is always busy. Nice buffet
breakfast. Downside: odour of cigarettes is everywhere. Upside: if you want to stay
downtown, the location is unbeatable and there is a good selection of restaurants on
the same street. Certainly worth considering if you can get a discount. Doubles go for
US$100 (rack rate). www.balmoral.com.uy; tel. 902 2393
NH Hotel, Rambla Gran Bretaña corner Treinta y Tres, Old Town
If the view’s the thing, the NH may be the choice for you. On the Rambla facing the
River Plate, albeit in a dilapidated and inconvenient corner of the Ciudad Vieja, the NH
offers large guest rooms and a friendly welcome. And of course that view. You should
take a taxi to and from this property at night. We include this hotel mainly because it
offers good value for money: advertised room rates start at US$90. www.nh-hotels.
com; tel. 916 0001
Inner beauty
Uruguay’s interior is full of history, as well as a varied and
low-key charm
Sometimes significant discoveries are made by mistake.
José Suárez was a Brazilian labourer who migrated to Uruguay at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. In Brazil he had worked in a gold mine; in Uruguay he
tended cattle near a settlement called Corrales in the northern department of
Rivera. From time to time he found flecks of gold in streams and collected them in a
bottle which he kept in his shack. It was the year 1830.
One night thieves broke into his modest home in the hope of finding valuables and
went through his belongings, assaulting the poor labourer. They found little that
interested them and finally left with little more than Suárez’s horse, knocking over
and breaking the bottle of gold as they left.
After the attack Suarez summoned help. When his neighbours arrived they could
not believe their eyes. The floor was covered in specks of gold. The thieves had left
without noticing what was in the broken bottle. Soon word got out. Men arrived to
pan for gold, armed with shovels, sometimes dynamite.
In the decades that followed, mining companies from Spain, France and Britain
arrived. If never a veritable El Dorado, foreign mining companies would routinely
exaggerate finds in remote corners of the world like Uruguay in order to raise more
capital in Europe. Still, profits from the Uruguayan gold rush paid for a sumptuous
mansion at Cuñapirú for the Marquis de Malherbe, a principal shareholder of the
Franco-Uruguayan Gold Mining Company. An elaborate system of cables, towers
and pulleys was put in place to transport rocks from the various mines for processing. The cables only functioned for five years. Some of the towers are still standing,
as is Malherbe’s house, with its once-grand reception rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms
and servants’ quarters. It is now home to bats and wild horses.
The under-populated interior of Uruguay (some 92% of its inhabitants live in urban
areas) is full of legends, memories and – if you care to believe in them – ghosts.
In Valle Edén, a little south of Tacuarembó, a museum makes the case that Carlos
Gardel, the most celebrated tango singer of them all, was born in Uruguay. But this
is disputed: others believe he was born in France.
Whatever the truth, Gardel came into the world in 1890 or thereabouts, at a time
when the figure most associated with the Uruguayan campo was exiting from the
scene. Uruguay’s gauchos (the term is also associated with Argentina, of course, as
well as the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul) are sometimes referred
to as a kind of Latin version of the North American cowboy.
But there are differences: From the earliest days of Spanish settlement adventurous
youths, fleeing criminals, freed slaves and deserting soldiers disappeared into
the largely lawless countryside. They tamed wild horses to ride, and slaughtered
cattle that roamed the interior of the country which belong to no-one and everyone,
catching their prey with lassoes and distinctive boleadoras, three balls connected
by leather straps that would trap an animal by disabling its hind legs.
In the early years the men mixed with indigenous native-American women. Gauchos would congregate at pulperías, a mixture of drinking den and general store.
In reality as as well as in the popular imagination, fights would often break out. A
gaucho would resolutely defended his honour with his facón (knife) which he kept
with him at all times.
The division of Uruguay into rural estates spelled the beginning of the end for the
gaucho. Labourers were hired to mark and herd cattle on behalf of the estancieros
(estate owners). The gaucho was, in effect, corralled by laws and the widespread
introduction of private property. Some resigned themselves to working on the
estates. Others refused to give up their nomadic existence and were pursued,
often arbitrarily, by the authorities. The last traditional gauchos sought refuge in
the hilly country to the south of the Río Negro in the departments of Cerro Largo
and Treinta y Tres. But as the era of civil war in Uruguay drew to an end, their days
were numbered.
UruguayNow Awards
Uruguay Now.com
Awards
UruguayNow is dedicated to uncovering the country’s best accommodation and
dining options and recognizing excellence. Our awards for 2010 are:
Best Restaurant in Montevideo: Francis, Punta Carretas
Montevideo’s Most Innovative Dining Experience: Rara Avis, Ciudad Vieja
Best Hotel in Montevideo: Sheraton, Punta Carretas
Best-Value Hotel in Montevideo: Regency Golf, Punta Carretas
You can find out more about these establishments in the
Montevideo restaurants and Montevideo hotels chapters of this guide.
The names of our award winners for 2011 will be made public in February of next year.
“It’s a word of mouth thing”
The secret’s out: Uruguay is a great place to buy a second
home
When it comes to real estate, it really does seem as though Uruguay offers
something for everyone: seafront apartments in Punta del Este, urban bolt-holes
in Montevideo, and the chance to build your own dream home from scratch in the
unspoilt countryside.
A firm favourite of overseas buyers looking to invest in Montevideo is the high-end
beach district of Pocitos, which offers good transport connections to the Centre and
the Old Town, safety and generally high build quality.
Prices have risen consistently since Uruguay began to recover from Argentina’s
financial crisis in 2002. Montevideo had traditionally been an expensive place to
buy property but the meltdown next door had a knock-on effect, and house prices
tumbled. Unemployment rose significantly, real incomes dropped and confidence
drained out of the real estate market.
In 2003 new-build units in good locations in Pocitos cost between US$850 and
US$1000 per square metre. Similar properties are now around 75% more expensive.
And prices are still rising, albeit modestly, in spite of the current global downtown. In
the period June – August 2009 properties in Uruguay as a whole were 2.11% more
expensive than in the same period a year earlier.
But these figures are for Uruguay as a whole and conceal local variations. According
to Pascual Larroque, a real estate agent specialising in finding homes for foreigners relocating to Uruguay, high-end property values in the city’s upmarket beach
suburbs and in Montevideo’s Old Town – which is in the process of regeneration
– outperformed many other districts. The increase was around 8% in 2008 before
levelling off in 2009.
“In retrospect, the reasons for the sustained price hike are easy to understand,”
says Mr Larroque. “Uruguayans began to have confidence in their economy. More
possibilities for getting home loans came on line. In addition, some of the young
people who had left after the meltdown of 2002, mainly to Spain and the United
States, came home with their savings and their skills. These were all local factors
that produced an upward pressure on real estate prices. On top of this you have the
arrival of unprecedented numbers of overseas home buyers,” says Mr Larroque.
Rental law in Uruguay is generally seen as being pro-landlord. Rental agreements
are concluded for fixed periods and owners routinely include a clause that allows
for a 5% annual rent increase. Unsurprisingly, a number of overseas investors
are interesting in buying to let, despite a new tax code that came into force in July
2007 that ushered in a 12% levy on rental income (rental values in Montevideo’s
large uncontrolled sector increased by a similar amount in the months following the
introduction of the new tax).
An unfurnished one-bedroom unit in Pocitos away from the water will rent for
between US$400 and US$600 a month depending on its condition, and on the basis
of a 12-month contract. Furnished units to rent for shorter periods are sometimes difficult to find in the capital’s beach suburbs at all times of year. In Punta del Este out
of season, meanwhile, the opposite is true: you will have a vast choice.
But in Punta del Este you can expect to pay around US$8000 to rent a well-maintained house with a pool, and within walking distance of the beach, for the month of
January – the most costly period.
Owning property is not required to obtain residency. The essential requirements are
a clean police record and proof of steady income of (at the time of writing) at least
US$500 per month. On applying for residency, you can import your household goods
free of import duties – this can be done the day after the application for residency
is filed.
According to Juan Federico Fischer, a local real estate attorney who advises
companies and individuals investing in Uruguay, buying real estate in the country
presents few risks.
“First of all, property is almost always
bought and sold in US dollars, so transactions are perfectly transparent. The
country has no history of expropriations
and corruption is virtually inexistent.
It also allows the free flow of foreign currency. As a result some 80% of deposits
in Uruguayan banks are in US dollars or
euros,” says Dr Fischer.
“In addition, Uruguay does not tax global
income, only income which is generated
in Uruguay, nor is there any inheritance
tax. Plus the country has one of the world’s strictest banking secrecy laws.”
Under three hours drive east from Montevideo over excellent roads – and a short
quad bike ride from a pristine ocean beach – lie 100 hectares of grassland and trees
that American developer Carl Wescott calls Laguna Tranquila.
The Laguna in question is the Laguna de Rocha, an expanse of fresh water that
glimmers nearby in the summer heat, and provides a living for a handful of local fisherman. Tranquila, because the peace and quiet of Mr Wescott’s property is palpable
from the moment you step out of the car.
But it’s a peace and quiet that will soon be disturbed by the sound of earth movers. Mr Wescott says that his pre-sale of 25 building plots was over-subscribed:
“Although we are about to start building within a few months, the plan is to disturb
the natural environment as little as possible. For instance, we have devised a development plan that will mean we can keep every existing tree on the property. Equally,
we expect buyers to opt for house designs that are in keeping with this special place,
with lots of stone and natural wood.”
Mr Wescott is offering plots of 2500, 5000 or 10,000 square metres. The smallest
plots are big enough for pleasant garden and a sense of privacy; the largest can
comfortably accommodate stables. Many will have views over the Laguna de Rocha,
a protected habitat. At US$25 per square metre, the entry-level price for a 2500m2
plot is US$60,000.
“We think that a critical mass of residents – large enough to call a community – is
about two years away,” says Mr Wescott. When complete, the development may
contain as may as 144 homes since each home site can accommodate up to two
houses.
The design of the development includes a hotel with a swimming pool, spa and
restaurant – which will ultimately give residents a place to meet and socialise, as well
as to grab something to eat and drink, or get some exercise.
Ten minutes drive away, the seaside resort of La Paloma – with a working lighthouse
and massive whale skeleton gracing the middle of its main drag – is busy with
holidaymakers. But it doesn’t feel packed: there is plenty of room to park and no
need to wait in line for a table at the town’s restaurants. At the Siete Candelas the
waitress is happy to be back from a stint working in London. Certainly, neither the air
nor the cod could be fresher.
A few miles further along the coast and dramatically sited on a promontory between
two magnificent beaches, La Pedrera is newer, trendier and popular with surfers.
Like La Paloma, although it is mainly a seasonal resort, essential services are
maintained year-round.
What people are attracted to Laguna Tranquila? “Many North Americans and
Europeans are curious about living overseas,” says Mr Wescott. “But we will also be
marketing to Brazilians, Argentines and local buyers. There is a lot of information out
there for people who feel like coming to Uruguay for part of the year or permanently.
People write blogs and recount their own experience of living in this country. It’s a
word of mouth thing.”
Factfile:
Laguna Tranquila: www.lagunatranquila.com; info@lagunatranquila.com
Juan Federico Fischer: Fischer & Schickendantz; www.fs.com.uy; jfischer@fs.com.uy
Pascual Larroque: Larroque Property Finder; plarroque@adinet.com.uy
UruguayNow (First Edition: February 2010) 17
Uruguay Now.com
First guide to Uruguay in English.
www.uruguaynow.com