MONTEVIDEO: friendly and hospitable capital city

Current location: click here

Buenos Aires was nice to see and a bit hard to visit (my subjective feeling) but how would it be in Montevideo?

Well, Uruguay's capital city is small and humble enough and at the 
same time active, offers a good infrastructure, has a nice coast line, and an old downtown with museums and restaurants to visit, eventhough it is said to be a bit dangerous at night. I found Montevideo a visitor friendly, very hospitable capital city.

Montevideo has around 1.5 million inhabitants and is one the smallest capital cities in South America. In fact it is in position 32 of the list of the largests cities in the continent. It is located in the southern coast of the country, on the northeastern bank of the Rio de la Plata.

The city was founded in 1724 by the Spanish conquistadores in a move to stop Portuguese settlers interested in occupy the region. As in the case of  Colonia, Uruguay change hands a few times in history and was even under brief British rule in 1807. Its historic downtown shows houses and parks commemorating these historical events,

Taking the downtown Walking Tour is highly recommended. It was very interesting and a good group got together.

Having lunch at the Mercado del Puerto is also an event. Most restaurants are now located inside the old markt building and offer the best of Uruguay's Cousine.

Have you being in Montevideo?  then the following photos won't surprise you. They show a random sample of people in the streets at 8.30am in an interval of 5min. Uruguayans are said to have develop a special muscle in their arms to hold the hot water bottle and Mate pot the whole day.

Drinking of Yerba Mate is an extremely popular custom in Uruguay and neighbour countries including Argentina, southern Brasil and Paraguay. Mate is traditionally drunk in a particular social setting, gatherings or with friends, but may also be drunk in the bus or train with co-travellers just met. The same gourd and straw are used by everyone drinking. It is a nice and unique sharing / socializing ceremony. Many unwritten rules apply as how to prepare it, how to drink it, how to ask somebody to join or how to react when asked and so on.