Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. J.F.Kennedy
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Montevideo, Colonia del Sacramento
Montevideo, Nueva Helvecia, Rosario, Colonia del Sacramento
Once again my experience was confirmed, which is that the most problems are usually caused by man himself due to his own stupidity. The fuzz on my head started to be overgrown. It was too soon for a barber, so I decided to shave my head myself. I had a thorough shower, soaped my head and started shaving. I used a bad quality razor, cutting myself in several places and bleeding from them. While in the steam, I did not feel it, but it became obvious when looking in the mirror. "I am going to look like an idiot," I thought.
Montevideo: Sign in the Pocitos neighborhood
Montevideo: El Viajero hostel
The contrary turned out to be true. I became a hero. People in the hostel knew I was traveling by bike, so after seeing my head, they compassionately commented that my way of travel was neither easy nor safe. I proudly replied, that I always wore a helmet. “Can you imagine how I would have ended up looking without a helmet?” I asked them.
Montevideo: Although it is quite cold, signs of spring are already evident
To calm down from my cosmetic improvements, I turned on the TV for a change. Another shock – the pleasant sound of the Czech language emerged from the TV. It was set on some movie channel, where they were showing the film "Protektor", in the original language, with subtitles in Spanish.
Montevideo: Graffiti - local native, biting footballer Suaréz
Montevideo
It is the capital city of a country with a population of almost half of the whole population of Uruguay – from 1.3 to 1.8 million, depending on if the greater city outskirts are counted. The city is quite new, founded in 1724 by the Spanish living in Buenos Aires. It experienced its biggest boom at the beginning of the 20th century, which explains the series of secessionist buildings.
Montevideo: Companía del Gas - gas company headquarters built in English style
Montevideo: View of Ciudad Vieja (Old Town)
Ciudad Vieja
As any intelligent person could predict, the oldest part is Ciudad Vieja, in other words "The Old Town", located on a peninsula ending at the harbor. The peninsula is only several blocks wide, so sometimes one gets the view of the river in three directions – in front, on the left and right. The aforementioned river is the Río de la Plata. It is so wide that it in fact becomes a sea.
Montevideo: Old Town, General Staff of Army building in the port in the background
Montevideo: Street in Old Town
Montevideo: Old Town street
Montevideo: Children on skates
Montevideo: Vegetable store in Old Town
Montevideo: The Old Town is cycle-friendly
Montevideo: Original street signs are preserved in some places
The highlight for tourists is Mercado del Puerto, the harbor market, located in a metal structure made in Liverpool. It is not a market in the traditional sense – there are some stalls selling souvenirs and otherwise many restaurants grilling haunches of meat. Those are served with medio y medio – half white wine and half cider. Surprisingly, it goes well with the red meat, I personally tested it.
Montevideo: Mercado del Puerto - restaurant in the market
Montevideo: Old Town, square in front of Mercado del Puerto
The most significant street is Sarandí, leading from the harbor all the way to Plaza Independencía (Independence Square). Several attractive squares are in the vicinity, of which the most attractive is Plaza Matríz, officially called Plaza Constitución. They use two names, one official after a historical person, portrayed in a statue in the middle of the square.
Montevideo: Sarandi Street - main pedestrian zone of the Old Town
Montevideo: Old Town
Montevideo: Old Town
Montevideo: Plaza Matríz
Montevideo: Plaza Matríz - fountain and Cathedral in background
Montevideo: Plaza Matríz
Montevideo: Fountain in Sarandi
Montevideo: Sets for popular Mate
Apart from the historical site, one finds a banking area with modern, well maintained buildings. However, two streets away, one enters a dilapidated quarter similar to slums, mostly inhabited by people of darker skin, some descendants of African slaves who were once brought here.
Montevideo: The financial district of the Old Town is fairly modern
Montevideo: Modern storefront in Old Town
Montevideo: Espacio Libre Diversidad Sexual - something like 'Freedom Square of Sexual Differences'
Montevideo: Old Town street painting
Centro
The Old Town connects to Centro, starting at Plaza Independencia. This wide square is divided from The Old Town by the remains of a gate of the Spanish Puerta de la Ciudadela Fortress. The mounted statue of the greatest Uruguayan hero, General Artigas, is located on the square. Under the statue is an underground mausoleum, with a shrine containing the remains of this great person. Everything is in rather dim lighting, guarded by loyal guards, whom I first considered to be life-sized statues. They stand there like salt pillars, not even moving the tiniest finger. Scary.
Montevideo: Panorama of Plaza Independencia
Montevideo: Panorama of Plaza Indenpendencia
Montevideo: Plaza Independencia - statue of Artigas above his mausoleum
Montevideo: In the underground General Artigas mausoleum
The most visible building on the square, a pleasure to look at, is the secessionist Palacio Salvo. Palacio Estévez is also neat and tidy. The most atrocious building is Edifico Ciudadela, a concrete building of about 30 floors, with air-conditioners hanging on the outside and devastating the whole area. Note, it was built quite recently, in about 1980. Another new building, luckily of a tolerable shape, is Torre Ejecutiva Presidential, completed in 2009. It is the seat of the present government as well as the President.
Montevideo: Plaza Independencia
Montevideo: Plaza Independencia - the square is enclosed by ugly boxes, on the left Edificio Ciudadela
Montevideo: Solis Theater
Montevideo: Solis Theater
The downtown extends along the main street - Avenida 18 de Julio. The avenue is several kilometers long, lined with all types of stores and stretching up to the Monument on the General Artigas Boulevard (the guy is really everywhere).
Montevideo: Fuente de los Candados (Fountain of the Locks)
Montevideo: Turret of building in Avenue 18 de Julio
Montevideo: Street chess players
Montevideo: You can also can buy a goldfish on the Sunday market
Montevideo: Horse-drawn carriages are also seen in the center
Montevideo: Centro - Avenue de 18 Julio
Montevideo: Centro – tree-lined streets
La Rambla
The beaches in Montevideo are located on the Plata River and stretch along the 30 km long riverbank known as La Rambla. These are all well-kept sandy beaches (they have an ISO 14001 certificate). Even though it was out of season and nobody was bathing, except a few surfers in Neoprene, tractors were strewing sand and collecting dirt, driving back and forth on the beaches. It was forbidden to go on to beaches with dogs, but nobody seemed to respect that. It could have been due to the fact that it was out of season. The reportedly best beach on the outskirts of Pocitos seemed rather quiet. The people living in the concrete buildings had only to cross the street from them – a great place to live in the summer. I crossed the 20-km long La Rambla on my bike to reach the east end of the city.
Montevideo: Río de la Plata waterfront
Montevideo: Punta Brava lighthouse
Montevideo: Playa Pocitos, the best beach in Montevideo
Montevideo: Coast in Pocitos district
Montevideo: Museum of Zoology
Battle of The River Plate
This was a famous event from the beginning of the Second World War, when a modern armored ship, the German Admiral Graf Spee, was sunk here. She had inflicted heavy damage on Allied ships in the Atlantic, but was also damaged by the Allies and forced to put into port at Montevideo for repairs. Due to misinformation, Captain Langsdorff thought that a great number of Allied ships were waiting for him, so after the repair, he ordered the vessel to be scuttled. Three days later, he committed suicide. The ship's anchor is displayed in the harbor with the cannon direction finder and some other artifacts, but I was not allowed to enter. One can only enter with a ferry ticket, which I of course did not have. There was a note in my guidebook that one could obtain access to see the anchor by displaying an ID card. The strict female officer probably had not read the guidebook and uncompromisingly kicked me out. Nevertheless, she understood really well what I was trying to explain.
Montevideo: Maritime Museum - stamp commemorating famous Battle of the River Plate
Instead I went to the Marine Museum (Museo Naval), but it was rather poor. The whole Museum maintained by the army only amounted to two rooms. In one of them was a corner devoted to the aforementioned battle and the biggest artifact was a piece of armor from the Graf Spee. They did not forget to mention that the exhibition had been created with the aid of Germany.
Montevideo: Maritime Museum - German naval uniforms from Graf Spee
Montevideo: Maritime Museum - armor from Graf Spee
Museo Torres García
In fact, I had no luck with the museums. In Rocha, by pure coincidence I spotted a mural by the distinguished Uruguayan painter, Torres García. I was excited by his style and when I found out that he had work in a Montevideo museum, I could not resist going there. The exhibition dedicated to García was placed in two rooms. The other two rooms contained an exhibition by a photographer of rather questionable quality. The period which interested me most in García's work, and which also made him most famous, was represented by only three paintings. Otherwise there were series of earlier works, drawings and sketches from New York and Paris. Although nice, it was not what I had come there for. However, the museum had in display window reproductions of paintings which I enjoyed.
Even so, I did not regret the 100 pesos entry fee. A school class was also visiting, probably 4th graders. The curator was presenting a lecture on one of García's paintings. The children listened, they seemed to be interested.
Montevideo: Torres García Museum - lecturer shows ratios of the golden section to children
Thus I explored Montevideo – two days on foot, one day by bike – and saw all that interested me. Meanwhile, I planned the next move connected to my transfer to Buenos Aires, where I had booked accommodation in a hostel. I do not like planning, but there I had no choice. I had my sweaty clothes washed in a laundromat next to the hostel, sent my VAT declaration to the Czech financial office, cleaned the chain with WD and oiled everything. I even repaired the pump, which had a loose piston after all the vibrations, pumped the tires with it and checked that the pannier racks bolts were tight.
Montevideo: Palace of Justice
Montevideo: Facade of Palace of Justice
Montevideo: Mirador panorama - view towards Prado
Montevideo: Mirador panorama - view of Old Town
Montevideo: Book Fair - finally gender-balanced – variant 1
Montevideo: Book Fair - finally gender-balanced – variant 2
Montevideo: Evening begins with bars opening
No More Slacking, Back in the Saddle
The hostel breakfast was from 08:00, which I ate already fully loaded. I stuffed myself reasonably well and before 09:00 hit the streets. I was in hurry, as I could not predict the wind situation. The hostel receptionist, an angry city cyclist, warned me that one always got a headwind on the road to Colonia. Colonia was 180 km away, I manage such a distance in two days without any problems. However, 90 km per day against a small storm is demanding and one has to survive it. The average speed under such conditions is usually about 12 kph and 90 km thus present about 8 hours of cycling.
Montevideo: Wreck
Exiting the city was easy, nobody endangered me, unlike on my arrival. The wind was strong, but it was diminished by the city buildings, so I was still unsure how it would all turn out. I do not worry much about such things. What I cannot influence, I simply ignore. When I entered Road 1 in the open countryside outside the city, it was obvious that I had won for the time being. A strong wind was blowing from behind. I cycled effortlessly, the side lane was quite wide and generally in a good condition. I did not have to keep track of the traffic. Due to the lack of hills, I had enough breath, I sang a whole repertoire.
100 km later, I suffered hunger pangs. There were three stalls at a crossroads in Ecilda Paullier. I went to the one where most cars were parked. I ordered beef on a whole plate with mashed potato and paid only two-thirds of the price I would have paid in Montevideo. After lunch, the road either turned or the wind changed direction. I simply lost the speed I had achieved earlier. It could also have been the consequence of my body needing to digest the gigantic amount of meat.
Nueva Helvecia: Gate at town entrance
I asked a policeman at a crossroads to Nueva Helvecia about a campsite. There was none in the city, only hotels. I asked about their prices, if there were any económico, but he did not know. No problem, I turned around and went to see the town built by Swiss immigrants. The German influence was significantly strong after the Second World War. Many Nazis hid in South America, mostly in Argentina. In 1958, Dr. Mengele, a doctor from Oœwiêcim, infamous for his inhuman experiments on living people, was there for several days. He lived incognito in Argentina after the war.
The hotels seemed quite expensive, merely at the sight of them, and located about 2 km from the center. I did not even go in to ask. Local residents directed me to a hospedaje near the square. It was not open, but the neighbors advised me to wait, seòora would surely arrive.
W of Nueva Helvecia: Riding through the lush countryside on a dirt road is a welcome treat
I decided to give her until 16:30. Seòora did not arrive. I sat on the bicycle and followed the GPS to Rosario 15 km away. It took me via unpaved roads, but it was a pleasant change from the whole day's traffic on busy roads of highway character. This time, the GPS made a good choice and saved me at least 5 km by not insisting that I take paved roads.
Rosario: Colorful square
Rosario: In a side street
Rosario City was very cheap – both the accommodation and food in the local Ta-Ta supermarket. For example, emapanadas, which cost 51 pesos in the Montevideo Ta-Ta, cost only 30 in Rosario.
Rosario: Flag in the window of the local 'Junta'
Rosario: Taxi
I was not in a hurry the following morning. I had 50 km left to Colonia del Sacramento, which I would reach at the latest after approx. four hours in the case of a heavy storm. I had a good head start from the day before in the favorable wind.
Minuano: Agricultural landscape
I started after 09:00 and, from the country road, bounced on to Road 1. The wind was weaker than the day before and less favorable. I got it from the 8 to 9 o'clock direction. Even then it was just fine and shortly after midday I was entering Colonia.
Near Minuano: Road 1
Riachuelo: Road 1 - no longer divided into two separate directions, but adorned with palm tree avenue
The favorable wind made me change my plans, which once again confirmed my belief that when traveling by bicycle, one should not make any plans. However, my transit to Argentina by ferry was a bit more complicated and I had had to book accommodation in Buenos Aires in advance. I had counted on the worst case scenario, that I would reach Colonia in the evening due to the headwind. That is why I had reserved one whole day for seeing this historical UNESCO-listed city. Considering the situation, it was meaningless, I could easily have visited all of it in the afternoon after my arrival. So I had one day off.
Colonia del Sacramento
The city was founded in 1680 by Manuel Lobo, Governor of Rio de Janeiro. It was to became the Portuguese rival of the Argentinian Buenos Aires, only one hour away by (modern) ferry over the La Plata River. Then the Spanish and Portuguese fought over the city for almost a whole century. During that period, the city changed leader seven times. The British also arrived, but their vessel Lord Clive was sunk and the Captain was hanged on the square. The city officially became Spanish in 1750, but only in 1778 was it confirmed by an agreement with the Portuguese.
Colonia del Sacramento: Square
Colonia del Sacramento: Restaurants on every corner
Colonia del Sacramento: City Museum
I was quite disappointed, it certainly is not Èeský Krumlov. Nevertheless, it has its beauty, thanks to the river which one perceives more as a sea than a river. The historical center is small, filled with restaurants and souvenir stores (proudly presented as artesians) and small museums with scanty exhibitions. Some street pavements are definitely original, as well as parts of the walls and several buildings. The rest was built later from original material or reconstructed.
Colonia del Sacramento: Roughly cobbled streets
Colonia del Sacramento: House sign
Colonia del Sacramento: Old cars are used mostly as billboards at pubs, many of them are mobile
The most photographed street in Uruguay is Calle de los Suspiros. This street is totally original, including the low buildings. The name of the street, which translates as "The Street of Sighs", has two possible origins. Either the convicted were dragged to their death before being executed on the adjacent beach. Alternatively, it was named after the brothels which lined the streets and where the sailors, hungry for love, gathered after their long voyages.
Colonia del Sacramento: Calle de los Suspiros - Street of Sighs - the best preserved street with original buildings
Colonia del Sacramento: Yard
The next great sight is the Basilica del Sanctísimo Sacramento, the oldest Uruguayan church, built in 1680. It was rebuilt several times, destroyed in 1823 and rebuilt between 1836 and 1842. During the period of 1957 to 1995, it was renovated, so one can only imagine what the historical origin of it was. Colonia has a huge advantage, as there is nothing like it in the wide area around it in Uruguay. If the same measure were used in the Czech Republic, then every notable town would be UNESCO-listed. That is how it works, amigos.
Colonia del Sacramento: Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento - the first Catholic church in Uruguay
Colonia del Sacramento: Palm tree in park outside Basilica
Colonia del Sacramento: Fountain outside Basilica
Colonia del Sacramento: Detail of sheet-metal monument in front of Basilica
A proper visit, including the museums and a walk up to the lighthouse, takes about five hours. This is why I went on foot to the 5-km distant Real de San Carlos, where an Argentinian emigrant, Mihanovic, started a tourist sector in 1910. He built the hotels, casino, hippodrome and bullfight arena. It all gradually deteriorated. Uruguay already forbade bullfighting in 1912. However, the crucial change forced the Argentinians to impose a restrictive tax on ferry transport. Today, apart from some exceptions, there are only ruins preserved from the original buildings. The most visible is the bullfight arena.
Colonia del Sacramento: View from the lighthouse
Colonia del Sacramento: Lighthouse at the end of the day
Colonia del Sacramento: View from the pier of the typical brown water of Río del Plata
Colonia del Sacramento: City beach
Real de San Carlos: Plaza de Toros – bullfight arena – derelict, as Uruguay banned bullfighting in 1912
Adios Uruguay
I should probably have used the less formal and common Ciao Uruguay. If nothing interfered with it, the following day, I would arrive in Argentina for the third time that year. I had bought the ferry ticket in advance. The price increases by 200 (from 750) pesos two hours before departure, so I had no reason to wait.
Colonia del Sacramento: Night-lit street
I had some cash left over. Instead of exchanging it into Argentinian pesos at the local inconvenient exchange rate, I exchanged it for a good load of calories, although also at the local inconvenient price. I found a parrillada and ordered a parrilla (grilled meat and sausage) for one person, together with copa de vino tinto. They did not serve half portions, I had to work hard to get through it, but enjoyed the meal. The meat was truly tasty in Uruguay. It was no surprise, considering the happy cattle feeding on the wide fertile grass fields.
Colonia del Sacramento: Parrilla – grill in the restaurant
Colonia del Sacramento: My carnivore dinner
