Hi guys. Happy Pi Day! (3.1415…. for all you math nerds out there!). Today I took a guided tour with about 10 people to parts of Montevideo that I didn’t see yesterday. I’m glad I did this as a van tour vs walking since it ended up raining thru parts of it.
The first stop was to the Legislative Palace. It was inaugurated on August 25, 1925, and is where the Uruguayan Parliament works, with the Senate chamber (33 Senators) and the House of Representatives chamber (99 Representatives). I wanted to tour the building on Monday when it’s opened but they stopped all tours due to the Coronavirus. That darn social distancing! And what’s weird is there were no cases of Coronavirus in all of Uruguay until yesterday… Friday the 13th! Spooky!!
We then went to the Mercado Agricola de Montevideo (MAM). It’s sort of an indoor farmer’s market but also had food places and other things. For some reason there was a huge line to get into one of the stores selling fruits and vegetables. The only thing I could think of was they were all doing a Coronavirus run… but they didn’t sell toilet paper! OK, quick side bar… any of your stocking up on tons of toilet paper please stop!! Lol. They also had this cute VW Van set up as a yogurt place. Too cool.
Next stop was the Centenario Stadium (Estadio Centenario). It was built in 1930 to hold the first World Cup of Futbol (soccer) won by Uruguay. It was inaugurated on July 18, 1930, with the game between Uruguay and Peru. The stadium holds 100,000 screaming fans! The Rolling Stones played there a few years ago. We didn’t get to go inside so I just grabbed a pic on the outside.
After that we went on to the place all tourists like to grab their Instagram photos at and that’s the city name in letters. It’s funny because the second after they snapped this pic of me in front of the sign, the skies opened up and we had a downpour. We only had one last stop and we drove by the Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco and Spa. It was a beautiful building looking out over the water but since it was raining so hard, we didn’t get out to take pictures.
After the tour dropped me off at my hotel, I walked over to the Carnival Museum. Montevideo Carnival is the lengthiest in the world. Unlike other South American cities, Montevideo has developed a stage Carnival. It takes place mainly in outdoor stages called “Tablodos”, located in different neighborhoods of the city where people attend and enjoy the diverse shows every night. It lasts over 40 nights between Jan and Mar. I also included a pic of the colorful outfits they wear.
After a full day of being on a tour and walking, I was hungry. So I found another great restaurant near me. It’s called Es Mercat and the food was delicious.
To start off, they gave me this great bread with what I first thought was whipped butter but the waitress said it was whipped goat cheese with olive oil called Talar. Another name for it is Pafos cheese named after the town on the western side of Cyprus. It was so creamy and delicious. But the best was the main course called Merluzza Negra, otherwise known as Chilean Sea Bass. This literally was the best piece of fish I’ve ever eaten. It was a nice thick cut of fish that was grilled to perfection and the grilled potatoes served with it drizzled in olive oil complimented it perfectly. It all just melted in my mouth. I may have to go back there again!
Well that’s all for today. Hope everyone’s weekend is going great!
The Wandering Italian 