Montevideo

Do you know the song The Battle of New Orleans? Well, I have my own lyrics to introduce my blog post all about our short adventure.

The last few days I went across the watta
Along with my Alrica on the Rio de la Plata
We took along our passports and I'll gladly tell you why
Cause we left from Argentina and arrived in Uruguay

To cross the bay we hopped upon a ferry.
It landed in Colonia with a lot of way to go.
We caught a bus which drove across the prairie.
A couple hours later we're in Montevideo.

That's José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay's national hero.

When I was young, I remember in social studies we had to learn capital cities. When I learned Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, it just sounded like a cool name. But at that age, cities across the globe were like an abstract idea to me. Sure, every country had to have a capital city. But did they really exist? Or were they just ideas on paper? At that age, I hadn't yet even been to the capital of my own country, but I knew the USA existed in a tangible form. So I guess I found the existence of Washington to be easier to visualize than Montevideo or Moscow or Muscat.

In Spanish colonial times, Montevideo was a walled city. This is one of the gates to get in. Or out. (You don't need it as much now that the walls are gone.)

Now, I can confirm, it is not just on paper. Well, Montevideo. I can't yet say with first-hand experience anything about Moscow of Muscat. Though I did just have a realization. All those capital cities I named, they start with M but also end in an English word. MosCOW, MusCAT, MonteVIDEO. It works for MadRID too. Though I know it doesn't work for all capital cities beginning with M. Like Manila, which is a kind of envelope, but doesn't end in a separate English word. Or Minsk.

Architects can be so imaginative.

But I am wandering from my point. I wanted to tell you a bit about our two day adventure to Montevideo, Uruguay. It began on Monday morning. We caught a ferry through a company called Colonia Express. It leaves out of Buenos Aires and arrives in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. The distance is maybe 30 to 40 miles, and the ferry takes around an hour. It goes at a good speed when you are on the open water, but slows a lot in the harbors of each city.

Alrica on the ferry going toward Uruguay

If you look at a map, you see this dip, like a bay between Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento. It's isn't technically the Atlantic Ocean. It isn't even exactly a bay. It's called Rio de la Plata, the River of the Silver. But it isn't what you think of as a river either. It would probably be most accurate to describe it as an estuary with a mix of fresh water and salt water and the salinity changes with the tides.

Palacio Salvo in the day

Palacio Salvo at night

The ferry ride was great. Getting there was fine too, but there was one annoying aspect. After purchasing the tickets, the ferry company sent Alrica email after email reminding her that we MUST be there two hours before departure! This is an international trip. Failure to be that early could mean you don't get to go. Well we did arrive, in fact, more than two hours before departure. And when we got to the check-in window they told us you can't check-in until 90 minutes before departure. And even after that, they didn't open the boarding gate with customs and immigration until about 45 minutes before departure. So the threats of losing your place on the ferry, it was all a lie!

Mural Across from the Rambla

On the way to Uruguay, it was a pretty full ferry. But the seats were comfy and you had plenty of leg room. In Buenos Aires, you did both your passport control of leaving Argentina and your passport control of arriving in Uruguay. So when the boat landed, you didn't have to get into a line to have your passport stamped. That was already done.

I wonder if those pinnacles can break off

But we had not booked a passage just to Colonia del Sacramento. We booked passage all the way to Montevideo. So at the port, we climbed on to a bus. We rode through a lot of countryside where I saw horses, cows, sheep, and donkeys. The landscape was quite green, not entirely flat, but not mountainous either.

I would say the bus was less than two hours in total. And then we arrived at the Tres Cruces Bus Station in Montevideo. It was a beautiful day outside. So we walked from the station toward Old Town where our hotel was. And there is something odd about the street signs. At the top of the street signs, above the name of the street, you would see some other name. The most common one I saw was Doña Coca. But Acompaña was pretty common too. I thought maybe it was the names of different neighborhoods. But no, I saw the same names all over the city. And sometimes one block would be Doña Coca, then the next Acompaña and then back to Doña the next block after that. So I looked it up. These are advertisements. The city of Montevideo lets corporations sponsor street signs. That way they get their name prominently displayed. What I found particularly strange was that advertisements had more prominence than the street names. And isn't the street name the most important piece of information on a street sign?

Apparently it is a pork company, like the Uruguayan Hormel.

This one is a cable and internet and cell phone company.

It's a healthcare company. I think it has clinics and residential care.

I bet you can guess what SmartFit is.

After checking in and dropping off our stuff, we headed out again. We decided that with only two days, we would see a lot of city using a hop-on/hop-off bus. In Montevideo, that bus system is run by the city, but the same transportation agency that runs the regular city buses. On Monday we did the central loop.

I like the pink, but then the last letter is red. Interesting choice.

One thing I loved about the streets of Montevideo is the trees. There are these tall trees that rise up from the sidewalks and make a canopy over the streets. Lots of places you walk are in shade, under box elders and avocado trees. The bus was one of the double-decker buses where on the top floor you are in the open air. There were periodic reminders that they keep the trees trimmed, but it was possible that some low branches might exist. Don't stand up while the bus is moving. Good news, we never got hit by any branches. It wasn't even close.

Yes, a lovely fountain, but also check out those trees!

There is a downside to the trees though, I mean, aside from the potential to bonk your head. That's pollen. There is plenty of it. And it can get in your eye. Or make you sneeze. Or give you a runny nose. I guess we have to accept that it is spring here.

The Presidential Offices

Much like Buenos Aires, Montevideo has a very intricate, beautiful, and European architectural style. Some of the buildings really are breathtaking. We saw the library, the Legislative Palace where Parliament meets, the Presidential Building where the President works, the Judicial Palace where the Supreme Court is, and we saw amazing buildings that were not part of the governmental structure. There is a mall in Montevideo that was built on the site of a former prison, and they kept the front buildings of the prison as the outer facade of the mall.

The Legislative Palace

A notable building that probably didn't impress us as much as it might have impressed others is Estadio Centenario, or Centennial Stadium. It is named that because it was completed in 1930, exactly one-hundred years after Uruguay became an independent nation. But what would be exciting for the right crowd is what it was built for. This is where the championship games of the very first World Cup occurred, again, in 1930. It is a stadium that is designed specifically for soccer and no other sport is played there. The legend says that one of the best players on the Uruguayan national team got a tour of the stadium when it was completed. He went back to the team and told them that their country had built a stadium so perfect that they had to honor it by winning the World Cup. And they did. Uruguay did win the 1930 World Cup.

The Judicial Palace

On Tuesday, we took the bus that did the Rambla tour. The Rambla is a road that runs along the shore. On one side of the road are beaches or parks and a lighthouse and a few other buildings. There is a long walkway that goes 13.7 miles. On the other side of the street are high rise apartments, shopping, and more parks. Also, both the United States embassy and the Germany embassy are right there beside the Rambla.

The statue is called the Greeting Man. It is a gift from South Korea which is antipodal from Montevideo.

The tour took us out as far as Currasco, a very high-end neighborhood at the east end of the city. It was designed to be a high-end neighborhood before Montevideo stretched out this far. Its founder was inspired by his visit to Oslo and wanted to create a village with luxury and beauty in mind. His palace is today the Currasco Hotel and Casino.

That's the Currasco Hotel and Casino

On the central tour we heard about the legend of the Uruguayan national team. But the Rambla tour has its own legend. Along the Rambla we passed Palacio Pittamiglio. This huge mansion house is, we were told, full of secret passages and hidden rooms. It was built by a man named Pittamiglio who was many things, but primarily an alchemist. The house is designed in all kinds of alchemical symbols. But that's not the legend. It's just the setting.

I could find no label or title for this sculpture. But you're with me, that's gotta be Prometheus, right?

According to the legend, Pittamiglio was a friend to Bishop Eugenio Pacelli when the good bishop served in Uruguay. You probably don't recognize that name, but later he was called Pope Pius XII. In 1944, Pope Pius XII visited Montevideo. Here's the legend part. Supposedly, Pope Pius XII brought the Holy Grail with him. He was afraid that the Nazis, who were always looking for objects of the occult as we know from Indiana Jones movies, would attack the Vatican and steal it. So he brought it to Uruguay and asked Pittamiglio to hide it away in his crazy palace.

If you unzip this building, what do you think you find under?

In 1988, Pope John Paul II came to Uruguay. One of his aides was taken to the second Palacio Pittamiglio and the condition was that he was supposed to be left alone for a few hours. Many believe what that aide was doing was retrieving the hidden Holy Grail so it could be brought back to Rome. So, if you believe the tales, for 44 years, the Holy Grail was in Uruguay. You might argue this isn't a lot of evidence. But think about it. This aide to the Pope was left alone for hours in the palace. Is there any other more plausable explanation?

In case you were worried, no, I didn't forget a hydrant pic. Look at how slender it is!

Montevideo is a bit more expensive than Buenos Aires. (Probably not an issue if you are the Pope.) And already we are finding Buenos Aires a bit pricey. For just two days, it was fine. But it would be harder to live in budget there. Maybe if one were further out from the city center it would be easier. I don't know. But for a quick trip, it was a great time!

The way back was similar to the way there, but in reverse. We did the bus first and then the ferry. Again, we did all of our passport stamping before we got on the ferry, both leaving Uruguay and entering Argentina. In fact, the Argentinian agent asked where we were staying in Argentina. I gave him the address and he said "Ah, Cabazheeto." It took me a minute to understand. The part of Buenos Aires that we are in is Caballito. But I assumed the double l would be more like a y. Cabayeeto. The thing is every country in South America seems to have variations on the pronunciations of certain letters. The double l, the g, and the j are particularly fluid. So I did eventually figure out what he was saying, but I am so not an Argentinian. I'm also not a Uruguayan. But for a couple days I got to imagine I was.

Two In Two

Two days, two adventures. And I am going to make two posts in the same day. Such twoness!

Everyone say hi to Mafalda

On Saturday, Alrica and I headed into San Telmo. This is one of the older districts in Buenos Aires. It has a market and museums and narrow cobbled streets. We were planning to get some lunch at the San Telmo Market, but it was crowded to the point of not being so comfortable. So we headed out.

Historic bells outside the History Museum

We walked south and visited the National History Museum. This is an interesting museum that covers various time periods of Argentinian history. It starts at the time of the revolution, when Argentina fought for independence from Spain. It goes through some of the wars that came after this too. And it is pretty honest about various governments of Argentina that conquered and crushed the indigenous people, or even that oppressed the Argentinian citizens. But it also highlights some of their accomplishments.

Some of the signs were in both Spanish and English. But many of them were only in Spanish. Interestingly, I didn't do as well with the Spanish only signs at this museum compared to at the Natural Sciences Museum a few days ago. But in some ways, that makes sense. The words used in science are often from Latin and so they are very similar in Spanish and English. The words used to describe history aren't quite as similar and matching.

Proof that we were in Caminito

We continued south and entered a neighborhood called Boca. Historically, Boca was also a very early neighborhood. And it was very poor when Buenos Aires was young. Many people built their homes from corrugated metals that they found at the port. (It won't surprise you to learn Boca is near the port.) To combat the stigma of their metal homes, many people started painting them in bright colors. And not just one color, a patchwork of colors. This became a thing. Now when you visit Boca, there are many murals. But if you head to the Caminito, which is a short pedestrian street, you can see the full effect of the patchwork colors. In addition, that neighborhood is dedicated to art. There are artists selling their goods, there are statues and sculptures and reliefs, there are paintings on the walls.

So colorful

I've decided this one is a politician giving a speech

The indigenous people working a loom

One thing I noticed in both Boca and San Telmo, was the prevalence of one image. There is this image of a little girl with black hair that looks like she is from a comic strip. I've actually seen her all over Buenos Aires. But she was big time on display at the markets of San Telmo and in the Caminito region.

Just in case we forgot she was from Argentina

Her name is Mafalda and she did come from a comic strip that ran in the 1960s and 1970s. She is an icon of Argentina. In the comic, she is a six-year old girl with a paralyzing fear of school. She is incredibly passionate about social justice, often clashing with her parents who are just working and living and trying to get by.

Mafalda came to represent the middle class in Argentina, how they were torn between enlightened ideas and the realities of living in society. The comic strip was highly satirical and often commented on the new of the day.

Don't jump Mafalda! Or gray footballer.

The comic hasn't run in fifty years and still Mafalda is everywhere. She's like the Charlie Brown of Argentina. In one image I saw, she is looking straight up, much like a Charlie Brown pose, and screaming "Basta!" That means "Enough!"

The only Argentinian who can rival Mafalda

Mafalda isn't the only popular figure we see all over the place. Lionel Messi, the soccer powerhouse who just retired days ago, he's pretty much everywhere too. And even if you don't see Messi images himself, you see plenty of the Argentina team jersey with the number 10. (That was his number.)

Today, Sunday, we headed to another part of town: Mataderos. Here, each week, there is a fair called Feria de Mataderos. It has lots of craftsman, but also stalls selling traditional Argentinian food. We tried locro, a stew with beef and sausage and beans and I don't know what all was in it. But it was very hearty and quite delicious.

Locro

But the most unique thing about the Feria de Mataderos is the gaucho performances. There is a stage and on the stage, gauchos perform. A gaucho is a cowboy, an Argentinian cowboy. We got to see lots of gaucho dances.

Nearly to the top

Before the dances began, there was a flag raising ceremony. They played the national anthem over the speakers. There was a man slowly (and I mean slowly) raising the flag. You have never seen a man pull a rope with such viscosity. I understood why. He was trying to get the flag raising to last as long as the national anthem (which isn't short.) But I found it amusing what tiny tugs he gave to the rope.

It was like a tap dance in cowboy boots

The dances were vigorous and fun. There were children who are learning the dances who performed along with adult cowboys and adult women in flowing skirts.

Skirts must be flapped

We also bought churros. One had dulce de leche inside (which is a very popular filling here) and the other was chocolate frosted. Nobody doesn't like churros, right?

I am trying to get all up to date on the blog because tomorrow begins another adventure for us. And I don't know when I will be able to blog about it, so I didn't want to get behind.

You will get the deets of the new adventure soon enough. Fear not! (Yes, I recognize you probably weren't afraid.)

Another Mother's Day

You know how hobbits have breakfast and then they have second breakfast. But the other races don't know about second breakfast. Well, like a hobbit, I have second Mother's Day, but probably my own mother doesn't know about it. You see, in the United States (and in many places in the world), Mother's Day is on the second Sunday in May. But in Argentina, where I am now, it is on the third Sunday in October. It's today!

Google Doodle today in Argentina

I wanted to take this opportunity to blog about my mother. Did you know she is the only guest author we ever had on this blog? When Alrica and I were traveling with the children, all four of us would write posts for the blog. It was only the four of us though. That is until almost exactly ten years ago. It was October 15, 2016 when a post by our guest author appeared. You can read it here.

My parents flew across the world to visit us in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We ate in a restaurant with our feet in the sand. We visited a wet market. We ate a lot of amazing fruit. We took a boat tour on the Mekong River. And my parents got to see how we lived as we were traveling.

Google Doodle today in the United States

You see, my parents are adventurers, especially my mother. She isn't an adventurer in exactly the same way that I am, but certainly apples and trees they fell from and the distance between them, it all works out. My mother has lived!

I remember reflecting once about a trip we took when I was 7 years old. We went to California. I was talking about it and said, "That was the first time I ever saw an ocean." And my mom replied, "That was the first time I ever saw an ocean too." Sounds like she never traveled? Well, she had traveled within the US. And since then, she has been all over.

I don't know how many countries my parents have been to, but it must be over thirty. My mother has a wonderful attitude about things, she sees the best in the world and in every situation. Do some things scare her? I'm sure they do, but she doesn't live her life based on what scares her. She lives her life based on what makes her happy.

So thank you, Mom, for giving that zest and zeal to me. Happy Bonus Mother's Day!

Mystery Presented, Mystery Solved

This post is going to have a "today I learned" theme running through it. But first a mostly irrelevant story.

I have a friend named Abdul, though I generally call him Ab. I met him my first day of tenth grade. I was new to the school. I was new to the state. I had just moved to Florida that summer from a small city in Iowa. Ab was also new to the school. He had moved over the summer from a small city in New York. One of our early conversations, though I don't think it was on that first day, had to do with being Jewish and the necessary conditions for being Jewish. This was not a heady philosophical discussion. No, the characteristic that Ab had in mind was having eaten a knish.

Not only had I never eaten a knish, I didn't even know what a knish was. Ab was incredulous, telling me I couldn't possibly be Jewish if I had never eaten a knish! I think there was a catastrophic flaw in his reasoning. I think having eaten a knish or even knowing what a knish was indicated coming from a place where they had knishes much more than being a member of any particular religious or ethnic group. More geographic then demographic.

I assure you, no one sold knishes in small town Iowa when I was a kid. I doubt anyone sells knishes in small town Iowa today. There just wouldn't be enough demand. I'm not sure you can buy knishes in Des Moines, and that's the biggest city in the state. Maybe you can in Des Moines today, though I suspect knishes would have been conspicuous by their absence back in the 1980s.

Today I learned that the Spanish word for "knishes" is "knishes." How did I learn it? Because I saw it on a sign at a shop selling knishes, along with empanadas and other more traditional Argentinian fare. You see today we walked to Villa Crespo which is one of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires with the highest proportion of Jewish residents.

Buenos Aires, today I learned, has the highest Jewish population of any city in Latin America. Now, aside from the place selling knishes, I didn't see a lot of evidence of Jewish life in Villa Crespo. I'm sure it is there, just not where I was.

But I did see a lot of other interesting things both in Villa Crespo and on the way there. There was a shop selling little cushions you hold in your lap while you are sitting to watch television. And these cushions have voids for you to place your cup or your snacks in.

Are those cup holders Stitch's breasts?

Yeah, that was disturbing.

We passed a bakery (which was not selling knishes) having some sort of promotion today. And how do you best sell it? With a clown on stilts. Note, I don't say clown in a derogatory sense. I mean it literally. He had a red nose! I don't know why stilts promote a bakery. Maybe because bread rises? I also don't know how clowns promote a bakery. But a clown promotes a fast food chain, so maybe there is nothing clowns can't shill for.

Makes me want to buy baked goods!

In Villa Crespo, I saw a statue and monument honoring Osvaldo Pugliese. Today I learned that Pugliese, (I won't say Osvaldo as I feel I am not yet on a first name basis with him) was an Argentinian composer who wrote tango music. He didn't invent the tango, but he is credited with developing concert-style tango music. You know how in the United States, Carnegie Hall in NYC has a reputation as being the place that means you made it. If you play Carnegie Hall, wow, you really made it in your art. Well, in Argentina, that place would be the Teatro Colon. And Pugliese made it! He got to perform a concert of his tangos at the Teatro Colon.

That's Pugliese and behind him, I guess, his band.

We passed through Parque Centenario. This is a very nice park. It has lots of playgrounds for children. There is an amphitheater. There is a lake with fountains and koi and all around it are geese.

Big geese with little goslings. Aww!

Also pigeons.

Big geese with smallish pigeons. Not so much aww.

The park has some interesting statuary. One of the statues led to a little mystery.

This one is called Aurora which means Dawn. Not sure I get dawn from this.

This one had no title, but all those people in a box, doesn't it feel like Oppression should be the title?

Why doesn't it say who you are?

Who is that man sitting in a chair which is on top of books? What is he holding in his hand? Why is there no plaque anywhere on this monument or around it to tell us who this is?

Here's the good news. Today I learned who that is. But let me get there.

This triceratops outside the front door, its tail moves!

It's amazing that they found complete fossil saber tooth tigers who died while fighting and stayed in that posture!

On the north side of the park, there is the Museum of Natural Sciences. We decided to visit and had a great time. This building was built to be the Museum of Natural Sciences. And it is there in the details. The reliefs on the outside of the building show various people groups and animals. The rainspouts look like the heads of rodents or reptiles. Check out the door. Check out the cornice.

I love the spider in the web as the door decor

Good thing bats are holding up the ceiling, wouldn't want it to fall

The exhibits were very good. Most of the explanation was in Spanish, but I got a lot out of it. And their collections of various fossils, casts, shells, taxidermy species, skeletons, specimens, and minerals was impressive. I love to learn new things at museums. Today I learned something new about mollusks. Mollusks evolved in the oceans. Some mollusks then evolved to live in fresh water. And descendants of those fresh water mollusks evolved to live on land. But there was another group of mollusks who evolved right from the sea to live on land. And then their descendants returned to the water, but fresh water this time, evolving to live there. One group goes ocean, fresh water, land. The other goes ocean, land, fresh water. I'm probably over-explaining.

That's called a Rococo Toad. It's the world's largest amphibian.

Today I learned also, in that same exhibit, that the Spanish phrase for "fresh water" is "aqua dulce" which more literally would translate as "sweet water." But from context I figured out "sweet water" doesn't make sense and "fresh water" does. Aren't you proud of my inferential skills?

That's the jaw of a right whale, though my picture is from the wrong side because it's facing left.

Then, we came into a room and guess what sculpture we found inside the museum?

Hi again!

That's the same guy we saw in the park? The same chair on top of books. Holding something in his hand. But this time it was low enough that we could see it was an animal skull.

And there was a plaque with his name. Today I learned this is Hermann Burmeister. He was a naturalist and a director of the museum (though before it was in this building.) Actually, his name was all over the room. But sometimes it was spelled Hermann and sometimes it was spelled German. In Spanish, that G at the beginning would sound like an H in English. So I don't think they were saying he was German, though Burmeister could sound like a German name.

Could have been a Jewish name too! I wonder if he knew about knishes?