Montevideo

Montevideo (population 1.3 million), situated on the Rio de la Plata, is the capital of Uruguay. I stayed in Montevideo for four days and spent my time eating chevitos (a delicous Uruguayan specialty) and exploring Ciudad Vieja.


Situated on the corner of Plaza Idependecia, the Palacio Salvo was once the tallest building in South America at 26-stories.


Underneath Plaza Independencia is the mausoleum of Juan Artigas, the General who helped Uruguay gain its independence. You can see two Buckingham Palace type guards standing alert to protect the shiny metallic urn with Artigas´s remains. The crypt looks like something straight out of George Orwell´s "1984" and that Apple commerical where the lady throws the hammer into the screen.


The aforementioned chevito. The chevito comes in both heaping mound-of-french-fry form or the more traditional sandwich form. To start we opted for the french fry mound which is meant to serve two people but can (and did) easily feed three. On top of the papas fritas sit ham, egg, bacon, steak, and cheese.



On Saturday we got went to Mercado del Puerto to eat Parillada. The Parilla (grilled meat) was delicious, but the swarms of tourists fresh off a newly ported cruise ship spoiled the atmosphere.