Montevideo Day 2

Our day started with a 40 minute walk through town past Plaza Independencia to Teatro Solis. We had a guided tour at the theatre and enjoyed it. Our guide first took us outside to explain that the theatre is located right at the edge of old Montevideo and that the old door to the city was just around the corner. As Montevideo was expanding, the men who made the theatre wanted a place to enjoy music, shows, and opera. They felt that a theatre would elevate the growing Montevideo. The original building is in the middle with columns and a sun in a Greco style. The two circular parts of the building were added on later. The theatre has 3 chandeliers: one in the entryway, one in the former hall for intermissions, and the biggest in the main theatre. The main theatre has had a major facelift in the last few years with flame retardant velvet seats, new paint, and the first few rows of seats can disappear into the ground to allow for an orchestra pit or to extend the stage. It has a beautiful ceiling with different playwrights and composers represented and greek gods. It's also in a horseshoe shape inspired by a theatre in Milan (the first architect was Italian).

When the theatre changed from private ownership to public, the Montevideo government wanted to make the theatre accessible to everyone. The tickets for public shows are therefore cheap, and they have exhibitions in the different areas of the theatre that people can visit for free. There are still private companies that come and use the theatre, and the prices for these are much more expensive than the public shows that the theatre's own employed musicians, opera singers, and actors perform. Unfortunately, they are on a break for January so we couldn't see a performance, but it was still a great experience to go around the theatre and learn about it.

We left Teatro Solis and went to see the old door to the city that our guide mentioned. It's a brick doorway where the walls have been taken down at each side. It was interesting to just see the doorway in the middle of a road. The rest of Plaza Independencia was pretty standard for large plazas. There was a big statue in the middle and at the opposite end from the doorway was the Salva Palace on the corner. This building is an icon of pictures of the plaza. There were also some government buildings around the edge of the plaza. One of them was where the president works and there were a couple small protests.

We walked through the old city door and headed into the heart of the old city. We stopped off at Catedral de Montevideo. It was a nice cathedral inside, but it didn't look like a cathedral from the outside. It has some beautiful wood and marble as well as colourful naves and altars. I really loved the one to the left of the main altar that represented the rosary.

We then went across the square that the cathedral was on to an old palace that had an exhibition on. There were some reconstructed rooms, some paintings, and the exhibition was from a local artisan competition. There were some nice pieces in the exhibition. It was also free to visit which was surprising and refreshing after being in super touristy areas where everything costs an arm and a leg.

By the time we had visited those sites, it was time for our guided visit at Salvo Palace. Salvo Palace is the twin of Barolo Palace in Buenos Aires. The same architect designed and built both, but they had different purposes and the interiors were inspired by different things. Salvo is a residential building now and was originally commissioned to be a hotel. The architect planned to use Charles Darwin and evolution to decorate the interior, but the Italian-Catholic owners got wind of it and the architect wasn't allowed to continue his design after the second floor. (He wasn't happy and never designed or built another building in Montevideo because of it.)

Our tour brought us to the top of the building, a few floors higher than the Barolo, but because the top used to be used by a phone company, there was some old construction there that prevented us from getting a 360° view like the Barolo. We went back down to the lower floors to a grand staircase with a beautiful stained glass window. The stairs led to the former dining area for the hotel and some offices with a nice wooden floor where events like balls used to be held. Further down a floor was the Tango Museum. Our guide told us that the room in the building, prior to it being turned into a hotel, was an old cafe that mentioned used to practice tango. In a story I'm still not 100% clear on, apparently tango started as men dueling together and stabbing one another. The death toll was getting too high, so the rules were changed to an opposite hands on hips of the opponent and they could only slash each other. Prostitutes apparently got involved because they thought the scars were manly and began to join in on the slashing. Men would practice this action in the tango café to better prepare. The French got wind of the 'dance' and in an effort to make it more beautiful and cultural, modern tango was born. One of the most famous tango songs was first played in the room where that museum is, La Camparsita.

After the Salvo, we noticed what was some chairs being set up and a stage being put together, was getting busier with volunteers. Upon further investigation, we discovered that Uruguay's carnaval starts today! It is the longest carnival celebration in the world and we got lucky enough to be here the day it started.

We had a quick half our walk to the mirador panoramico. We took the elevator up and had a 360° view of the city. It was pretty cool and the weather was great. The windows tried to point out some landmarks in the distance for people to spot. We stayed here for at least 20 minutes before heading back down to get back to the center to see carnaval.

When we got back into town, we bought a couple of quick panchos 🌭 and tried to get a seat. There were a ton of barriers up now though blocking streets and the seats! We confusedly and hurriedly tried to find somewhere to access the seats. We managed to get back up to the main street and ask someone how to sit down and apparently you need tickets! We quickly went into an Abitab shop, luckily nearby, and got two seats in the fourth row. Thinking the hard part was now over, we brought our tickets back to the woman, who told us it was the wrong street! But the barriers prevented us from getting to the other side! We crossed over the main street, which was still open because the parade hasn't started, and went to get a quick beer. We then tried to cross back over to try and get to our seats, but the barriers were closed! We ended up just sitting in the fourth row on the other side in different random seats that didn't match our numbers. Didn't seem like anyone wanted to sit in the fourth row so it was safe.

The parade went on for hours! It started off with an inclusive samba school and it was great to see so many different people getting involved and being cheered on. There were loads of colorful flags, sparkly outfits, drums, and loud music. It was a lot for the senses to take in, but a great introduction to Carnaval before Rio in March.

Feeling a bit hungry, we left the parade just before 10pm and headed towards Bar Tinkal. It was still insanely busy for 10:30 at night, and even had young kids in there sitting down to eat! We ordered a chivito to share. It's like a roast beef sandwich Uruguayan style with different toppings like bacon. While we had our sandwich, we were watching the parade that the local news channel was covering on TV in the restaurant. When we finished our food the parade was still going strong.

We finished the walk back to our hostel, and absolutely exhausted after the long day, got ready for bed.Read more