Montevideo - Exploring The Capital

After the beach in Punta del Diablo it was time for a short city break in Montevideo, Uruguay's vibrant capital. I was only here for one night, so I planned to make the most of it.

Thus, after dropping off my bags in the hostel, I took a stroll to the famous 'Rambla', which is the longest promenade by the sea in the world. It stretches for over 26km, but, of course, I did not walk anywhere close to all of that. Instead, I found myself a little spot to sit down to watch the sunset over the ocean.

The next day, it was time to learn more about the capital and history of Uruguay. So I signed up for a 2-3h free walking tour through the city centre. In all fairness, I knew next to nothing about Uruguay's history and was quite surprised how complicated and interesting it is. The short version seems to be that it was first occupied by the Portuguese/Brazilians, but then wanted to be part of Argentina, and then more independent.
And yeah, there were also the famous wins in the world cups against the big neighbours of Brazil and Argentina, which play a huge role in Uruguayan culture.

Apart from the centre, the promenade and maybe a handful of other spots, there is not a huge amount of sight-seeing to do in Montevideo. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my short time here, as the city exudes a calm and relaxed atmosphere. It is said that it is the more chill and organised city/country in contrast to chaotic Buenos Aires/Argentina.

One cool thing that happened on the free-walking tour was that I met another traveller, Jonas, who is actually from Dieburg, the town I went to school in. We hit it off very quickly and had a steak after the tour before parting ways. We would see each other again a few weeks later in Patagonia for a couple of beers. How small is the world?!

With that my time in Uruguay came to an end. It’s a cute country but with not a huge load of things to do/see. I nevertheless enjoyed my time (apart from Punta del Este), but am now looking forward to explore the wilderness of Patagonia together with my dad.Read more