Montevideo, Uruguay, January 20, 2018

Uruguay is a beautiful, agricultural country.  The fields are well looked after and everything is so green.  There is some irrigation and crops are in all stages of growth, from what looks like just planted, to mid size corn, to fields of round bales and onions ready to harvest-

35 km from Montevideo we turned off the highway and seemed to drive forever into the country side.  We are camping about 1.5 hours by public transport outside of Montevideo!  I don't mind camping, in fact sometimes I sleep better in my tent than in a noisy hostel, but I didn't come to Uruguay to camp. Jono gave us a ride to the corner bus stop and 7 of us went into the city centre.  The bus only comes once every couple of hours so luckily our timing worked.  

Once in Montevideo, I separated from the others and found a decent hotel.  I spent the afternoon planning my next 2 days.  That takes soooooo much time.  

Supper was a chivita canadiense.  It's a beef, cheese, red pepper, bacon, lettuce, tomato and egg sandwich, toasted on great bread.  Don Antonio Carbonaro, an Argentinian, invented it in 1944.  It's a plato typico uruguayo and delicious- 

Uruguay is a funny place.  Most shops were closed today, Saturday, and will be closed as well tomorrow.  After supper, I walked down to the water which was packed with locals enjoying their time off-

Most were fishing-

And everyone was drinking maté.  They all had thermoses and shared the maté cup and straw.  Pieces of maté are soaked in hot water and then it's drunk through a metal straw-

There are some cool buildings down town such as the Palacio Salvo which is 26 stories and was the continent's tallest building when it was built in 1927-

Other beautiful buildings-

I've got a big day planned tomorrow:  flea market, theatre tour, free walking tour and possibly a visit to the carnival museum if I don't play out by then!