Home / Latin America / Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile 2025

Los Días en Uruguay

I’m writing this Monday, sitting in a Starbucks, in a shopping center in Montevideo. I needed this indulgence of comfort and familiarity as I wait out a rainstorm and prepare for my interview at a language school around the corner. More about that later…

Fortunately, I was able to take in some of the sights of Montevideo the previous day, before the thunderstorms rolled in. The long, long, long boardwalk along the coastline is a defining feature of Montevideo, and I can see why. It’s really a lovely place to walk, run, ride a bike, sit, read. The Rambla de Montevideo is said to be the longest boardwalk in the world, and yesterday I felt like I had walked the length of it! It was cloudy, but not raining, and happily the wind off the ocean kept the humidity from feeling overwhelming.

I immediately felt more comfortable and at ease in Uruguay compared to my days so far in Buenos Aires. I got off the ferry in the historic town of Colonia del Sacramento, about 2 hours from Montevideo. It is a quaint town that is touristy but not oppressively so. I heard almost exclusively Spanish around me, so I think most tourists are from Uruguay and Argentina. I enjoyed walking the historic part of the city, with cobblestones and remnants of the city walls. It was fought over by the Spanish and Portuguese back in the … whatever century. You know. Back then! 

I ate, I wandered, I drank coffee, I wandered, I shopped the artisan markets, I wandered. It was a really pleasant afternoon. Then I boarded my bus to Montevideo, got a taxi to my hotel, rounded the corner from there to the recommended restaurant, finally gave in and got a big ole chunk of beef for dinner (a must in Argentina and Uruguay; with their huge grasslands, La Pampa, beef is a big part of the culture), and made the acquaintance of a Brazilian family at the neighboring table, who are here for vacation.

Mabel, Daniel, and their two sons, from Recife, Brazil, invited me to meet for lunch the next day at the Mercado del Puerto, in the Ciudad Vieja, which I did after my exploration of the boardwalk. Such a nice day!

Then it began to sprinkle. Then the wind whipped up. Then there was some thunder. So I found a tiny market near my hotel where I could get a few provisions to create a dinner of sorts back at my hotel. It was Sunday night and I had eaten two big meals in restaurants. I was not keen to brave the coming storm to try to find an open restaurant. But to get just a few slices of cheese at the market meant waiting in line at the deli counter and asking for it in Spanish. It took me 15 minutes standing in line, but also letting others go ahead so I could observe and formulate the sentences to employ. It’s begun to feel like a constant public humiliation to project my voice and blurt out my bad Spanish in front of people. 

But what choice do I have? And, more importantly…, this is what I signed up for. I’m doing this to myself on purpose.

The next day… I’m now back “home” in Argentina, at my apartment in Buenos Aires. I had kept it while I was in Uruguay because I like having a home base. It also enabled me to travel extremely light to Uruguay. But also, I stayed only 3 days in Uruguay, which may have been a mistake. I should have stayed longer. More about that later, and about the interview…

Now, photos (click to enlarge):

_{Strolling around the old city of Colonia del Sacramento, known in Uruguay simply as “Colonia.”}

^{Strolling around Montevideo. The coastline and Rambla extend in parallel with the main part of the city. They are integrated. I can see how it would be even more lovely in better weather. Unfortunately for me, that was not to be. It got much worse the next day. Side note: At the “Montevideo Letters,” there is a line of tourists waiting, pretty respectfully, for their turn to strike a pose. Obviously traveling sola, I was not going to be able to make that happen, so I grabbed a shot of this woman killing it.}

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