After 2 days of sailing North, the weather is increasingly getting warmer and calmer. Phew! We arrive in Montevideo, to gorgeous warm temperatures,, we have such a short time in this city we opt for a mooch round the city rather than getting glimpses through the tinted window of a bus.

We head inland towards the main square, away from the harbour - the place feels like a gentler Buenos Aires. It’s international womens day and there are posters up on balconies, stands in the squares and it looks like Uruguay has given the directive to all its government departments to get the girls out on show; apart from the ceremonial soldiers at the mausoleum, everyone else in uniform is gal.

The place feels very safe and the people are friendly, to be honest we’ve found this in nearly every place we have visited, but it still feels like a rare gift. Everywhere feels very accessible and equal, there is free city wide Wi-Fi, free gym equipment in the squares and no evidence of homelessness or graffiti.

In the first square we come to, there is a man playing Spanish guitar well, he has his case open for tips, but you get the impression that he is there because he loves to play rather than strumming a few chords and hoping for a tourist, an old local listens to him playing and applauds at the end of each tune. I think I could have stayed there all day.

However, a mausoleum and the main square calls, so we head further inland, through Constitution Plaza and market, past cafes and bookshops until we arrive in Independence Square and the mausoleum of Uruguayan military hero José Artigas. While we there, we thought we had happened upon a changing of the guard ceremony. However, after watching for some time, we realised they were practicing… well when I say practice… I mean they were stepping out and chatting as if they hadn’t quite decided what they were doing. It was quite baffling to watch, I’m pretty sure other countries would have done this stuff in the privacy of their barracks before putting it out there for the public.


After a lovely coffee and empanada, we headed into the old town. On our way there we stumbled on an intriguing alley that took us down to the LGBTI monument. It is South America’s first monument celebrating diversity and promoting diversity, it was great reading stories of gay life in the 70s and 80s in Paraguay. Moving on (and trying to find somewhere cool) we found an amazing bank which had given its ground floor over to artwork and the history of banking… it was interesting to wander around and I think most importantly- the air conditioning was very effective!

As the day was getting warmer, we headed into the market and walked around the asados (or barbecue bars) where we watched whole farms being cooked on grills, whilst cheap but good wine was drunk.

I am sure that Montevideo has a lot to offer, we just didn’t have it in us due to the heat and miles walked to delve too much into this city, I think if we had longer and it was cooler, we would have given this place the justice it deserved.