5. Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo

Montevideo is much more than these opening shots, but this building is such a signature of this great old city that I wanted to lead with it.

Palacio Salvo

Puerto de la Ciudadela
and Palacio Salvo 

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The Palacio Salvo, almost 100 metres high, was designed by Italian architect, Mario Palanti in 1928. It was intended to be a lighthouse but apparently that did not fly. Now it's home to offices and residences. I will take any one of the rooms on any of the top floors, or all of them, but especially with the view to the Atlantic Ocean - that would be about a 200 degree panorama from northwest to southeast.

Palacio Salvo Arcade

Should you visit this city, try to find time to explore this monumental pile of architecture. There are surprises everywhere.

Seafood capital sculpting on Palacio Salvo

Umm, sea life is seafood to me, so I am 

probably erring in my labeling of this picture. 

Anyway, there are many more such bronze castings at the tops of the marble pillars that support the vaulted ceilings of this amazing old building. It's one of my favourite anywhere.

In some ways, for some people, it is kind of an ugly building, over-designed, top heavy, militaristic phallic, castle-like ...

Progress and industry from fish boats to
container ships, from block buildings
to knife blade erections that touch the clouds.

This is the first building we saw when our ship pulled into the harbour. Montevideo has not been left behind in world class urban architecture.

London - Paris 1908 that is below the clock,

that is below the widow's walk ... the circular

dentil trim below the dome ... the world

balancing on the figure's head ???  

There is lots of green space in and around the city, and, of course, lots of waterfront, but the buildings in the old city really drew my attention. 

What is the story behind this particular building? I am sure that research would answer a lot of questions. An architectural-historical tour of some of the large South American cities would be most interesting.

This old residence  needs a major restoration. Click on the photo to zoom in on the sad decay. We have not seen this extent of deterioration in Europe, the birthplace of these designs.

Post-imperial Latin America really seems to be struggling to maintain this kind of legacy architecture.

Our guide in Santiago was describing how indebted his country is to Spain who has Chile on a very long-term payback schedule for financing the much needed national highways projects.

I guess maintaining infrastructure is a higher priority than urban heritage.

needs some refinishing

well looked after

Close up of well preserved craftsmanship

Back to the dock now where there is always a WIFI centre at the terminal. Why? Because the wifi on the ship is sketchy, crippled, unreliable.

We were told that poor network services in the Southern Hemisphere is because of  the dependence on satellite communication - simply because we are below the equator. What am I not understanding about this? 

I learned from an IT crew member on the ship that the crew really suffers from not being able to communicate well with family at home. In the port terminals we see more off-duty crew with their thumbs on their devices than any one else.

So strange to see these "shipwrecks".
Not an uncommon sight in South American and Caribbean ports. Why is this?

Leaving now for the south Atlantic. Notice the brownish water. This is still the outflow of the silt-laden Rio de la Plata emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The water is like this for a long way out.

Good-bye Montevideo 

Uruguay Coast Sunset


...ooo0ooo...

next blog post is: Puerto Madryn, Argentina

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