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

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing 

4. Punta del Este, Uruguay

Punta del Este, Uruguay

M/V Marina where we hung our hat for 20 days 

I took this photo from our tender to the wharf at Punta del Este. In post-processing I applied an effect called "surrealistic".

Why? Because it was.

Our tender (just kidding)

Our ship-to-shore tender

For some unknown reason, the ship sailed past Uruguay for our day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The  next day we pointed north across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay: Punta del Este, then on to Montevideo.

Punta del Este is Uruguay's seaside resort city. It attracts money, therefore, high-rise condominiums and pricey shoreside homes, marinas with expensive  yachts, good shopping and great restaurants. The year-round population of about 10,000 climbs to around 1/2 million during the summer season - end of Dec to early March.

Women's fashion store 
with an interesting name

We walked around, did some shopping, had a great seafood lunch, and of course, swam in the mild surf before catching the last tender back to the ship.

The bag I am carrying holds some really good local wine

This tiramisu was lighter than air!

The tannat grape was new to us. 

Originating in southwest France, this grape is now more common in Uruguay. It is their national grape.

This vino tinto was a very nice inexpensive tannat/merlot blend. It paired well with the osso bucco dinner that night at the Marina's Toscana Restaurant. The last glass was saved for a shared tiramisu. Wow!

Here is a map of our cruise showing the route from Rio de Janeiro to Santiago.

Large scale map of the voyage

This map jumps way ahead to when we sail through the Chilean fjords. The arrow designates our position on Day 17; the thin blue line marks the track taken; the red is the route to our destination. We are not there yet.

...ooo0ooo...

next post Montevideo

Montevideo. Plaza Independencia

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing 

3. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires

Storm clouds get bigger, thicker, and darker on our tour, but in La Boca, the working class neighbourhood (below), the sun still shines and the colours become riotous.

I'm talkin' here ...

The woman in the window ... ?

Argentina and Brazil are big football (soccer) rivals. 
Their teams are very well known in the World Cup.

... she sees all.

How do we know it's an American couple? Is it the plaid shorts and white socks?

the fire department mural

Why aren't our 

neighbourhoods 

as colourful?

next stop Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Parking, even for specially licensed tour buses, is at a premium on the traffic-congested streets of Buenos Aires. Our man, Hernan, performs his magic. The policewoman grants his request.

Claustros Historicos

a dark, funereal place

the remains of the known: the wealthy, generals, sports stars, politicos

the tomb of Evita Peron, heroine of Argentina

The clouds could hold no more and their bladders burst 

onto the streets ...

drenching the unprepared tourists.

The graveyard rodents ran faster than we did.

The down-rushing of the Holy Spirit was only Adam's Ale, after all. We were all soaked to the skin but the air was warm. We dried from the shoulders down on the bus ride back to the ship. The only discomfort was the feeling of sitting in urine-peepee with such wet pants. 

A hot afternoon sun returned to chase away the flash storm. 

Dry clothes awaited in our stateroom. 

Shore-bought Malbec wine smoothed out the afternoon.

...ooo0ooo...

next post is Punta del Este and Montevideo

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing