montevideo.

we woke to a lovely spread of fruits, breads, coffee, and tea at our hostel on our first morning. usually free breakfasts are not nearly as elaborate so we took advantage of the generous & fulfilling meal. thus commenced our first day in the capital city of uruguay. it was quite evident on our first day in montevideo that the poverty was much more visible in this city than in buenos aires. in an area called "ciudad vieja" (the old city), dilapidated mansions had been transformed into slum housing and there was waste all over the streets. as phil had been told, montevideo is like b.a. ten years ago, still recovering from financial crises & the overwhelming poor population. an important reminder of the fortunate lives we lead.

montevideo is a peninsula that runs east/west with the rio de plata running on the southern shore and the bahia de montevideo along the north. i was not as taken with montevideo as with b.a. so our exploration on the first day lacked fervor. we wandered through famous plazas & open air markets but did not feel the need to run ourselves haggard finding the sights listed in my lonely planet. phil & i took leave of each other for part of the afternoon just to get some time alone and relax. i found myself a lovely outdoor patio, got myself a cafe con leche & delved deeper into the cheesey epic novel i am currently reading. we rendez vous-ed back at our hostel, a converted old mansion, & headed down to the water. it is a beautifully situated city & phil & i spent the rest of the afternoon sitting down by the water reading in a series of lovely parks.

our money was worth even more in uruguay than argentina so we decided to find ourselves a nice restaurant & get a fancy meal for under $10 US. unfortunately, we chose poorly. for all intents & purposes the restaurant we set out sights on seemed perfect for a big plate of pasta, it even smelled heavenly as we walked in the door. we were sorely disappointed when we got our meals - our pasta was overdone to the point of paste, my primavera appeared to contain a bag of defrosted veggies & a dash of bad white wine, & i just about had to force myself to eat some of it just to get the sustenance. the meal left much to be desired to say the least. discouraged and with a bad taste in our mouths (literally), we made our way back to our hostel, read for awhile, & hit the hay.

the underwhelmed miranda.