Uruguay was one of those trips where I didn’t really know what to expect until I stepped off the airplane. To be honest, my expectations were pretty low. I figured there wouldn’t be much tourist infrastructure and that I’d be one of the few people traveling there. Instead, I was surprised by how nice and developed Montevideo was. I found several parts of Uruguay with standards similar to those of any Western country, and the country is even a popular weekend getaway for people from neighboring Argentina.
Since this was one of my earlier trips, I don’t have many photos from Uruguay. In fact, these may be my only two photos from Montevideo outside of carnival. For the first few days I had a different problem occupying most of my attention. Somehow I had left my bank card in an ATM in Argentina, so when I arrived in Montevideo I was completely broke. I mean literally no money at all.
A taxi driver I met was incredibly helpful. He agreed to drive me around even though I couldn’t pay him and trusted me to meet him again a day or two later. He took me to a bank and even helped negotiate a hotel room where they agreed to let me pay later. Eventually I was able to have my bank wire money to Western Union and pick it up using my passport.
Having money again was a good feeling. All the people who helped me during those first few days also gave me a great first impression of Uruguay. Once I had some cash in my pocket, I could finally pay everyone back and start exploring.
Montevideo had clean and modern areas as well as much poorer neighborhoods. Carnival happened to be taking place while I was there, so one night I took a taxi to the festivities in a rougher part of the city. When the driver dropped me off, he pointed to his eyes and said, “tus ojos,” then pointed toward my pockets and camera. I hadn’t really been worried about crime, but I understood his warning to keep an eye on my belongings. The carnival itself was impressive, although I ended up taking more carnival photos later in another town.
Punta del Este
Punta del Este was my next stop after the capital and is probably Uruguay’s best-known resort city. It has some amazing beaches during the day along with casinos, clubs, and bars at night. Some of the clubs don’t even open until around 3:00 in the morning, so if you’re into nightlife you’ll have plenty to do here.
You’re probably familiar with the book or movie Alive, which tells the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. The house above belonged to one of the survivors of the disaster. Beyond places like this, Punta del Este seemed less about traditional sightseeing and more about its beaches, restaurants, casinos, and nightlife. The photo on the right shows downtown at night, and I couldn’t believe how nice it was.
The beaches were probably the highlight of my time in Punta del Este. I’m not much of a fan of clubbing, but one night I became friends with a group of older wealthy Norwegians and got dragged along with them. I normally traveled to warm countries with little more than shorts and flip-flops, while these guys showed up wearing expensive suits and jewelry that I couldn’t imagine dragging around the other side of the world.
By the end of the night, each of them had met a woman who appeared to be around my age. Walking back with the group while I was by myself felt a little awkward, but the next day the Norwegians had a much bigger problem. They told me the women had stayed at their apartment but disappeared during the night along with a significant amount of their belongings.
Carnival in Maldonado
The Norwegians had rented an apartment, and the women had even taken their keys. After waiting for them to have the locks replaced, we all headed out again, this time to nearby Maldonado.
Carnival is most famously associated with Brazil, but celebrations take place throughout much of South America and the Caribbean. Even a smaller city like Maldonado had its own carnival. It obviously wasn’t on the scale of the largest celebrations in Brazil, but it was still a lot of fun and worth seeing if you’re in Uruguay at the right time of year.
Maldonado’s carnival had a more family-oriented atmosphere, while the celebration I saw in Montevideo felt more like a large party. My previous trip before Uruguay had been to Sudan, so the atmosphere and elaborate carnival costumes were quite a dramatic change from what I had experienced immediately beforehand.
