December 3, 2019: Buenos Aires, Argentina (Day 1)
	November 29, 2019: A Visit to Rio de Janiero, Brazil
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Today, after our last two sea days, we will be arriving in Montevideo, Uruguay- a city and a country that are a first for all three of us. We will be doing two walking tours- one on our own in the morning and one guided in the afternoon.

Docking in Montevideo

We left Rio de Janiero, Brazil, about 6PM on the evening of November 29, and we arrived in the Rio area early in the morning on December 2, after spending two full days and three nights at sea.

You can see why, at about 25MPH, it has taken us two full days to get down to Montevideo. To put this distance in perspective, here is another map where I've overlaid part of the US on the map at left:

The straight-line distance between the two cities is almost exactly the same as the straight-line distance from Dallas to Los Angeles, as you can easily see. I did not show it on the maps, but there is a major Brazilian/Uruguayan highway (BR-116) that connects the two cities along the coast; it is a 28-hour drive, which means that you can keep up an average speed of maybe 50MPH, over twice the speed of the ship.

We got to the Montevideo area fairly early, but not so early that we couldn't have breakfast before going up on deck to watch our progress into the harbor. So before we say anything about Montevideo itself, let's look at our progress into our dock.

At left is an aerial view of the Montevideo area; as you can see, it is located on the south coast of Uruguay- as it turned out on pretty much the southernmost point of the country. The Old City of Montevideo is located here, and the Port of Montevideo is in the northern part of this oldest area of the city. The Montevideo port is one of the major ports of South America and plays a very important role in the economy of Uruguay.

The southernmost point in the city is called Punta Carretas- a barrio of the city- and one that we will visit later in the afternoon when Fred and I take a short departure from our guided city walking tour. Anyway, the area takes its name from the cape (southernmost point) of the same name. There is a 150-year-old lighthouse at this southernmost tip of land. Most of the old city of Montevideo is located directly north of this barrio, and the port is just to the northwest of that old city.

Montevideo Bay is one of the reasons the city was founded. It gives natural protection to ships, although there are now two jetties that protect the harbour entrance from the waves. This natural port makes it competitive with the Río de la Plata's other great South American port— the Port of Buenos Aires. Both ports are not, strictly, Atlantic Ocean ports; rather, they are ports at the mouth of the great river.

Let me zoom back out for a moment to show you what I mean. The Rio de la Plata begins at the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers at Punta Gorda and flows eastward into the South Atlantic Ocean. No clear physical boundary marks the river's eastern end; the International Hydrographic Organization defines the eastern boundary of the Río de la Plata as "a line joining Punta del Este, Uruguay (about 50 miles east of Montevideo on the southern coast of Uruguay) and Cabo San Antonio, Argentina (about 150 miles southeast of Buenos Aires along the east coast of Argentina)".

Though it is generally spoken of as a river, the Río de la Plata is considered by some geographers to be a large bay or marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean. For those who regard it as a river, it is the widest in the world, with a maximum width of about 140 miles) and a total surface area of about 14,000 square miles. I might point out that most people would look at a map and think that Montevideo is right at the ocean end of the river (notwithstanding the definition above). If that were true, then the distance from Montevideo to the nearest point in Argentina would be about 45 miles- which would still put it at the top of "The World's Widest Rivers" list (although the Amazon has its supporters that claim that it should be at the top of the list).

Regardless of these claims, it was hard to see from the deck of the Viking Jupiter that we were actually in a river (particularly since the other side was lost in the haze behind us as we came slowly into the Port of Montevideo.

As we look at the pictures we took coming into our dock, I wanted you to be able to orient yourself to the harbor by matching up some of the features in the pictures with a couple of aerial views. Below is a fairly high-level aerial view showing the relationship of the port area to the Old City (where most of our walking took place), and at left is a closer look at the area around our dock at Pier Two.

About 8AM we got our first look at Montevideo lying to the north of the ship's position as it headed towards the harbor entrance. As we got closer to the city, Fred began to be able to use his zoom lens to get some good pictures of the central area of the city.

Torre Antel

The Torre de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Tower) or Torre Antel (Antel Tower) is a 500-foot-tall building with 35 floors. It is the headquarters of Uruguay's government-owned telecommunications company, ANTEL, and is the tallest building in the country. It was designed by architect Carlos Ott. It is situated at the east side of Montevideo Bay and was completed in 2002.

From the ship, here are other views of central Montevideo- all taken before we passed the first jetty on our way into the dock.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Viking Jupiter came slowly past the first long jetty that extends basically north-south, and we passed north of it heading towards the entrance to the dock area. The port of Montevideo is actually the southern part of Montevideo Bay, and is separated from the rest of the bay by another long jetty that extends east-west.

As you can see from the aerial view above, we first passed a container ship dock on our way into the cruise port. Tied up at the end was a container ship being processed, and there is also a Uruguayan navy installation (probably the entire navy) there, and there were a number of ships docked.

Here's a few more views of this large dock and the ships moored there:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Now, just as we passed the inner jetty to get to the cruise ship dock (there was only space here for a couple of ships to berth at the same time- not a particular problem, I guess, as I suspect that Montevideo is not one of the cruise lines' more frequent stops), there was something odd just north of the inner jetty.

We had no idea why there was a flotilla of derelict and half-sunken ships right in the middle of Montevideo Bay, but I did a bit of research. A 2015 article in the Montevideo newspaper said that "Some 50 ships abandoned in the port of Montevideo by their owners because of debts or liens will be refloated and taken away." The article went on to say that many of the shipowners still pay taxes, but the vessels are deemed "abandoned" since "they have not moved from the spot where they are for many years. I'd never seen anything quite like this anywhere inside a port area; I found it amazing that the ships were just left right in the middle of a fairly busy port.

Here are the best of the pictures we took of this agglomeration of rusting, derelict vessels:

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Among the derelict vessels are Uruguayan and foreign ships whose disposal is complicated because owners and agents are hard to locate or operators have gone out of business. The fishing boats, freighters and tugboats do not have much market value since most of them are big and old, but they could be sold for scrap. The project, which doesn't seem to have progressed much, is made more difficult because many of the abandoned ships contain large amounts of concrete, timber and insulation, all materials that are difficult to clean up.

Turning in to Our Dock in Montevideo

I think the panoramic view at right shows clearly how we have come into the harbor and are now turning in to come alongside our dock at the Montevideo cruise ship port. You can see on the dock that some of the busses that will be used for a couple of the tours are already parked.

It was interesting, as it always is, to watch the crew on board ship work with the dock hands to slowly bring the ship to its berthing position along the dock. The last twenty feet or so are usually done with winches.

Just after this process was concluded, we were both on deck at about the same place, and we traded off pictures of each other using the old city of Montevideo as a backdrop. Here is Fred's picture of me and you can match that up with my picture of Fred.

From the Bow of the Ship: The Old City of Montevideo

From the deck, we got some good pictures of Montevideo landmarks; using his zoom, Fred could see all the way to the Plaza Independencia and some of the buildings bordering it, including the Radisson Hotel and the Palacio Salvo (more later when we actually walk to that plaza). He also photographed to classic structures right here at the port:

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Our included shore excursion wasn't until this afternoon, but the three of us were going to do our own little walking tour before lunch. We weren't leaving the ship until about ten or so, so Fred and I had plenty of time to stay here on deck and get pictures of the activity in and around the harbor.

Looking Back Out to the Rio de la Plata

The Ship Graveyard

It was such a nice morning that I wanted some sort of excuse to make a movie up here on deck. That excuse materialized in the form of an MSC container ship that arrived in port just after we docked; it passed slowly past our stern heading to its own dock space ahead of us and to our port.

An MSC Container Ship Arrives in Montevideo (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

The rest of our time up here on deck was spent just walking around in the sunshine and photographing all the interesting activity going on around us. This was not a large harbor, so we could see a lot of what was happening, and the wide variety of boats and ships all about:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Greg joined us up on deck after a while, and we agreed to meet on the pier just after ten for our first walk through Montevideo.

Our First Walk Through Old Montevideo

Fred, Greg, and I left the ship about ten in the morning to do our own walk through Montevideo. When we left the ship, I got a nice picture of it, since this pier is very open and unobstructed views are easy. Late in the day, when we returned from our second foray into Montevideo, I took another picture from the same place, and I think the contract is interesting:

The Viking Jupiter at 10AM

The Viking Jupiter at 5PM

Unlike lots of other ports, here in Montevideo you can walk right off the ship, down the pier, across the street, out of the port area, and off into the city. When you return and arrive back at the cruise port entrance, you just have to show the Uruguayan security people your ship card and you can just walk right through. Contrast this with other ports that require you to take a shuttle from the ship to some main building and pass through security there. One benefit of the Montevidean approach was that there was no "shopping opportunity" you had to pass through.

Here's a little aerial view of the immediate dock area near the ship; the port entrance is right at the bottom of the view where the arrowhead is. As you come off the pier itself, there is a little park or display area that has some sculptures, flower beds, a kind of "Welcome to Uruguay" thingy, a large anchor lying on the ground, and some other various equipment scattered about. And kind of in front of our ship, along the pier that runs out of the picture to the east, two ships were docked- a small ship that was already docked when we arrived, and the MSC container ship that I filmed coming in after we were situated at the pier.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

In addition to the colorfully-painted anchor that you saw in some of the last group of pictures, there was another, larger anchor also situated in this little "display area", along with some other pieces of equipment. I did not find out until I started working on this album page what I had been looking at.

The Admiral Graf Spee was a Deutschland-class "Panzerschiff" (armored ship), nicknamed a "pocket battleship" by the British, which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. The vessel was named after Admiral Maximilian von Spee, commander of the East Asia Squadron who fought the battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands, where he was killed in action, in World War I. She was laid down at the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven in October 1932 and completed by January 1936. The ship was nominally under the 10,000-tons limitation on warship size imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, though with a full load displacement of 16,020 tons, she significantly exceeded it. Armed with six 11-inch guns in two triple gun turrets, Admiral Graf Spee and her sisters were designed to outgun any cruiser fast enough to catch them. Their top speed of 32 mph left only the few battlecruisers in the Anglo-French navies fast enough and powerful enough to sink them.

The ship conducted five non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938, and participated in the Coronation Review of King George VI in May 1937. Admiral Graf Spee was deployed to the South Atlantic in the weeks before the outbreak of World War II, to be positioned in merchant sea lanes once war was declared. Between September and December 1939, the warship sank nine vessels before being confronted by three British cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate on 13 December. Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo. Convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, Hans Langsdorff, the commander of the ship, ordered the vessel to be scuttled. The ship was partially broken up in situ, though part of the ship remains visible above the surface of the water. One piece of the Admiral Graf Spee that was brought up was its anchor, and it now sits here, in this small display area near the cruise ship docks.

So where all did we go on our morning walk through Montevideo? Well, we pretty much followed our noses to walk randomly through the old part of the city, generally heading west towards Plaza Independencia- the city's largest and most historic square.

On the aerial view at left, I've marked the route that we took to Plaza Independencia and then to return to the ship. The exact route really isn't important, and my markings may be off by a street or two. What we wanted to do was to get something of a sense of the old city, and that we did, mixing stops at old buildings and old pocket parks with drop-ins to modern stores and shops.

What I'll do in this section of this album page is to first let you stop with us at some of the places where we spent a bit of time, such as the old Port Market and Plaza Independencia itself. We'll visit these spots in pretty much the order we encountered them. After that, I want to include a section for the many photos we took of interesting buildings, street scenes, quirky signs, cats in the sun, and so on.

The Old Port Market

So let's begin with our first stop at the Old Port Market. From the ship, we walked through the display park, across a street, and then alongside the tourist office and south through the actual port entrance. Then we crossed 25 August 1825 Street to then walk southwest on the diagonal Yacare Street towards the center of the Old Port Market area. (I should say here that a fair number of times in Europe and many times here in South America, streets are named for important dates. The street we just crossed is named for the date on which Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil, for example. I can't for the life of me think of one street in America that takes a date as its name.) Greg was on the lookout for a gift for one of his friends at the dog park at home, and at one point along Yacare, he stopped at a street kiosk with woolens where he spoke to the owner and set aside a cape that he would pick up on our return.

According to historians, a joint stock company was established in 1865 at the initiative of a prominent merchant in order to build a market in Montevideo. A plot of land was purchased on the north coast of the bay, in the area known as "El Baño de los Padres", part of the block limited by the current streets Pérez Castellanos, Piedras, Maciel and Rambla August 25, 1825.

One of the initial steps on the part of the businessmen was to consult the English engineer RH Mesures about the feasibility of creating a metal construction on iron bases, a technique completely unknown in America, but which was beginning to be applied in Europe. The use of iron skeletons in architecture was definitively established in 1889, when Gustavo Eiffel raised the tower that bears his name in Paris.

Because of the lack of facilities in South America, the metal components were made in the foundries of Liverpool and then shipped to Montevideo with a cadre of metalworkers to direct the work of assembly. The original framework was erected on a masonry foundation. Construction of the building, one entrance of which can be seen behind Greg and I in the picture at right, took three years.

The market was inaugurated in 1868 by the President of the Republic and members of his cabinet. Immediately the market became the main supplier of fruits, vegetables and meat to the ships that arrived in Montevideo Bay. It also became the market of choice to the many wealthy families who at that time were building their mansions in the area. The greengrocers and butchers were the best in the area, and over time the market expanded to offer dining and drinking establishments as well.

There was a wrought iron fountain structure outside the main entrance as we walked over to it. Even from the outside, you could see that the building was unlike a lot of the structures around it it; the use of an iron frame was obvious even from the outside.

We went inside to find that the interior, rather than being one big open space (as markets we've seen elsewhere are) was subdivided into various stores, bars, and eateries- almost none of which had yet opened for the day. So we just wandered around a bit, inside and out, taking a few pictures of the ironwork.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

When we came out of the market, we wandered through the open area in front of it, eventually turning south again on Calle Perez Castellano. At the corner, where Calle Piedras crosses Perez Castellano, there was a little restaurant just opening up, and they'd just put an interesting menu board outside. Like Argentina, Uruguay is known for its beef, but I was mystified by what "Baby Beef" might be. I have found numerous references to it online, but no one seems to define it. I thought it might simply be veal, but I would have thought that some traveler blog would have said so. (Keep in mind that the current exchange rate is $1 gets you 40 Uruguayan pesos- the symbol for which is also "$"-, so the "Baby Beef" on the sign is about $9.

This view looks west along Piedras, just north of the Old Market building.

This view looks north from the corner of Piedras and Perez Castellano at the plaza in front of the Old Market building.

Plaza Zabala

We continued walking a bit further south on Perez Castellano and eventually turned east when we saw a small park with a large statue in the center. Right when we turned, we found a little shop that sold just what we were looking for- a couple of birthday cards for Philip and John- two friends we made the second day on board the ship. While I was buying the cards, Greg and the proprietor were chatting in Spanish.

The Centerpiece of Plaza Zabala

Plaza Zabala is just one of the many small squares that dot the city of Montevideo, and one of three or four here in the old city. At one time, there was a fort here; in late 1878, during the dictatorship of Colonel Lorenzo Latorre, it was decided to demolish it and build a public square in its place. But for 12 years after the demolition, the plot stood empty. Plaza Zabala was established in 1890 when the equestrian statue of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala was installed. The statue was sculpted by the Spanish sculptor Lorenzo Coullaut Valera in collaboration with the Basque architect Pedro Muguruza Otaño. There are reliefs on all four sides of the pedestal:

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Bruno Mauricio de Zabala (1682–1736) was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. Born in the slum of Zabala in Durango, Spain, he had a noted military career, eventually (in 1717) being named capitán general of the Río de la Plata, where he suppressed piracy and confronted the Portuguese, who sought to claim the River Plate for themselves. In 1724, to contend with these rivals, Zabala constructed a fortress. This settlement, which would evolve into the city of Montevideo, became the center of Spanish control over the Banda Oriental, and later the capital of Uruguay.

The plaza and monument are on an oblique plan. This layout is distinctly different in this historic district which has streets laid in a checkerboard pattern. The plaza also has small gardens designed by the landscape architect French Eduardo André. It is also one of the places where fences and gates of iron are still seen in the city. The street surrounding the square is named as Ring Durango, in honor of the town Vizcaya of Durango, where Zabala was born. On its south side, Palacio Taranco, once residence of the Ortiz Taranco brothers, is now the Museum of Decorative Arts, and on its west, the well-preserved ex-residence of Sáenz de Zumarán is now a bank.

The Montevideo Cathedral

The next stop on our walk over towards Plaza Independencia was another of these smaller squares- Plaza Constitucion, also known as Plaza Matriz. We'll walk through that plaza in a little while, but just before we reached it we passed the Cathedral and thought we would explore it first.

The Montevideo Cathedral Bell Tower

As soon as we left Plaza Zabala, we could see the tower of the Parish Church of San Francisco off to our left (to the north, towards the port), and at the same time we could see, a few blocks east, the bell tower of Montevideo's Cathedral- the "Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción y San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo". We were heading that way and came to it just before another small plaza/park.

We came alongside the church itself a couple of blocks later, and when we got close enough, we discovered that this church (like many built on the same general design) had two towers, on either side of the facade, and also a large dome over the sanctuary. Note, too, the use of the very heavy flying buttresses along the long side of the church building.

The Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral is the main Roman Catholic church of Montevideo, and seat of its archdiocese. It is located right in front of the Cabildo across Constitution Square, in the neighbourhood of Ciudad Vieja. The origin of the church dates from Spanish colonial times (1740), when a church constructed of brick was built on the site. In 1790, the foundation was laid for the construction of the current neoclassical structure. The church was consecrated in 1804; it is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and to the patron saints of Montevideo, Philip and James.

It was here, in front of the church, that we happened to run into John and Philip, our friends from the ship, and we merged our groups long enough to explore the church before the other two guys went off on their own again.

The Facade of the Cathedral

To begin with, I walked across the street between the church and Plaza Constitucion and tried to get the entire facade of the church in one picture. But I couldn't get back far enough (well, I could, but I would have been in the middle of the trees) to get it all in. So I settled for putting two different pictures together. It took some doing to try to eliminate the perspective problems (the two towers will try to bend inward when you let the software automatically stitch the pictures together and you have to correct for that); the finished image (with still a bid of "bending") is at right.

I came back across the street and we went up the steps and through the middle gate that was open. In the covered area at the top of the steps Fred stopped to take a picture of me and Greg and Philip. Greg is carrying a bag containing a really nice shirt that he bought a few minutes earlier in our walk at an upscale men's clothing shop. Entering the church, we found ourselves at the back of the nave:

Walking into the nave, I was immediately impressed with how beautiful it was even though, for a cathedral, this church was not nearly as large as many other cathedrals we have seen.

The Nave of the Montevideo Cathedral (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Right inside the nave, we took a number of pictures, but I think that you can get a good look around (and hear the chant that was softly playing in the background) by watching the movie I made. The player is at left.

Here are a few more views of the interior of the church taken from the back of the nave and looking towards the altar and sanctuary:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

There is one major altar, several side altars, memorials, and tombs of several of the former archbishops and bishops who served in the Cathedral. On a side altar is venerated an image of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three, patron saint of Uruguay.

The Altar and Sanctuary Flanked by Two Side Chapels

Moving forward in the church, I think the interior got even more beautiful. Certainly, the altar was quite beautiful- and certainly not "overdone" or "ostentatious" (as has been the tendency in many churches we've visited. Here are two more still views- one of Fred's and one of mine:

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Looking up, both Fred and I found the the ceiling with its central dome (with oculus and stained glass) and the graceful arched pediments to also be very pretty, and Fred got some good pictures from various angles:

Wandering around the nave, we examined much of the decoration of the interior of the church, and visited all the side chapels and their altars. I suppose if I had been raised Catholic I would know the significance of much of the iconography that was all throughout the church, but it was easy to simply appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of what we saw.

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For example, most every church we've been in had an ornate pulpit (although no two seemed to be the same). Here, access to the carved wooden pulpit on the left side of the church seemed to be inside the major column to which the pulpit was attached. More common, in our experience, is a stairway that is visible.

For the other pictures, it's probably easiest for you if I put them in a slideshow, and that show is at left. You can look at one picture after another just by clicking on the little arrows in the lower corners of each image. The index numbers in the upper left will tell you where you are.

You might pay special attention to:
(#1-#2) the two transcept chapels on either side of the altar,
(#5) the inside of the dome and oculus,
(#12) the shrine of Saint Fermin (whose feast celebration includes the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona), and
(#16) the tomb of Mariano Soler- the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Montevideo.

Enjoy looking at these pictures of the inside of the Cathedral of Montevideo!

Plaza Constitucion/Plaza Matriz

The Plaza de la Constitución is right in the center of the historic neighborhood of the Old City, and is directly across Calle Ituzaingó from the Montevideo Cathedral. Incidentally, that street name commemorates the victory of the Argentine-eastern army over the Imperial forces of Brazil that occurred in the fields of Ituzaingo near the Santa Maria River in 1827, and event which led directly to Uruguyan independence.

Most Spanish cities have a "Plaza Mayor" (major), and it often has that name. This was the plaza that served that function for the original Fortress City of San Felipe and Santiago de Montevideo, where it was the most-used open public space. It is still one of Montevideo's most visited places.

Also known as Plaza Matriz, the square was given its official name in honor of the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812. In the old colonial city and in the first decades of independence, this square was the center of citizen life, giving them the façades of the Cabildo, seat of the colonial government, the work of Tomás Toribio, and the city's cathedral. It remains the tourist and commercial hub of the neighborhood, which includes ministry offices, banks, cultural institutions, and many of the city's best restaurants.

Here are a few candid pictures that we took in and around the square:

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As you can see in one of the pictures above, the square is also a popular place for ad hoc markets to spring up, and as we passed through today there were numerous vendors selling all kinds of stuff. While this might have been a particular market day, I got the impression that these vendors are here often.

The Fountain in Plaza Matriz

In 1867 the first public fountain was inaugurated in the plaza, the current one was inaugurated on July 18, 1871, the day when the running water service began to be provided in the city by a private company. The construction of the marble fountain was included in the conditions of the service provision contract and was designed by the Italian architect Juan Ferrari. Fred took a picture of the fountain with his "starburst filter effect" turned on, which is how he got that effect on the bright points of light.

The "Ferrari Fountain" is made up of a circular pond with an ornate column in its center that takes the form of three plates that open in decreasing size from the bottom up. There are at the edge of the pond eight fauns with newts entwined in their bodies.

In the center of the fountain there are four taps decorated with various symbolic elements: the National Coat of Arms, square, hammer and compass, hive, rake, fork, scythe and spindle, among others. Three children without clothing hold the second plate and the upper one by three dolphins. As the crown of the fountain at the top is a boy drinking from a bowl. On the sides of the pond there are seven inscriptions written in raised marble letters that recall national events and also mention those responsible for the running water service (you didn't think the officials of the water company would miss a chance for a little self-praise, did you?). Anyway, we wandered through the square and out the southeast side which put us on the Peatonal Sarandi. Let's stop for a moment and show you just where we are now.

Although Peatonal Sarandi extends all the way west to the water, we are traversing just the section between Plaza Matriz and Plaza Independencia.

On this aerial view, I have marked both plazas and some of the other points of interest that will be mentioned in the upcoming sections- including a bookstore that we visited, the remnant of the old city wall (ciudadela) that we walked through between the pedestrian street and Plaza Independencia, and two of the iconic buildings that border Plaza Independencia.

Peatonal Sarandi

Peatonal Sarandí is the main pedestrian street of the Ciudad Vieja of Montevideo, and the most frequented tourist venue of the city. The term "calle" is used to indicate a traditional street for vehicles, which might or might not have sidewalks. But "peatonal" denotes what we would call a pedestrian mall or, simply, a street that is closed to vehicular traffic.

Peaton Sarandi Near Plaza Independencia

We had already walked on part of this street on our way to the two squares that we visited, and now we are back on it as we head over to Plaza Independencia. This street runs the entire length of the Old City- from the Rambla (the coastal avenue) southwest of here and southwest of the port, all the way northeast to a final jog to the east to the Plaza Independencia. It actually runs right by the Plaza Constitución. At its southwest end (although we wouldn't find this out until our guided tour this afternoon, the street has been extended along the long southern breakwater of the Port of Montevideo, where it is known as the "Escollera Sarandí".

Here are some scenes from this short stretch of Peatonal Sarandi between Plaza Matriz and the Old City Gate:

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There are many buildings of architectural value to be seen along Peatonal Sarandí, as well as art galleries and many shops and businesses. One of the architectural landmarks was the Edificio Pablo Ferrando, which is next to the Museo Torres García. Built in 1917, this glass and iron building currently houses a bookstore/library on the first floor with a small performance stage behind it, and a famous cafe/brasserie on the second floor.

Edificio Pablo Ferrando

Inside the Bookshop

Greg always likes to go in bookstores where he can find books in languages he is trying to become more proficient at, and so we went inside this one. But more to admire the architecture than anything else, since Greg certainly didn't want to buy a bunch of books and have to take them all the way back home to Dallas.

Inside Greg found a store clerk he could chat with for a few minutes, while Fred and I wandered about and took a few pictures:

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Other notable buildings nearby are the Plaza Fuerte Hotel, the Club Uruguay on Plaza Constitución, the Cabildo, which houses the municipal archive of the city and is also a national monument and museum, and the Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral, which we have already visited.

Looking Towards Plaza Independencia

Back out on Peatonal Sarandi we could see ahead of us something that looked like a giant picture frame sitting at the end of the avenue with the iconic Palacio Salvo in the distance.

I might also mention that at least this section of the Peatonal Sarandi was something like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in that embedded in the pavement were a number of what I can only call celebrity tiles (which didn't all have the same symbol, unlike the Hollywood equivalent). Incidentally, Olga Delgrossi, born in 1932, is a famous Uruguayan singer, and her commemorative plaque was installed here in 2011.

The picture frame structure seemed odd as we approached it. I couldn't see any signage around to tell me what it was, and indeed, we didn't find out what it was until our afternoon tour, when our guide brought us back to the plaza and we got an explanation.

The Old Citadel at Montevideo

As is true of many cities in the Old World and in South America, Montevideo was, in its earliest days, a citadel. Generally, a citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city" and thus means "little city", so called because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. Ancient Sparta had a citadel, as did many other Greek cities and towns.

Montevideo originally had such a fortification; a model of what it looked like is at left. The citadel, which, over the years, had fallen into disrepair, was almost completely torn down in 1829 to make way for Plaza Independencia. But if you will look closely at the model, you will see that on the near side there was originally an entry bridge over the water that surrounded the fortification (diverted from the Plate River). (That water feature was gone by the 1700s as the city had begun to fill in around the fortification as the Ciudad Viejo expanded eastward.) When the fortress was finally torn down, the gate at the end of that bridge was retained (along with a few other small segments of the fortress and its walls).

That gate still stands; it called " Puerta de la Ciudadela", and it is the structure that we saw at the east end of the Peatonal Sarandi, right at the west side of Plaza Independencia. The gate is now in the middle of Calle Juncal, and so as we crossed that street to enter the plaza, we walked through the 300-year-old gate.

Plaza Independencia

Plaza Independencia (Spanish for Independence Square) is the name of Montevideo's most important plaza. It separates Ciudad Vieja from downtown Montevideo, with the Gateway of The Citadel on one side and the beginning of 18 de Julio Avenue on the other. We came through the Gateway and into the Plaza; here is a view looking back to Peatonal Sarandi.

When I compared the aerial view of the plaza from Google Maps to the pictures that we took, it occurred to me to try to figure out how symmetrical the plaza really is. On the aerial view, it looks as if the streets that border the plaza are a bit irregular, but then I have noticed over the years that the way that the multitude of aerial shots of the world are actually put together introduces distortions sometimes.

So from Wikimedia Commons, I have borrowed a view of the plaza from above. This picture was taken from the roof of the tall, thin building that appears in pictures taken from the plaza that look west; it is at right in this picture. From that vantage point, the picture at left (which looks west) shows that the plaza is indeed symmetrical. It is a long rectangle, oriented east-west, with four garden areas in the corners and a circular center.

At the center of each of the grassy garden areas there is a fountain, like this one at the northwest corner. The symmetry is a bit broken in that on the west end of the square (the end where the old fortress gate is) the center path has a couple of square areas planted in flowers, whereas on the other side of the central circular area the same center path does not have these planters. Also, we noticed that in the plaza there are a couple of small kiosks that had tourist information and also sold some small items. This is actually the kiosk at the eastern end of Plaza Independencia.

So, crossing the street and going through the Ciudadela, this was the view of the plaza that we saw:

Looking East Across the Plaza Independencia

Plaza Independencia is the central square for all of Montevideo. It is a popular tourist attraction, of course, but it is also a meeting place and hangout space for city residents. Much early development was focused here, so in the square and surrounding there are a number of important buildings and monuments.

The Artigas Statue and Mausoleum

The central focus of the square is, as you can see, the monument to Uruguayan hero José Artigas. The monument is relatively new, having been dedicated in 1977 as part of the construction of the Artigas Mausoleum- an underground room beneath the statue in which Artigas' remains are kept. The monument is guarded by a traditional guard called "Blandegues de Artigas".

Walking Into Plaza Independencia (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

Obviously, we wanted to look at the monument, so we walked through the plaza to it. I made a movie as we went, just so you could experience the ambience of this open space. I will pass some of the flower beds and part of the aboveground portion of the Mausoleum to come to stand to the northeast of the statue. The movie player for this film is at right.

José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (1764 – 1850) is a national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called "the father of Uruguayan nationhood". Artigas was born in Montevideo to a fairly wealthy family, and his parents eventually enrolled him in college to pursue religious studies. But the school's strict discipline, and he left school to move to the countryside to work on his family's farms. He became engaged with the customs and perspectives of gauchos and Indians and (not to blame those perspectives) when he came of age, he distanced himself from his parents and became involved in cattle smuggling. This made him a wanted man among the owners of haciendas and with the government in Montevideo, and a reward was put out for his death.

Things changed when the Anglo-Spanish War began; Artigas received a pardon on the condition that he join the Army and lead a battalion which he did as a lieutenant in 1797. In 1806 the British invaded Buenos Aires, and Artigas requested that his battalion take part in the expedition launched across the river to drive them out. His request was granted, and the British were defeated. A second British attack captured Montevideo; Artigas was taken prisoner, but he managed to escape and returned to the countryside where he organized groups of gauchos and began a guerrilla war against the invaders. The British were defeated and Artigas became a captain in 1809.

The Artigas Monument in Plaza Independencia

The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the turmoil in Europe had a dramatic effect on events in South America- sparking numerous wars of independence. As in the pre-revolutionary United States, there were "patriots", who wanted republics, and "royalists" who preferred the absolute monarchy. Artigas' experiences with the gauchos and Indians put him squarely in the "patriot" camp. In this area of South America, Montevideo was the center of royalist support while Buenos Aires, on balance, represented the "patriot" outlook. The conflict between these two cities was the prime event of the next decades.

Artigas was the most prominent leader in the "Banda Oriental"- the area outside Montevideo that is now Uruguay. His sympathies led him to ally first with Buenos Aires to unseat the royalists who controlled Montevideo, and this effort, including two blockades of the city, see-sawed back and forth, with Buenos Aires finally winning out, and the entire area (Argentina, Uruguay, and part of other modern-day countries) came under its control. Buenos Aires saw itself as the capital of a centralized system, but Artigas was adamant that only a looser, Federal system would protect the status of gauchos, Indians, and indigenous peoples. He famously said: "I may not be sold, nor do I want more reward for my efforts than to see my nation free from the Spanish rule".

During these decades, Artigas was a adamant proponent of a Federal democracy for his homeland. The four-way struggles between Spain and Portugal and later Argentina and Brazil that occupied these years were a difficult time, but by 1828 Uruguay had won its independence. Artigas lived to see this, but he also lived to see his country buffeted by foreign influence and intervention. This continued through the 19th century, and led to a series of economic crises in the 20th that culminated in a civic-military coup in 1973. Twelve years of persecution, torture, and assassination followed, but, in a surprising move, the military relinquished power to a civilian government in 1985. Many Uruguayans credit Artigas and his principles for the eventual establishment of modern-day, democratic Uruguay.

My Panoramic View of Plaza Independencia Looking West (Camera-created)

This square was designed in the 1830s by Carlo Zucchi, inspired in the Rue de Rivoli, Paris. Three decades later it was redesigned by Bernardo Poncini. In the view above, you can see the Estevez Palace (the low building at left) and the Executive Tower (to its right) which are, together, the workplaces of the President of Uruguay and his staff and ministries. Barely visible (just to the right of the Executive Tower) is the Solís Theatre (which we will visit on this afternoon's tour).

Plaza Independencia

At left is my constructed panoramic view, and below are more scenes from the plaza:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Another iconic building, this one at the east end of the plaza, is the Palacio Salvo. For a brief time the tallest building in Uruguay, it is currently a mixed-use building (offices, residences, and the Tango Museum) (seriously, there is a museum for the tango).

Palacio Salvo

The Tower

Palacio Salvo was designed by the architect Mario Palanti, an Italian immigrant living in Buenos Aires, who used a similar design for his Palacio Barolo across the river in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Finished in 1928, Palacio Salvo stands 330 feet high with the antenna included. It was the tallest building in Latin America for a brief period.

The site was bought by the Salvo brothers for 650,000 Uruguayan pesos, it was where the Confiteria La Giralda was once located, a place renowned for being where Gerardo Matos Rodríguez wrote his tango La Cumparsita in 1917. (This fact may not mean much to you, but the tango is very important in Uruguayan culture, and I suspect that "Uruguay's Got Talent" has more tango dancers than it does singers.) This may be why the Tango Museum of Montevideo is one of the tenants of Palacio Salvo.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The original specifications, describing the details of the construction, describe a lighthouse at the top of the building, which was replaced by a set of antennas. The specifications stated “on the top part of the tower a lighthouse will be placed made by Salmoiraghi of Italy, with a parabolic mirror of 920 mm (36 in), reaching approximately 100 km (62 mi), and a rotating 100 amp lamp.” You might wonder why there would have been a lighthouse in the middle of the city, but standing where we are we are only four or five block from the bay to the north and the river to the south.

The building was originally intended to be a hotel, but this plan didn't work out, and it has since been occupied by a mixture of offices and private residences. The building itself, without the antennas, is just over 300 feet; the antennas were permanently removed in November 2012.

Returning to the Viking Jupiter

We left the Plaza Independencia at its northwest corner, and then followed our noses back to the Old Port Market (so Greg could pick up the cape he had set aside).

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As I said earlier, all throughout our walk from the ship to Plaza Independencia and then back to the pier, we took a good many candid pictures of all sorts of things. Included were typical street scenes, interesting shops and stores, beautiful architecture, colorful signs and murals, and so on. I also made one movie so you could get the flavor of a typical old-Montevideo street.

Walking a Typical Montevideo Old City Street (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

You can use the player at right to watch the movie. As for the candid pictures, they are in the slideshow at left. Click in the lower corner of any picture (where there is a little arrow) to move back and forth through the show, and you can track your progress through the 43 pictures by referring to the index numbers in the upper left corner of each image. We hope you enjoy these candid pictures from our morning in Montevideo!

We enjoyed just wandering this morning, and we got to see a good deal. Without a guide along, though, in many cases we had no idea what we were looking at or even what was significant and deserved more time. This afternoon, on our guided tour, we hope to rectify some of whatever "shortchanges" we did this morning.

Our Guided Tour of Montevideo

There weren't a great many tours here in Montevideo to choose from; most of them were to points outside the city anyway, and we thought trying to get a bit more familiar with Montevideo itself should be first on our list. So we opted to join a busload of other folks for a guided tour of what turned out to be the same part of the city we'd seen in the morning.

At right is an aerial view of the western part of Montevideo, which is the stubby, short peninsula that is bounded by the Bay of Montevideo on the north and west and the River Plate (which might as well be the South Atlantic ocean) on the south.

Our tour began at the ship when we boarded a bus that drove everyone into the Old City and to our dropoff point at the Ciudadela (old fortress gate). Once we got off the bus, we walked around with our guide, mostly in the area around Plaza Independencia but also again through the streets of the Ciudad Viejo.

As I did with our morning tour, I'll break this one up into more manageable chunks, with each section focused on a particular site we stopped at or a particular walk we took. And, also as I did with the morning tour, I'll mark on the aerial view the locations of some of the places we stopped.

The tour bus picked us up on the pier about two in the afternoon, and we drove out the port gate and hung a left towards the end of the peninsula where the old city of Montevideo is. Then we turned south on the Rambla. The Rambla Gran Bretana is an avenue that goes all along the coastline of Montevideo, from the bay inlet to the east along Rio de la Plata. It is over twenty miles long, and is kept company by the world's longest continuous sidewalk. Along the route are numerous points of interest.

The Cathedral of The Most Holy Trinity This Anglican Church dates back to the 1830s and was made possible through the sole effort of Samuel Fisher Lafone. The church was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century as part of the development of the Rambla.

Monument to the Viscount of Mauá on the Rambla The Viscount was a Brazilian Empire businessman, politician, deputy of Emperor Pedro II. He operated companies in the railway, shipping, iron and steel, and gas and electricity areas.

We just went a mile or so until the bus could turn north on Ciudadela and the Liniers, which brought us to the Ciudadela itself- the old fortress gate we'd first seen this morning. The bus let us all off here and we joined out guide to walk through the gate and into Plaza Independencia.

In the Plaza Independencia

Of course, Fred and I had just been to the plaza a few hours earlier with Greg, so much of what our guide had to say about it simply added to our understanding of what was here in the plaza and what buildings were around it.

Our Guide in Plaza Independencia

Our guide pointed out the Palacio Salvo at the east end of the plaza, and talked a bit more about its history. The 330-foot-tall building, finished in 1928, was built on the site where a restaurant noted for being where the tango "La Cumparsita" was written. It was originally intended to be a hotel, but is now a mix of offices and private residences- including a museum to the tango. Fred was able to get a nice closeup of the tower.

As we did this morning, we took some candid shots while our guide was talking, and here are some of them:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

To get to our next stop of interest, we left the Plaza by the southwest corner, past the Executive Office Building that houses the ministries and staff that work closely with the Uruguayan President, and to the Teatro Solis.

The Teatro Solis

The Solís Theatre (Spanish: Teatro Solís) is Uruguay's most important and renowned theatre. The building, designed by the Italian architect Carlo Zucchi, opened in 1856 here in Montevideo's Old Town, right next to the Plaza Independencia.

Teatro Solís

The history of the Solís Theatre actually began around 1840, when the first document appeared on the 25th of June, 1840 when a stockholders society was created. This group wanted to build an important theatre for Montevideo in those years and then rent it for events and such; this is how the group would recoup their investment.

The Teatro Solis circa 1860

The official inauguration of the Solís Theatre (named after the Spanish explorer who discovered the River Plate) was finally on August 25, 1856, in presence of the Uruguayan President Gabriel Antonio Pereira; the the Opera "Ernani" written by Verdi was the premiere performance.

Tomás Giribaldi's La Parisina, considered the first Uruguayan national opera, was premiered at the Solís on September 14, 1878.

The theatre's owners also wished to build side buildings which they could rent to take advantage of the theatre itself drawing people to the area. They envisioned stores and apartments there, all of which would generate rent income for the stockholders group. These side buildings were built between 1869 and 1874, according to a plan created by the French architect Victor Rabu.

Fred and I at Teatro Solis

Important for historians, the stock company kept good records from which we have learned a lot about the original operation of the theatre and each of every one of those money sources. From this analysis is clear the theatre's independence from the side wings as well as the separate nature of the individual stores created many little streets to provide access to the area. This kind of separated all the businesses, and this lack of contact and inter-relationship meant that while the theatre was doing what it was designed to do, the businesses and residences were not as profitable (and busy) as they could have been.

The Sunburst Above Today's Facade

The second period of the theatre's history began in 1937 when the City government of Montevideo bought the theatre and changed its role from that of a profit-making private structure to a municipal one- much like a civic auditorium. Performances of various kinds were still staged (with the city taking a cut of the proceeds), but the city also held public events there. Over time, these municipal uses generated the need for other space, and it was the side buildings that were taken over for these purposes.

Apparently, there was much confusion as the design of the side building areas had been for commercial or residential use, and these designs were less efficient for the new municipal uses to which those buildings began to be put. The problems got worse, and even the main structure- the theatre- was beginning to suffer. Reports from the time even said that without major work, the building was in danger of literally becoming unsafe. This was the situation in the early 1990s.

The Blanes Monument

After a small fire in 1998, the authorities decided to close the theatre in order to study the viability of its restoration. A team of professionals and technicians concluded that restoration was both possible and essential. In 1998, the government of Montevideo started a major reconstruction of the theatre, which included two new columns designed by Philippe Starck. The reconstruction was completed in 2004 with the theatre reopened taking place in August of that year. During the reopening ceremony, a memorial to Juan Manuel Blanes (1830 – 1901), a noted Uruguayan painter of the Realist school, was dedicated.

The frontal area was restored including the main façade. One change made was to remove the rear and side entrances to the building (where "lower class" folks used to enter the hall), and now everybody enters the theatre through the main doors located at the front; reports of the restoration refer to this as "the democratization of the Teatro Solís".

Flanking the main entrance are now the two circular wings, and each has a nice sheltered porch wrapping around it. Just inside, our group passed a display of vintage Teatro Solis materials and came into the lobby area. Hanging here is an empire-style chandelier rescued from the old building and meticulously restored. It mirrors the design of the ceiling chandelier in the main hall.

The Practice Hall

Our tour got to have a guide to take us through the building, and after giving us some of the historical information I've referred to above, she led us off to the right side of the building to take us in to one of the small practice and/or performance halls.

On the way, we passed the main stairs up to the mezzanine level and we also passed a row of some of the seats from the old building; during the renovation, most of them were replaced. In the performance hall, our guide gave us information about the 1998-2004 renovation where these small halls were added.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Leaving this small performance space, we went back out to the main lobby to wait out turn to go into the main hall (where, apparently, two small tour groups can sit on different sides of the hall).

Going Into the Main Hall (Mouseover Image Above for Video Controls)

I wasn't sure it would turn out well (and it isn't all that great, as it happens), but as our guide opened the main doors and we walked around the curved hallway to one of the doors into the hall itself, I did make a movie. The hall was kind of dark, but once inside the hall I was able to step aside out of people's way and pan around the hall for a few moments. That movie is at right.

Right away, I tried to get a good picture of the ceiling chandelier (also restored from the old building), but mine wasn't much good, although it did show clearly the decorative ceiling mouldings. Fred got a good picture of the chandelier, though, as well as closeups of some of the decorative elements and pictures of the left and right balconies:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The inside of the hall was, as I expected it would be, quite beautiful. Not as ostentatiously decorated as some we have seen in Europe or elsewhere, but very, very nice. When out guide gave us time to take pictures, I put together some panoramic views. First, here is the best of those views taken from the back of the hall:

Looking Towards the Stage from the Rear of the Hall

You might note that there is some very nice scrollwork along each balcony, and Fred got a pretty good closeup of one example of it. From the back of the hall, I took three separate pictures looking towards the performance stage, as I think they they give a better impression of the size of the hall than does the panoramic view above:

Certainly the view from the back of the hall is impressive, but what kind of view to the performers have? To find out, I went down to the middle of the hall right in front of the stage (which we weren't allowed to go up on) to get a picture looking out at the hall.

The problem was that I wasn't far enough from the back of the hall to get the kind of picture I wanted, so I had to resort to a different kind of stitched picture. I might say that I now have a phone whose camera will do this automatically, but I took a series of six pictures in two rows and then stitched them together (trying my best to reduce the perspective distortions). So think of the picture at left as a series of six pictures in two rows of three. Actually, I think it turned out well.

In another picture of the stage from the rear of the hall, you can see that there is a fresco above it. My closeups of it did not turn out well, but Fred's were much better:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We enjoyed our tour inside the Teatro Solis; it is one of the most famous buildings in Montevideo. I doubt we would have been able to see as much if we had come by ourselves this morning. When we left, our tour guide laid out generally the route that we would take to walk back across the Ciudad Viejo to the port. Along the way, we made two stops- one at a place Fred and I had visited earlier in the day, and another we'd passed but not gone inside.

Plaza Constitucion (Plaza Matriz)

From the Teatro Solis, our guide led us on a zigzag course over towards Plaza Constitucion, a place that Fred and Greg and I had visited earlier in the day.

The Fountain in Plaza Constitucion

This is the oldest Plaza in Montevideo; it is very pretty and has lots of trees. It would be nice to live near it, if one were living in Montevideo. There are a number of old buildings that border the square, such as the Cathedral and the Cabildo, both of which were built in the early part of the 19th century. The fountain in the middle is a nice change from the statues with famous people riding a horse (as in the Plaza Zabala a few blocks away); this one is more like a European fountain, heavy on the cherubs.

We stopped here in the square for a while, while our guide (shown in the middle picture below) talked to us about the story of Uruguay's constitution- appropriate as that document is the square's namesake. Here are a few more pictures taken here in Plaza Constitucion:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

(Incidentally, when you look at the panoramic image of the square below, you'll be able to pick out just where in the square each of the above pictures were taken.)

Earlier this morning, the light wasn't really right for me to try to create a panoramic view of the square; some pictures would be looking at the sun, some not. It was better this afternoon, so I thought I would let my little camera give it a try. The result is in the scrollable window below:

The Rambla

If you'll remember from my description of our bus ride from the port to Plaza Independencia, we took a route along the Rambla which, here in Montevideo, is not a pedestrian street like the one in Barcelona, but rather a wider, more multi-use thorofare. There is the avenue along the river, plus sidewalks and parks and numerous public buildings and parks. As we were walking from Plaza Constitucion to Palacio Taranco, Fred and I could look down some of the streets to our left and see the water, so we asked our guide whether we could walk the three blocks to the water, look around, and then meet up somewhere. With Plaza Zabala as our rendevous point, we did just that, and when we got down to the water took a number of pictures. The best of these was this panorama that I constructed from a few separate images:

Looking East Along the Rambla (another nice place to live)

Palacio Taranco

Reuniting with the group in Plaza Zabala, we headed across the street to Palacio Taranco.

The Public Entrance to Palacio Taranco

The actual entrance to the Palacio, shown in the picture at left, is a block from Plaza Zabala, even though the the garden of the palacio is actually right across the street from Plaza Zabala. (You can see that plaza at the top of the street to the left of the palacio in the picture at left.) So we walked down that street, past the garden's east wall to get to the main entrance.

Palacio Taranco is right in the heart of the Ciudad Viejo- the Old City of Montevideo. It was a palace (that word not always being used for a royal residence in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian cultures) erected in the early 20th century during a period in which the architectural style was influenced by French architecture. It was designed by French architects Charles Louis Girault and Jules Chifflot León, who also designed the Petit Palais and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, on commission from a prominent local family.

The palace was erected on the site of Montevideo's first theatre- the San Felipe Theatre, formerly the Casa de Comedias- which was built in 1793 in the historical center of the city. The Taranco Ortiz family commissioned the construction of the building in 1907 and it was completed in 1910.

In 1943 the Uruguayan state purchased the residence and part of the furniture and gained access to its works of art, but it wasn't until 1972 that it became a museum, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

The Main Stairway

The house is not actually all that big (although I'll admit that we didn't see all the rooms), but it was very, very nicely-decorated (again, I have no idea how much of the decoration was original to the house). As you can see, the walls and ceilings featured lots of scrollwork and gold filigree.

At the time we visited, the museum was recalling a tour from the late 1920s during which the American-born French entertainer, Josephine made an appearance at Montevideo's Urquiza Theatre (then the Estudio Auditorio). The exhibition, entitled "Scenic Montevideo- from Casa de Comedias to Teatro San Felipe", brought together period material on the history of that tour, which accounts for the sculpture of Josephine Baker in the entrance hall.

The building houses Montevideo's Decorative Arts Museum, but there is also an important collection of Classical Art and Archaeology in the basement, consisting of artifacts of ceramics, glass, and bronzes and various items related to Greco-Roman and Near East art and archaeology. I went down to have a look, but with the lighting, I didn't think that pictures of some of those exhibits would turn out very well.

The museum also has collections of various textiles, from Persian curtains to Flemish tapestries, and has displays of various ointments, oils, and perfumes. The palace is often used as a meeting place by the Uruguayan government.

The Museum of Decorative Arts contains various paintings, sculptures, textiles, ornaments, and European furniture. On the ground floor and first floor of the building can be found some finely-inlaid furniture of the Louis XV and Louis XVI periods. There was also artwork all over the place but, oddly, I don't think I'd heard of any of the artists (e.g., Ribera, Teniers, Mierevelt, Van der Helst, Benlliure, and Landowski), but maybe you have.

But the decoration and furniture in the various rooms was pretty amazing; here are a selection of views of what we saw inside Palacio Taranco:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

What was, I imagine, the original front of the house facing Plaza Zabala, had sets of doors that opened out onto a porch and a very nice, but certainly not ostentatious, garden- separated from the park by a wrought iron fence. Here, we had the opportunity to wander about for a while and take a few pictures:

Walking Through the Ciudad Viejo

In this last section devoted to this afternoon's excursion, I'd like to put some of the candid pictures that Fred and I took on the way back to the ship. These pictures were taken both before and after the stops that I talked about above. First, how about a couple of pictures that illustrate a contrast (although exactly what that contrast is has escaped me):

So here I am, sitting by a fountain a couple of blocks from Teatro Solis on the Rambla. A pretty normal scene.

Towards the end of our walk, we walked by these offices (the company being a maritime supplier/warehouser). I was across the street from the group, not because I was scared or intimidated, but because I thought the picture was too good to miss.

Actually, here I am beside that same fountain, although we are looking off in another direction. I am always intrigued by common street scenes; they are something of a rest from oft-photographed tourist sites. Here are a couple from our walk- along with a colorful store window:

As was true in Rio, there was a fair amount of "street art" (complex graffiti), although I really didn't see any instances where someone had put this art on a public building; it was mostly on walls that would have been bare otherwise, and in out-of-the way places. This was the most complex- a piece of art easily 100 feet long on a wall bordering a vacant lot (and I had to stitch three pictures together):

As for what the wall art represents, your guess is as good as mine.

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For the other street scenes, let's use a short slideshow. Rather than write comments on the pictures, here are a few by way of explanation:

1/12 The Executive Offices and Teatro Solis
2/12 A Famous Uruguayan Actress (1922-2014)
4/12 Certainly a different perspective...
7/12 The Strawberry Alarm Clock sang about this.
10/12 He actually made interesting stuff.
11/12 "Trump wants Bolivian lithium, Chilean copper, and Venezuelan oil. What will they do right if they come for the water?" (As to the meaning of that last part, my literal translation might be way off.)

The slideshow is at left. Use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to go from one to another, and use the index numbers in the upper right to track your progress and relate the comments above.

Our walk ended up, of course, back at the entrance to the port. We never picked up the bus again once it dropped us at Plaza Independencia. We covered a lot of the same ground we'd been over this morning, but the perspectives and knowledge of the guide made it very worthwhile.

We were back on board in time for afternoon tea, and the ship departed for the long (100 miles) trip west across Rio la Plata to our final port of call- Buenos Aires.

You can use the links below to continue to another album page.

	December 3, 2019: Buenos Aires, Argentina (Day 1)
	November 29, 2019: A Visit to Rio de Janiero, Brazil
	Return to the Index for 2019