Arriving in Montevideo International Airport reminded me of landing at a regional airport in Australia. The luggage carousel broke down, the customs and immigration was quick and before you knew it you were outside! After my Chilien experience with the Taxi's I was determined to catch the bus from the airport to my hostel! I managed to get the bus numbers written down and the drop off address so when I got on the bus I showed the driver where I wanted to go and paid my 15 pesos. It was about a 45 min bus trip in to the city and I'm really glad I did it as I saw where the average Montevidean lives.
The hostel was clean and nice and full of fun people. I went on a short explore around the old city (Ciudad Vieja) close to my hostel and along the main shopping strip to get myself oriented when I first arrived. That night I went out to a free gig with a couple of the girls from my room before heading to bed for another early night. The next day I hird an old and slightly rusty bike from the hostel and went for probably a 15 km bike ride along La Rambla, which gave good views back to the city. Then I rode back through a pretty park and some back streets to the main crossroads. I cycled up the hill to the parliament building then back to the hostel in Ciudad Vieja. I found the city felt safe but it was clear that the city and the people had seen better times as the city was run down in places and there were a number of beggers and people on the edge of society as well as those who were comfortably well off. That afternoon I went on Municipally run "City Tour" as the only non-spanish speaker I ahd my own personal guide and with the help of my phrase book and mini-dictionary we managed to understand each other reasonably well! It was a really interesting tour and went into Greater Montevideo not just the city area so I got a much better idea of how the city fitted together as a whole.
For the weekend before the conference I decided to head to Buenos Aires and booked on to Buequbus for a bus/ferry trip to Argentina. I was travelling with another girl from the hostel, Annaleise, who fortunately spoke Spanish as it turned out that there was a strike at the bus terminal and we ended up having to wait a few hours before our bus left (not from the terminal, but from a street a couple of blocks away!). When it broke down on our way to Colonia we wondered whether we would ever get to Buenos Aires! Fortunately there was a ferry we could catch so we arrived at our hostel at around 8 pm rather than 4 pm! More on BA in the next installment!
The gate to the old city
old meets new
The old square
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