My trip to Montevideo is a two part reflection. This post is just one part as the second part takes a completely different direction. I wanted to present the very light hearted tourist things I did in a day. Life recommendation, visit Montevideo. If you need a good getaway, it is honestly just a wonderful place to see. To summarize my day. . . (or you can just watch the video at this point).
I took a 40 minute walk from Parque Rodo to Ciudad Vieja with a written map of the places I wanted to visit. During my walk through Palermo and Barrio Sur, I saw incredible street art that just continued to inspire me. My community of Grand Bourg has many murals, but nothing like this in my experience. It was amazing to see how the art was not limited to walls but also the sidewalk. There was so much representation in the art as well which is something I do not see in Argentina.
Ciudad Vieja is beautiful and clearly the tourist central as there was a Fedex Office, a number of American Hotel Chains, and street vendors. The museums were affordable. I think both were about $100 UYP which is less than $5.00 USD. The two museums were fairly small but they concentrated on only one artist each which is impressive in itself. In the video I make a comment about us not learning about Latin American artists in school but we are familiar with all of the classic European artists. This brings me to wonder why we learn more about our neighbors over the waters before our neighbors across the border.
I also saw a good amount of plazas. Everywhere there were small plazas for people to just enjoy the day long with significant statues of (insert historical figure here). Unlike others, I am not really good at just sitting around unless I am sitting on sand. I will say though, the greenery was breath taking and created a very tranquil atmosphere.
Before I headed back home I visited The Metropolitan Cathedral of Montevideo and my God was it beautiful. I joke in the video about being Catholic in a past life because no matter where I go I always find a Catholic church to visit. In the video we go around the walls looking at the various icons but there was one I noticed in particular with a brown skinned Jesus and Mary. I was so excited. Granted the rest of the statues were traditionally european but that one image I will never forget. I also pointed out how there was both a Uruguay flag and a Vatican flag on the altar. It was not until seminary did I start noticing flags on altars. There is definitely more to unpack there.
Finally I ended up back at the beach which is about a twenty minute walk in the other direction from the hostel were I stayed. I don't believe any day was over 80 degrees but the sun was powerful and the water was warm. The beach is on the river that separates Argentina from Uruguay. The water is so shallow I can walk easily 50 ft from the shore and still be less than waist deep. There were no serious waves which is essentially my ideal beach.
At this point my video recap ended but the rest of the day looked like me looking for food other than empanadas (which did not happen), walking down la Rambla, hanging out with the other hostel residents (which will be in the next blog post), and packing to head back to Argentina at 2am. I traveled for another 8 hours in the wee hours of the morning to catch at 3:45am bus, a 7am ferry, and an 8:53 train back to Grand Bourg. I fed my animals and headed to work. Just like that everything was back to normal.
#ReclaimMissionary
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