Day 20 - Montevideo

We arrived in Montevideo, Uruaguay at 8:00am and at this port there was no tender to catch, no shuttle to ride, just get off the boat and you are in the middle of the town! It was actually very easy to find your way around the capital and largest city!  

In the port you could see the many cargo containers being loaded and unloaded from the barges. Also many of the South Atlantic fishing fleet is also located in Montevideo.  

We went to Plaza Constitucion where we saw the Cabildo, which is a columned building that was built as city hall but it is now the Museum of Historical Records.  We also went into Catedral Matriz which is the oldest structure in the city from 1799.

Then we found a leather shop and cashmere shop to explore!  We walked around the old streets that still had part of the original road to Teatro Solis which was named after Juan Diaz de Solis who led the first Spanish expedition ashore on the northern bank of the Rio de la Plata in 1516.  

We then drove out of the main centre to see the sights of Montevideo. There were tons of monuments, parks and people watching to see.  Outside of the main areas, the city seemed rather poor.  There were men picking up garbage and recyclables all over the city and they would carry their findings in a large cart attached to very old horses.  Just driving around you would see several of them around, some with tires hanging off their carts, others with plastic bottles and bags, and some with just heaping piles of trash.  Then there were the dog walkers!!!

Montevideo has some beaches but they are beaches of rivers, but the waves crashing onto the shore were pretty large.  

Sights as we drove!

After leaving the city, we drove about 20 minutes to Bouza Bodega Boutique.  This winery is surrounded by vines and woods.  The area is influenced by the closeness to Santa Lucia River and its outlet into the River Plate.  

The property consisted of two vineyards - one in the region  of Las Violetas and the other one was right beside the winery in Melilla. In Melilla there are 10 hectares of Albarnino, Chardonnay, Merlot Tempranillo and Tannat. We toured the area that has been restored from the original buildings built in 1942.  We were able to see the vineyards, as well as learn about the wine making process, see the barrels and hear about how the different wines are made.  Afterwards we took a tour of the area to see the farm, and the antique car collection, then we had lunch inside the restaurant, which was very nice and very modern.  We really enjoyed Bouza and it was nice to get away from the city and have this great afternoon.