Day 3 – Montevideo, Uruguay – Chasing Summer

This morning began with a quick stop to guest services to double-check that I didn’t need my passport. They assured me that any piece of valid id would do. I don’t know if this is a cruise ship perk, so I’d still recommend that people bring their passport with them if traveling to Uruguay by boat. In the end, as long as I had my cruise key card, nobody official cared who I was.

After checking that out, I headed up to breakfast. The boat was an hour behind schedule, so it was going to make a short port stop even shorter.

Uruguay Harbor

The main dining hall was packed with people getting food before the gangway would open to allow passengers to disembark. There was a good selection of fruit, cereal, hot dishes and cold. It definitely leans towards a more Western breakfast selection with biscuits and gravy and an omelet station.

I had booked a tour at this port, Uruguayan Beef and Craft Beer. So, I headed to the theatre where tour groups were asked to assemble.

Mine was the last to depart, but the bonus of starting a trip with a tour like that is you definitely know you have a lot in common with your fellow tourists. I mean, we all passed up vinyards, tango tours, biking tours, and a few other cultural or historical groups for beef and meat.

We did do a few city highlights before getting to the brewery.

Independence Square

First up was Independence Square. This is the most important square for Montevideo. Surrounding the square is the presidential offices, Theatre, Canadian Embassy (lol), and old bridge entrance, to name a few.

Old entrance – open from 6am to 6pm back innthe day

Once was a family home, then the presidents, and now a museum

In the square itself is plenty of green space 4 fountains (one in each corner), kiosks at each side, and in the center a statue of their local hero, Artigas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Gervasio_Artigas

Here, oddly, we lost a tourist. I have no idea what happened with the gentleman. We had waited 10 extra minutes and looked for him but had no luck, so we left. We were only a 15-minute walk back to the boat, so perhaps he changed his mind? This is your reminder to be on time.

We had two more stops at the palacio legislavito and monumento la carreta.

Finally, the bus got to Matute, our brewery where we spent some time sampling 4 beers and 4 different meats. It was delicious. My favorite was the Imperial Stout. I had two other full sized beers, I needed to try a couple more, and they cost me the equivalent of $9 total. It’s pretty cheap for craft beer.

Sitting together, I made friends with two ladies from Florida, Mary and Susan, and Felipe from Brazil. We made plans to get together for dinner and drinks later.

On the way back to the boat, we still had 90 minutes until all passengers needed to be back on board, so I got off to see a market near the port.

There, I found the funkiest gallery, but I’m trying to travel light, so I resisted the urge to buy anything there that I needed to cart around. A few magnets and a bottle of local Tannet wine that I will drink on the boat later, I made my way back to the Norwegian Star.

For dinner, 5 of us solo travelers, including Mary and Susan, went for dinner at the Versailles. It is a little fancier than the buffet but still free. I went for Thai.

Three of us headed to Gatsby’s Champagne bar to meet a few others. There was no champagne to be had, but many other tasty drinks that our fabulous bartenders Rico, Hans (solo) and I Don’t Know were delighted to create for us and anyone close to our orbit that wanted to join in.