We spent 15 days in Uruguay and it’s time to review the big three B’s: Brilliant, Boring & Brutal.

The Brilliant

So let’s talk about what we loved about Uruguay.

1. People – The people were kind and helpful everywhere we went. We didn’t have a single incident of anyone going out of their way to be a “Karen” or creating any kind of issues. Generally, most people were friendly and talkative (in Spanish).
2. Beef & Veggies – The meat is outstanding, very organic and I can practically commune with the cow and the grass it’s been fed to produce majestic beef. The veggies are fresh and organic and loved every bite.
3. The Promenade – The “Rambla” is a large boardwalk all along the cost of Montevideo and it features a pedestrian and cycle pathway. Loved every minute of the expansive endless coast line and sea!
4. Museums – Many of the museums were free and interesting although some had odd hours or were closed some days – always check before going.
5. Wine – There are a ton of great tasting wines and they are relatively low cost too!
6. Art & Teatro Solis – The Solis Theater was impressive and great. Truly love the art scene here with various artists developing some really great art from hand crafted sculptures, paintings, T-shirts, jewelry and other items.
7. Safety – We kept hearing “stories” of someone somewhere being threatened by a man with a machete but never saw any crime or felt unsafe anywhere in Montevideo. There are a few homeless people so don’t let your guard down but we felt safe 99% of the time. Crime does happen everywhere.
8. Card Acceptance – My credit cards were accepted everywhere and didn’t have any issues with ATMs although a few expats we talked to said they had issues withdrawing money at some ATMs.

The Boring

Let’s talk about what we found boring and needs some improvement.

1. The restaurant scene is boring. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great restaurants in Uruguay but the main problem is variety of dishes, expansion of different cultural foods, and more variation within menus. Practically everyone here has the same menu and there seem to be only four main food groups: milanesas, asados, chivitos, pasta. We ate at a highly recommended Indian restaurant run by actual Indians but the food was bland even after ordering “spicy” and we suspect it’s because the people here don’t like flavorful spicy food so it’s toned down and boring. The story was the same for other variations of food. We hope that as Uruguay grows there will be more food variations.
2. Punta Del Este – Visiting this seemingly large city with towering high rises along a very long coast you would think there would be a lively food scene and more things to do but it’s a tourist town and fairly boring if you go during the off season. We’re here in the winter and there is really zero reason for visiting Punta Del Este aside from visiting a few landmarks. The few restaurants that were open were good but not enough.
3. Apartments – We stayed in an apartment during our first couple of weeks here and it was a great little apartment but it did not have amenities like a gym, swimming pool or remote work office space. Many of the apartment buildings don’t feature any amenities as far as I can tell from reviewing property websites so if you desire a pool or gym you may be disappointed.
4. Office Hours & Services – Perhaps off season is different than on season but many shops or offices seemed closed during prime time and it was difficult to do things when offices/shops were closed. We arrived at one restaurant at 5 pm and were told they were closing and to come back at 8 pm!

The Brutal

Let’s talk about some serious transformation issues.

1. Dirty streets and trash everywhere. It was a bigger problem in Montevideo than Colonia or Punta Del Este but there is trash on virtually every street in Montevideo. Seriously, it makes the country look like an “emerging market” rather than the upcoming economic metropolis it can be. Easily fixed by picking up the trash, fining people heavily for littering and educating the population. Also, there is dog poop on every sidewalk, someone teach these people how to use poop bags!!!
2. Cost & Taxes – The cost of items is on par with items in the United States and Europe so don’t think you’ll be coming down here to save a ton of money. Exchange rates impact the “value” you derive from visiting down here but the real problem is heavy taxation of stuff. There is a rule/policy/law that foreign charged credit cards get a small refund and you’ll see that on our posted receipts and that helps a bit. Uruguay is known as “Switzerland” of South America and cost is the reason.
3. Closed Shops, Hard to Find Items – I travel with two carbon monoxide detectors when I travel and one needed a new AA battery. I had to visit a few stores before I found one that sold batteries and they were $1 USD each! Also had to travel to several shops to find a wine opener and several stores to find a network cable for a computer. Many shops in different parts of town are simply closed or have strange hours and we were told many people close shops and go on holiday in July. I had to visit 19 pharmacies to find a back brace.
4. No Mass Transit – Yes there is a bus system but with traffic it is slow, stops frequently and it’s often cheaper to take a taxi. If you plan on being here a long time, you will likely need a car to move about or be prepared to pay for taxis, Ubers, or wait on the bus.

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We headed out this morning to explore more of Montevideo so we took a taxi to NuevoCentro area.

Nice shopping mall and boots seem to be in fashion.

Mo boots.

Sadly, there is a great deal of trash on the streets of Montevideo. Part of the problem is trash cans overflow or people are lazy and toss it near the trash and not in it. We have seen trash like this everywhere in Montevideo.

The image below is of a military memorial.

After visiting NuevoCentro, we headed back to Ciudad Vieja to eat at a famous restaurant but we ran into the Uruguay Constitution Day parade.

Nicely decorated horses.

More horses

and yet more horses.

The parade was very cool featuring soldiers dressed from different eras in Uruguay’s past.

After the parade we went to this spot where Anthony Bourdain ate some great asados but it was closed.

We did find an alternative that was really good.

Ribeye steak below, cooked to perfection on a grill.

After lunch, we ran into another parade for Candombe.

After the second parade, we headed back to our hotel. To give you an idea of transportation charges from Ciudad Vieja to Punta Carretas see the options below. Taxis are usually cheaper and quicker but not always. The taxis are also a bit older cars with limited space. The taxi we took was about $10 USD from one side of town to another.

For dinner we used a popular service everyone here uses to have Rudy’s Burger delivered to our hotel. The service is called PedidosYa (Requests Now).

The service was fast and it helps the restaurant is around the corner but we were busy packing.

We leave Uruguay tomorrow for a new destination and have a final synopsis scheduled to post after we leave the country.

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Its very cold and windy outside today with a touch of drizzle so its the perfect time to visit the spa.

Nice tea setup after massage.

After searching a while for a massage place we were told about this one from an expat group. It is located in the basement of a co-location space called Opta Co-Living.

The massage was decent and only cost $40 USD.

We had tickets to theatro Soliz for Las Brujas de Salem and that’s where we spent the evening.

What do the songs YMCA, Born in the USA, Gangsta’s Paradise and Faith have to do with witches?

Well thy are featured in The Witches of Salem. It is a theatrical whirlwind—crazy zany in moments, yet rooted in serious, unrelenting truths. With non-stop action and superb acting, it catapults the audience through a kaleidoscope of emotion: from funny and absurd, to sad and sobering.

What begins as hysteria and chaos quickly unfurls into a haunting reflection of society’s recurring dance with fear, power, and persecution. This is not just a historical retelling—it’s a presently profound meditation on groupthink and the cost of silence.

The cast breathes fire and nuance into every scene, embodying the extremes of humanity with chilling conviction. In the madness of Salem, we see the madness of our own time reflected back at us. It’s a spellbinding reminder that history doesn’t stay in the past—it lives, breathes, and convicts anew.

It was a great play to watch in Theatro Soliz here in Montevideo.

Impressed with the youth of the crowd.

The theater seems to have a strange rule that couples must be seated apart. At least three couples in out area were separated. The ticketing system clearly needs improvement.

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So it was cold, rainy and foggy outside for most of the day so it was the perfect time to use the heated pool.

For lunch, I went to the mall as I needed more cash from the ATM nearby and saw that KFC was having their grand opening.

The line was very long to order.

The KFC adds to the McDonalds, Subway, Burger King and other American brands in the food court.

I wash hungry for a hot soup which seems impossible to find in Montevideo and this terrible dish below was as close as I got, couldn’t even finish a portion of it.

It was $600 pesos down the drain.

A much better lunch was at the hotel. The dish below was supposed to be lasagna but it ended up tasting pretty good. Two plates were $30 USD.

Uruguay Spanish

As for Uruguay Spanish, it’s time for another lesson. Walking around the mall there are all sorts of touts offering samples and one such example was a young lady selling scented diffuser liquids. She gave me a couple of samples and asked her if she sold them in solid form for luggage (“maletas”) because the liquids would not pass through airport security. She did not understand what I was saying. I then said “veliz” and she did not understand that either.

It turns out the word in Uruguay Spanish for luggage is “valija.” Curious I looked up the origin of the word and got this, “The word “valija” has its origins in the Italian word “valigia,” which refers to a suitcase or a leather bag.“

I had thought perhaps the word had Portuguese roots with Brazil next door but it’s actually an Italian derivation. The Italian makes perfect sense since there is a large Italian immigrant population within Uruguay and Argentina.

Breakfast

It’s been a battle ordering eggs every morning. The first few days I ordered an omelet and that was simple enough but they kept burning them so I switched to fried eggs.

Of course every time I ordered huevos fritos (“fried eggs”), I was bombarded with many questions with strange words. So to clear things up I had a conversation with ChatGPT on the topic.

In Spanish, the basic term for fried egg is “huevo frito”, but there are several types or variations depending on how the egg is cooked and served. Here are the common ones and how they’re called in Spanish:

Common Types of Fried Eggs in Spanish:

Regional Notes:

• In Spain, “huevos estrellados” usually means fried eggs served over fries and “broken” with jamón or chorizo – very popular in Madrid.
• In Mexico, “huevo estrellado” means a sunny-side-up egg (not necessarily broken).
• In Argentina and Uruguay, a fried egg is generally just “huevo frito”, but you might specify how cooked you want the yolk (e.g., “con la yema líquida” for runny yolk).

Chatgpt explains a lot but it didn’t have the terms the people here used such as “empapar el pan” or cooked running to soak in bread.

Another challenge at lunch today was when we were randomly served empanadas with our lunch. They did not appear on the menu as part of the meal we ordered. We asked what kind of meat was in them and they responded with words we had not heard before but it was pork. We always knew pork to be cerdo but the word used here was different and not even ChatGPT knows it because none of the words below match. We think it was “chancho” but not sure how that word is pronounced. Bacon we know as toncino but here it’s panceta (an Italian origin word).

In Uruguayan Spanish, the standard word for pork is:

“cerdo” – general term for pork or pig.

However, in everyday, informal speech, Uruguayans more commonly use:

“chancho” – colloquial term for pig or pork.

Here’s how it’s typically used in Uruguay:

• “Carne de cerdo” = pork meat (standard/formal)
• “Carne de chancho” = pork meat (casual/everyday)
• “Chuleta de cerdo/chancho” = pork chop
• “Bondiola de cerdo” = pork shoulder/butt (very popular in grilling)
• “Panceta” = bacon (pork belly)

Another interesting word we learned is “barbacoa” which is advertised on many apartments. Initially we thought they served breakfast because barbacoa in Mexico is a delicate and delicious meat derived from the cheek of a cow’s head and slow cooked for hours to make it very tender. In Uruguay, a “barbacoa” refers to an outdoor grill.

Uruguay has it’s own national sandwich called a “Chivito” which in Spanish means “little goat” however there is no goat in the sandwich, it’s generally a layered sandwich with egg, beef, ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce and lots of mayo and/or mustard.

Most of the challenge has been with food and menus but I wanted to find key differences so I asked ChatGPT and here is what it produced.

Food & Kitchen Items

Clothing & Everyday Items

Household & Objects

Expressions & Miscellaneous

I hope this helps as prep if and when you come down to Uruguay on holiday. Someone needs to fix the standardization and I suggest the countries with the largest populations control the language so Mexico and United States, start sorting it out!

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Started the morning with the heated pool for recharging.

Great view

Headed to the mall to pick this up at the Pandora store.

Then lunch, we thought we found a great pizza because of the wood fire oven but it was ok, not great.

Pizza served deep dish style.

Next up was a visit to the Zorrilla Museum (famous poet). It’s a really nice home.

The history is intriguing.

After the Zorilla, a quick stop to Canada Plaza

The view from a bench in Canada Square.

Then onto the end of the earth!

It was a LONG walk out here.

You can see a clear line separation ocean and river in the image below.

Nice nearby marina.

We have a dinner date with an expat group that lives here in Uruguay at a rumored Indian restaurant so we’ll see how the night goes…will report back tomorrow.

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First stop after breakfast today and our long weekend day trips was laundry. This place is right near our hotel and they charge about $8 usd per load.

Next stop was to check grocery store prices and visit the nearby mall. The Disco grocer in this area is the cleanest and largest grocery store I’ve been to so far but it has all sorts of antsy clerks with non-sensical rules. For example, I went to the self-check out with a couple of items but my card wouldn’t work so I grabbed the items and headed back toward the manned check out lane but the clerk stopped me and said I couldn’t go back with the items. I explained my card wasn’t working so he went to the terminal and did something to get my card to work. Not sure where and what I was to do with the items if the card had failed again because evidently you can’t go back to the general store area.

At lunch time found a new burger place called Rudy’s Burgers and these have been the best burgers in Montevideo!

The picture doesnt do it justice because this stack barely fit in my mouth.

No “cubiertos” tax and let’s hope they keep it that way.

After lunch I walked the Punta Carretas mall but there wasn’t anything unique or spectacular about it. There is a movie theater, standard clothing shops, several optometry shops, and food court with many American chains: Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, KFC and a SBarro.

Movie theater experience….

Its cold and foggy outside so gonna watch the Man of Steel.

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Last night we had dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. It was refreshing to see open restaurants after Ciudad Viejo.

Sushi roll below, loaded with sauces

Different roll, loaded with sauces

So this restaurant near our hotel has a heavy “cubiertos” tax of $340 pesos or $8 USD. We got two slices of bread when we sat dowb.

This morning we are off to Punta del Este. Our first stop was an old whale perch to watch whales now removed and replaced with the whale tail.

During the September and October, mother whales being their young here to train them how to hunt.

Interesting pier.

There are sea lions in the bay by the fish market hoping for scraps or generous fishermen.

Fish market below.

Sucker sea likn thought this guy had fish.

We ate lunch at the restaurant below, had the dreaded “cubiertos” tax.

After lunch, we stopped at this interesting intersection where if you stand at the center you can see four different bodies of water in the distance: atlantic ocean, bahia de maldonado, rio de la plata, canal de lobos.

The Punta de las Salinas is the southernmost point in Uruguay and a WWWII naval battle happened in the area.

The Hand.

The bridge below is known as Puente Leonel Veira and is famous for the wavy design. We drove over it in both directions and felt like a roller coaster.

Our last stop was casapuebla which is an amazing house on top of mountain with a view of the sun set. The house features many different works of art.

Two hour drive back to Montevideo….

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We headed out to Colonia Del Sacramento today but our first stop was the free (for platinum members) breakfast buffet.

Our first stop was the first and oldest church in Uruguay, the San Benito chapel.

Our next stop was the Plaza de Torros. Its a bullfighting ring.

Bull fighting is no longer allowed in Uruguay so this is now a restaurant and shopping center.

The image below is from a flyer a tout gave us and the interesting thing to note are the words “no cobramos cubiertos” which means they dont charge for table setup (cutlery, napkins, plates, etc). The last restaurant we ate at charged us U$150 ($3.70 usd) for the table setup. I hope restaurants in the U.S. dont start this trend.

Some restaurants here ask if you want to leave a “service” tip and others dont. If you’re visiting Uruguay its important to note these extra fees before ordering especially if you are on a budget.

Colonia is a great little town. Feels very warm, cozy and laid back. There are quite a few artisans here and this community caters to the retired folks so its not necessarily cheap.

It’s a 2 hr bus ride back to Montevideo so we are signing off early today!

Addendum: We had one last stop at the collectors museum. The owner holds 6 Guiness records.

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We checked out of our VRBO apartment and said farewell to our kitchen. We moved to a hotel at Punta Carretas to stay in a different part of Montevideo. Punta Carretas is a bit more upscale and modern so we’re eager to find restaurants, and shops that are open.

Checkout was at 11 a.m. and our hotel check in wasn’t ready so we left our luggage and went to a coffee shop across the street from the hotel.

After checking in we took a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe Montevideo which was located in Pocitos Nuevos to pick up an item for someone back home ;).

We checked the menu at Hard Rock and weren’t impressed so we decided to walk to “El Italiano” which came highly recommended by our taxi driver for great seafood. Below is fried “Langostinos” with panko breading.

I ordered the seafood paella and it was amazing.

Another dish was seafood ravioli. The pasta itself was black because it was made with the ink from a squid.

And the lovely price tab. Note that this restaurant charges for the initial bread offering and setup. $2820 = $71 USD.

After the heavy lunch, we decided to walk back to our hotel from Pocitos Nuevos to Punta Carretas which is about 2.6 miles. From the sign below you walk toward the beach along the crescent and around back to Punta Carretas, the weather was great.

Below is Playa Pocitos

Along the way we found this statue of Gandhi. Interesting to find Jesus and Gandhi in Montevideo. Who will we find next?

Finally made it back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we have an exciting trip so stay tuned!

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Today is our last full day in Ciudad Vieja and started packing things up but we made one last trip to eat at a restaurant Anthony Bourdain ate at here except it was closed.

We found another restaurant with similar menu and ate there call La Chacra del Puerto.

The beef steak was amazing. It was cooked on a charcoal grill so it had the added smoke flavor. Tender and juicy and melt in your mouth flavor country.

Skip the fries, they were fairly bland.

The big clue that this would be a great place was the image below indicating they are aware of the cuts of beef available in a cow.

Total tab (with tip) was $2800 ($69 USD)

We move to a hotel in Punta Carretas tomorrow and closer to more upscale environment.

The image below is of a walk along Ciudad Vieja main st.

We then walked to the Museum of Decorative Arts, essentially a large older estate home.

The exterior.

The interior conference room.

The piano room.

Exterior garden.

After the estate visit, we headed to the National Historic Museum.

Lots of old pistols and guns but the one below is my favorite as it has a tapered canon looking end.

Interesting historical painting and journal.

In the image below, you can see an offset embedded in the image. The original painting featured only men and everyone knows women exist and participate in its effects so the artist here added a layer that included women and their role during war.

Cool painting.

Our last day on this side of town so took one last photo of the vast ocean and our tiny role in it.

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