We started the morning at Flora, a cafe a few blocks from our apartment. The issue we have had even though we both speak and read spanish is that the spanish language has variations and Uruguay spanish is no different.

Above is snapshots of the menu. Can you guess what queso dambo is? We didnt know and the translator app didnt help. We asked Chatgpt:

Queso Dambo (Uruguayan cheese)

A semi-soft, mild cheese widely available in supermarkets and delis. Colonial brand offers “Dambo para sándwich” and shredded hebras varieties  . It’s sold by weight (e.g., 500 g or 3.7 kg blocks), with prices around $300 UY per 500 g at Mercatino  .

Dambo (the company)

Dambo S.A. is a well-known Uruguayan agro-export firm specializing in grains like rice, soy, and seeds. Headquartered in Rivera, with major mills including a new rice-processing plant inaugurated in Treinta y Tres in Feb 2023 by President Lacalle Pou  . Led by CEO Zeferino Escosteguy  

So in essence, “Dambo” is a name brand of cheese similar to saying “Kraft” cheese in the United States.

What about palta? Turns out that is the word for avocado here which is notmally aguacate in Spanish.

Lomito is a small cut of beef.

After breakfast, I went for a walk to look for a network cable but stopped by at some fast food places to capture food costs. The menu below is from McDonalds. $400 Uruguay = about $10 USD.

If you want a bargain value meal, there is a franchise called Mostaza that sells the combo meal below for $259 or $6.40 USD.

For lunch, I cooked up the Gourmeat outside fajita skirt meat I bought the other day. It was great, however all the beef here has a consistent organic “earth” flavor. This has been true of the short ribs, ribeye steaks and the outside skirt. I suspect the cattle is served grass and not corn for the duration of their feeding. If you come from the U.S. and eat the meat here you may be put off by the flavor but this is what real organic meat is supposed to taste like!

On our way to our afternoon wine tour, we stopped by this butcher shop which is typical of all butcher shops we have seen so far. As you can see from the photo, the selection in limited and this shop has more cuts than the usual butcher shop. For a wider selection and premium cuts, you need to visit Gourmeat.

Below were some of the sample sales of the meat market above.

This is the city winery tour where we saw a short video about the history of wine making in Uruguay.

It’s a very nice place inside but if you need a wheelchair beware that this place has three stories and only stairs.

There is a cool room on the third floor that features an immersive 360 video room that shows the history of the Pizarro wine legacy.

A scene featuring the ocean from all side and bottom of room.

Our setting outside on the third floor. Pro tip: They change the wines every few months so don’t book multiple tastings on the same week as they’ll likely feature the same wines.

The food pairings that go with each wine. Brie cheese with walnut paired with white Albarino, a “hummus” dish paired with Nebbiolo wine, a salmon on toast paired with Syrah, an empanada paired with a Tannat, and a Tiramisu dessert paired with a Pizzorno reserve blend.

The Pizzorno logo on barrel.

The winner (the one we bought) wasnt part of the tasting, we asked to try the Pizzoro Tannat reserve and our host obliged.

We also picked up some Pizzoro olive oil and Tannat infused salt.

Lastly we ordered some empanadas to eat as dinner since it was getting late.

Back to apartment to do laundry….

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Started the day at Trea Cruces shopping. Below are photos to give you and idea of how much stuff costs.

The stuff below is from a grocery store called Ingles.

After the shopping excursion it was back home for lunch to cook those ribeyes.

In the afternoon we decided to go visit the National Museum for Visual Arts. While we were waiting for our taxi, Jesus (yes, everyone’s Lord and Savior) came up to me and gave me a hug and left. He came back later and asked for some coins for coffee, I told him I didnt have any and he said there are coins in your pocket so I checked and handed them to him. Its the third time I meet big J here on earth but that’s a story for another day…

National Museum of Visual Arts

Here are some of my favorite art works.

After walking for an hour looking for an open restaurant at 5 pm, we came across this place.

Yes, it’s a Mexican restaurant in Uruguay. We lobster tacos and a mix/match of tacos (chicken, beef, lobster) – delicious!

By the way, the entire day was cold and foggy.

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The morning started with some coffee at a shop called Flor (flower). Two coffees and two chocolates was 390 pesos or about $10 USD.

After the coffee, I went on the hunt for some ribeye and outside skirt beef cuts. A Facebook group suggested a place called Gourmeat in the Pocitos neighborhood. It was too far to walk so I took an Uber taxi for about $5 to the store.

Gourmeat had a far better selection of the cuts I like and scored some outside skirt and ribeye. The outside skirt is well marbled but I wanted to verify that it wasn’t inside skirt so I asked the clerk and he said the people here don’t eat inside skirt. Clearly Uruguayans have superior meat taste buds.

Cost of the meat was $1600 pesos or $41 USD

After the beef hunt, I headed to El Mercado del Puerto in Ciudad Vieja. Lots of shops and restaurants but unfortunately many closed on Mondays.

The tout lured me into the restaurant “El Peregrino” with the promise of hot soup. He didn’t disappoint.

Next up ordered the grilled cheese and got this…

The fish of the day was amazing! It was Merzula (Hake) and I had the same fish in Ireland.

The salmon was great too! We met a couple at lunch from Virginia. They were visiting Uruguay as a potential place to retire. It seems there weren’t confident in remaining the United States much longer given the ever increasing costs of insurance, health care, food and other things.

After lunch we headed out to do some local shopping. We picked up the Canary mate herb to make teas and some chocolate cookies and other items. Then we went to see this very long pier in Ciudad Vieja.

It was a long walk down Faro de la Escollera Sarandí.

You do get a great view of Montevideo but those large block obstruct some of the view.

There is also a large shipping terminal here and there are containers stacked fairly high.

Great weather at 58 F in Montevideo.

We walked back to our apartment and saw this old smoke stack.

We landed at our apartment in the early evening and ate some empanadas we bought at the market for dinner.

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Let’s talk about groceries. We were suprised to learn where some of the foods below come from, can you guess where?

The beans on the left are from Italy. The corn is from China. The mushrooms from Uruguay and the salt and spice are unknown but likely Uruguay.

The beef here is all local but we struggle to find the right cuts of meats. Sirloin tip seems popular as its available everywhere but ribeyes, t-bones and porter loin are nowhere to be found.

We found what we think is a t-bone steak but all the label states is “asado” and they could be short ribs too. After cooking them, they were short ribs.

We had coffee at starbucks and that was a pricey endeavor. Two ham stuffed croissants and two coffees were $30 USD.

The wine has been excellent. It is fairly inexpensive for high quality. The “reserve” bottles have been under $10 USD.

We spent most of the day today a Bouza winery. A tour bus came to pick us up and take us there. It was about a 40 minute drive there and back and we spent a few hours touring the wine facility and tasting a variety of wines.

There was a wine pairing with each item below. Excellent flavor and wines were great.

We met a linguistics professor from LSU here who was doing a study abroad program with his students in Cordova, Argentina.

The wine vault holds some of the wineries most special wines.

There is an interesting collection of old antique cars and motorcycles in the main facility.

The grounds are as majestic as you’d expect for wine country.

After the winery we were a bit tired. We bought some food items at a nearby bodega for lunch then had beef leftovers and the canned food at the top of this post for dinner.

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We are staying in multiple places here in Uruguay but our first place is an apartment. Everything has been fine so far except yesterday we became trapped inside.

This apartment uses a Nuki lock and its a digital locked that can be opened and closed with an app on your phone.

The battery in the system had been running low and while we were away the owner came by to replace the battery. When we got back, we couldnt open the door. The owner thought it was a sync issue and after a few tries the door opened.

We didnt think anything of it till we were getting ready to leave for our dinner show. I tried opening the door with the app and it would not unlock. There is a nob on the inside that you can turn to unlock the bolt but it wouldnt unbolt.

The arrow below shows the bolt that kept jamming in the close position and turning the nob would not unlatch the bolt. A locksmith had to come out and disassemble the whole thing.

The pieces of the lock below. The locksmith ended up losing a critical spring during the process of dismantling it and had to cannibalize a bedroom door lock to use for the main door.

Didn’t look good and we had a show at 8:00 p.m. and this all started around 6:30 p.m.

Below was the interim solution and we luckily made it to the dinner and show.

That was all last night, this morning we started the day with our usual walk and came across “a place where good shit happens” and we can’t wait for it to open so we can see good shit happen.

Our first stop after a quick stop at a cafe for a quick breakfast was the Andes museum. This is the historical account of the plane that crashed in the Andes and the survivors had to eat some of the dead passengers. The cannibalization theme continues….

Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed inside so all I can show you are the tickets to the museum. There is a 20 minute documentary show and lots of artifacts and personnel accounts of the events. Sadly, there is no butcher shop inside the museum in case you’re wondering about “tasting” the experience.

After the museum we stopped at another historical museum that was a bit underwhelming. Not much to see here but below are the highlights.

A rendition of “favelas” by a local artist.

After the second museum we did more walking around the plaza to take in the street vendors but there wasn’t anything interesting to buy.

We did encounter the usual “influencers” doing their thing…

We struggled to find an open restaurant to eat lunch at with so many places closed but we ended up at a swarma place and had a good meal.

We did stop by the Teatro Solis to buy some tickets for an upcoming show about Salem Witches.

We also had a local Yerba Mate expert prepare Mate for us so we could experience the beverage. She gave us a long historical perspective on the origins of Mate, the uses, mineral and vitamin composition and other fun facts.

Time to go home and cook some dinner and more adventures tomorrow.

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I woke up with a bit of back pain and forgot to pack my back brace so we headed out to find somenplace that sells back braces. Along the way to twelve different pharmacies we stopped to see a few things…

The architecture in Montevideo is very interesting and unique.

We also stopped at a few shops and did a little shopping. I picked up the Yerba Mate cup bound by leather on the outside and the proper pipe to enjoy Mate.

A street vendor was selling hand-made jewelry and the piece below caught our eye. It’s an amethyst, the official stone of Uruguay.

And yes, after visiting 12 pharmacies, I found a man-sized back brace. A few pharmacies did have some in stock but they were too small. The last pharmacy we visited had the right size and I picked up the last one.

We picked up some ribs at a grocery store for dinner tomorrow night after we were done with shopping. I’ll post photos of that when we cook it.

Later this evening we have dinner and a show. Not sure if they allow photos in there but if they do I’ll upload some, if not, you’ll have to come down to Uruguay yourself to see the show!

Addendum – Show photos,

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We took a walk early this morning to get our bearings. We stopped at this statue of the Queen of Spain.

After that our first stop was Santander bank in ciudad vieja to get some cash. The currency rate is $40 Uruguay pesos to $1 and we were limited to $5000 pesos withdrawal ($120 USD). Luckily, most places here have taken our Visa or Mastercard credit cards.

Next stop La Pasiva where we had an amazing breakfast

This giant sandwich, enough for for two, features bacon, mozerella cheese, olives, palm hearts , pineapple, tomato, ham, boiled egg and generous mayo.

It was the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had! We had ordered two but the waiter warned us to eat one and if we were still hungry he could bring another.

If you’re in the area, it’s in the corner of one of the plazas.

Next stop was this old cathedral from 1748

Very nice cathedral with interesting history.

After the church we walked around to the ciudad viejo square in Montevideo.

There are small enclaves of artists quarters in this area so if you’re in the area they are worth checking out.

We stopped at a grocery store to buy some of that famous Uruguay beef. The cut of beef below is labeled Colita de Cuadril. Translated it is tri-tip or bottom sirloin flap meat.

We took the meat and cooked in the oven at 220 c (425 F) for about 30 minutes, came out great. Paired it with Don Pascual Reserve wine and it was an amazing combination.

We have dinner and show plans for tomorrow so stay tuned!

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After an 11 hour flight to Buenos Aires (delayed by 45 minutes – thanks United), a two hour wait for a ferry, then a two hour ferry ride and a two hour bus ride, we finally made it to Montevideo!

It’s been an exhausting journey but we finally made it to our rented apartment in old town where we’ll be checking out the city.

Our first stop were two underwhelming grocery stores that were more like bodegas with limited selection of times. We were so tired that we opted to buy a frozen pizza and a couple of frozen to toss in the oven for a quick dinner. We also bought some other food staples like eggs, bread, orange juice and canned beans for the week. We’ll only have a kitchen for this week then switch to hotels so stay tuned!

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