As we departed the ship and drove through the city to our first destination I quickly realized that the area surrounding the bay of Montevideo seemed very abandoned. Just like in Puerto Madryn there was an elephant graveyard of abandoned ships, this time even bigger, I counted at least 26. Then the bay area seemed to have a lot of abandoned buildings and vehicles, including an abandoned train station and trains. I personally find areas like this very intriguing and could spend days there with my camera. Such history and mystery. Unfortunately we were simply driving through.
We also drove through some of the poorest areas or Uruguay. The conditions and sizes of the houses reminded me a lot of what I had seen in Jordan.
One thing was very clear though from the beginning though, Uruguay has a lot more vegetation compared to desert of Puerto Madryn, it was a nice change. This is also where the fun facts come in. Much to my surprise almost every tree that Uruguay has is imported from other countries, many of them eucalyptus trees from Australia.
There were also many wind turbines as you drove around the countryside, these provide Uruguay with 95% of their energy, as they have to import any petrol they need.
Uruguay also has 12 million heads of cattle, that’s 4 cattle per person with it’s population of just over 3 million people. Their population also has the lowest birth rate and longest life expectancy in South America. They attribute this life expectancy to their consistent consumption of wine.
We soon arrived to the La Rábida, a family owned and operated ranch currently in it’s 5th generation.
At La Rábida we took a quick gander at the river Rio de la Plata before enjoying a lunch with El Guachos and their traditional cuisine. This meal consisted of lots of local meat that they raise there on the ranch. It was very delicious.
After lunch El Guachos showed us how to milk a cow, where their water comes from and then took those interested on cow hide rides. It was incredibly entertaining to watch my Grandma take part in this exciting experience! I’ll let the photos do the rest of the speaking there.
On our return trip to the ship we quickly visited the Parliament building of Uruguay and the Plaza of Independence where you can find the Presidential palace and the Canadian Embassy.
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