Day 6 - It doesn't mate to me

Montevideo

The next morning we did our usual trick after arriving in a new city and took a "free" walking tour. As I'm sure we've said before, they're a great way to get some local knowledge and history while gathering an understanding of the lay of the city and finding places we might want to visit later.

I wonder what General Artigas would think
of that ugly apartment apartment building behind him?

Our guide was was good fun and imparted lots of local knowledge in a relaxed easy manner. The old town of Montevideo is quite compact and easy to walk around, and although Uruguay is a bit different to the cities we visited in Spain where there was always plenty of life and a place to stop for a drink, it still had some great places, like the Mercado near the port which consisted almost exclusively of barbeque restaurants,

Montevideo is the first place we have seen where the police ride segways, quite hard to take them seriously when they are getting around on toys. We also saw lots of people carrying around thermoses - that's so they can drink their mate (like a bitter green tea) any time they choose. Of an evening there were also lots of people walking their dogs - nearly all small to medium sized poodles, and the occasional sausage dog.