When I decided to go to Uruguay as the first step on this year’s big trip, I had a vague plan of doing a circle around the country from Montevideo, and stopping in at a few wineries along the way. When I got into the planning it became clear that essentially Uruguay was made up of one big city with nearly half the population of the country, two much smaller coastal tourist attraction towns, and the rest was a farm. With little farming towns, infrequent public transport, dodgy accommodation and nothing worth getting excited about. So my plan evolved into emphasising the winery visits and not straying too far into the hinterland. In order to make that happen I had to pay plenty of money to a nice lady called Veronica who could organise the wine side. They don’t have cellar door operations and you can’t just rock up and ask for a taste. She did a great job and I had a good time visiting eight different places where they did the magic with grapes.
Uruguay originally had nomadic indigenous inhabitants called Charrua, then the Spanish turned up and established fortresses at what are now Montevideo and Colonia de Sacramento on the mouth of the Rio Plata. This river is part of a system that drains a large part of the centre of South America, and transported a lot of trade, hence the name that means Silver River. I don’t quite know why the English name for it is River Plate, famous for where the Graf Spee got battled into submission. On the other side of the very large river mouth the Spaniards had Buenos Aires and Uruguay was a a province of Argentina. In the north were the Portuguese, now Brazil. For a fair while Uruguay was desired by both of these, there were invasions and independence revolutions, plus civil war. Eventually Argentina and Brazil agreed it could be independent if it didn’t side with either and in 1828 it finally became really independent. In 1831 the new president had a problem with the Charrua who were not happy about their land being taken away. A big meeting was arranged to sort this out. The president and the army turned up and killed most of the attendees on the spot and sent the rest into slavery. This was the start of a process of violence against them with the result that there is no evidence of any indigenous culture now. There is a sort of mythological appreciation of the brave Charrua warriors who assisted in the independence fights, but that’s a bit late to change anything.
Today it is politically similar to NZ. A bit left then a bit right, basically the same health and education policies, and it is the most sensible of the South American countries economically. They did have a military dictatorship, 1973 to 1985, which I suspect they would rather just forget about. Geographically it is lacking anything exciting. The land is gently rolling or flat, there are no mountains or even big hills. Flying over on my way to Spain showed exactly that, with rivers coiling about looking for a bit of downwards and plenty of ox-bow lakes. The main tourist attractions are Punta del Est which is a sort of Gold Coast resort town, and Colonia de Sacramento which was the old capital and has lots of old stuff and is quietly interesting. The people are mostly of European origin from when the early government needed people to come and make something of all the agricultural potential. About 2 million responded from poor parts of Europe and their influence is seen in the food and wine. The rest of the people, 11%, are descended from African slaves and that shows up in the music. The population is about 3.4 million, 1.4 live in Montevideo and the next most populous city is 100,000.
Uruguayans have three big passions, to generalise, which are football, matè tea, and bbq steaks of a considerable size. They won the first World Cup and once again in 1950. The guide of the free tour I did in Montevideo told us they had two serious clubs and showed a tattoo on his calf muscle of one called Nacional. When I asked what the other one was called he said he could not bring himself to say it. (It is Penarol). Matè tea is a bitter herb concoction drunk through a curved metal straw from a cup thing. People appear to be seriously addicted and walk around with the cup in one hand and carrying a thermos of hot water in the other. There are special shops selling all the required gear. I tried it once in Argentina, and haven’t wanted to do a repeat. The beef addiction is because they have a lot of meat available, and it doesn’t take long for visitors to be told they have more beef cattle per head of human population than any other country. Only once did I get a meal of steak that I could finish. My first meal was a dish with slices of beef as the base and other stuff on the top all covered in melted cheese. It was huge and I could only eat half, so I had it packed up and gave it to an old street guy who prentended to help people park their cars outside Palacio Salvo. There is a fourth addiction I think, which is dogs. In Montevideo it seemed like there were as many as people and not everyone picks up the resultant mess. You have to be on constant alert when walking on a footpath because the standard of paving can suddenly go from fine to broken, and adding the need to miss the dog contributions means una problema if your attention strays.
I travelled through enough country to see lots of black Angus cattle, lots of black and white dairy cattle, and plenty of eucalyptus plantations for nearby paper mills. I was told the trees get harvested at 5 years which I thought was bit quick, but was assured that was the case. The farms generally looked a little more messy than NZ ones, and the standard of rural housing was less than ours. There were a few flasher houses but nothing to compare with the Agricultural Correspondent’s modern mansion. There was also a fair bit of cropping and maize looked predominant, apparently mostly for oil. I am presently flying over heading northwest and it looks the same as the south did so I am glad I didn’t spend a week looking at the same scenery.
I enjoyed all my winery visits. They were a good collection with each being different. Two were owned by rich Argentinians and are what I would describe as vanity projects, because looking at the cost of the buildings and gear it’s difficult to see them ever making a commercial return. But that is great for the end product consumers and visitors. Another one was started in 1859 by Italian immigrants and several others also had that background. Most of the visits were quite formal with a nice table setting for me, and sometimes others, and heaps of food plus the wines. The one I enjoyed the most was done by a 5th generation lady who was the boss and delighted to have such an exotic visitor as me! Wine tourism is a newish phenomenon there, and all of the visitors I met were from Brazil or Argentina. You can do a day visit from Buenos Aires to the area around Colonia as the ferry takes only one hour. Their major wine product is from the Tannat grape, originally from the south of France, and it makes a strong red that funnily enough goes well with BBQ steak. But they seem to have a big choice of other varieties including some obscure ones unknown to me. I didn’t find a white wine to get excited about.
Montevideo dominates the country and like any big city has lots of internal differences. On arrival I spent a few days in the old city, where the original fortress and the port were. I stayed in an apartment on the fourteenth floor of the big landmark in that area. The building, Palacio Salvo, was finished in 1928 and was then the tallest in South America. It’s showing its age now and the apartment was practical but not an interior designers dream. The old city was a bit scruffy but has lots of bars and restaurants, and that was where I did the free tour. I am pretty certain I was three times the age of everyone else in that group but had a few chats with others and the guide was very good. Before leaving the country I was back in another area of Montevideo where tall modern apartment buildings lined up looking out over the river, which looks like the sea, and restaurants cost more and impose a cover charge. My last meal was in a memorable bar that began it’s existence 107 years ago. Despite the cover charge it was a delight to be there which was helped by my glass of good Tannat being very large and well priced.
The city is a peninsular and has lots of beaches and wide paved ramblas, walking promenades, connecting them all up. These are well used and in the weekends full of people walking, riding, sitting about drinking matè, and a lot of men pretending to catch fish. I saw literally hundreds of lines in the water, and being cast, but no fish. I took an Uber to catch the bus when I left for Colonia and my female driver reckoned all those men were just there to drink beer and tell lies. I didn’t ask if she was married. I went to a small museum about the plane crash onto the Andes in 1972 when the Uruguayan rugby team survivors had to consume some bits of their dead team mates to survive. It wasn’t a smart modern museum but I found it quite moving.
From Montevideo I went west along the coast to Colonia where I looked at all the old stuff and did a private tour with the guide who took me to two wineries in the area. I learnt the Portuguese built their roads to drain down the middle and the Spanish made them rounded to drain down the sides – examples still exist. From there I went further around the river to Carmelo for a couple more wineries. It is a town of about 15,000 population, has a plaza and not much else, apart from a surprisingly nice hotel. Then back to Montevideo for some more wineries.
Now I am in on my convulated way to Barcelona which involves three flights and if I make to Barcelona on time and find my bag on the carousel I will be very relieved.
The real reason I went to Uruguay was because I hadn’t been there. When doing my first visit to South America in 1973 I didn’t go there because the visa was very expensive. Having now been and had a look I can say it is a nice and sensible country, and I am happy to have had my visit, but I wouldn’t try and convince anyone that it is a must visit destination.
Hasta Luego.
Dennis.
1018 River Road
Hamilton 3210
New Zealand
johnscons
0274 929792