Uruguay Part 1
Uruguayan food & culture
Nov 2022
We spent 12 days in Uruguay waiting for Pedro. We didn't intend to stay this long and we will be returning to Uruguay in a couple of months to explore more of the country as we've only seen Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento so far.
The first thing we noticed was that Uruguay is expensive. Having just come from Costa Rica, which was in many ways more expensive than London, we were looking forward to the respite of cheaper living costs in South America. That wasn't the case. Prices are again similar to what you would expect in London (ÂŁ5/6 for a pint and a main meal in a restaurant ~ÂŁ12).
The most distinctive culinary themes in Uruguay are Parillas (BBQ), empanadas, Chivitos, and Mate.
Empanadas!!!!
These little gems can be found in most South American countries, and we will be scoring empanadas in each country as we go. We chose a small hole-in-the-wall empanada stall.
The verdict: Moist, mixed chicken and veg filling, soft pastry, and soft-ish crust.
Taste: 7 Appearance: 8 Texture: 7 Crust: 7 Price: ÂŁ2
Overall: 7/10
Parilla & Chivitos
We didn't know that Uruguay has one of the highest meat consumptions in the world, and there are parillas, open-fire barbecue restaurants, on every corner. We didn't sample this here because Argentina is the parilla capital, and that's our next stop so we're saving it for then (also much cheaper).
Chivitos are the fast food of choice and are sold on the street. This is a sandwich crammed full of meat, which didn't look so appetising to us but after being encouraged multiple times to try one, we did, and that confirmed that it wasn't for us.
Mate - a Uruguayan addiction
Everywhere you go in Uruguay, you will see people holding leather holsters, and a little wooden cup with a metal straw, and a very large flask under their arm. On closer inspection, the wooden cup is filled to the brim with tea leaves. Every second person in the street is carrying this, and in parks a dedicated person seems to bring the Mate and groups of friends pass it around.
They don't sell it in cafes, so we struggled to try it to see what all the fuss was about because we didn't fancy buying all of the gear! However, our new friend Brian (more on Brian later), made us some Mate as he insisted you can't come to Uruguay without trying it.
The process is to just pour a small amount of hot water at a time from the flask, into the cup of leaves and then drink through the straw. We'd describe the taste as a much stronger green tea, quite bitter, but not offensive. At this point, Brian pronounced us Uruguayos!
Montevideo
We spent 9 days in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay (where half the country's population live). With that being said, the city feels pretty quiet. It is quite a hard city to describe and photos don't really capture what the city is like but it feels very relaxed and just gives off a good vibe. One of the first things we noticed was how nice Uruguayan people are. On the bus, an elderly lady offered Emily her seat! People here don't speak much English and our Spanish is very limited, so communicating can be quite tricky, but everyone has been very patient.
The city is coastal, and the beach is nice but as the river meets the sea here, the water is reddish-brown (and is also freezing) so it isn't that inviting. Despite this, the beach is still full of people drinking Mate, sunbathing, and playing football.
We sampled one of the local gyms of course and somehow ended up doing a Cross-Fit class which was a bit more intense than we were looking for. It's at this point that it's clear how the language barrier is going to throw us into some interesting situations this year.
There is a hole in the O-zone layer over Uruguay so we became shadow dwellers for a while since you get burned very quickly, so sunbathing wasn't really on our agenda. Also because we had a couple of fresh tattoos that we had to take care of.....
Before getting to Uruguay, we came across a cool tattoo artist, named Brian Tejera, and booked ourselves in. This was quite an interesting experience because we were alone with Brian for hours, over 2 days, conversing in Spanish and English (mostly about simple topics) but helping each other to learn.
We owe a massive thank you to Emily's friend Lucia and her husband Ignacio. While we've been pestering them with questions about how to get a local sim card, could they please translate our bill of ladings and help us communicate with the shipping company, did they know anyone who could help us fit our van locks (they did), how do we exchange dollars in Argentina, could they house our bags while we go to Colonia for a few days etc. etc., they've had full time jobs, Lucia has finished her MBA and they got married. Oh, and they took us for a delicious dinner at their favourite tapas restaurant! We definitely won't be eating that well for a while. They're just very lovely, generous, and hilarious people who can't do enough for you. Emily met Lucia 5 years ago while she was interning at the International Bar Association where Emily was working. She had just uprooted her life, moved half way across the world, found somewhere to live in London, settled in and started doing exceptional work with complete ease. She's just one of those people who can handle stuff. So thank you so much for all your help, congratulations on your beautiful wedding and we hope to see you again in a few months when we're back in Uruguay!
We spent our nights in hostels (4,6 & 8 bed-rooms), having to move from one to the next, and even having to move beds several times in the same hostel as we kept adding on days whilst waiting for our unknown Pedro pick-up date. This meant we stayed in different parts of the city and met some interesting people that had lots of travelling advice to share.
Our hostel interaction highlights: everyone seemed to play the guitar so we spent a night with other guests singing Coldplay; a very cool Italian couple who are restarting their trip from Ushuaia to Alaska after having paused it in Panama during Covid; a Brazilian couple not long into a 4 year trip around the world in their Defender camper; many snorers and hygienically challenged people.
Colonia del Sacramento
2 hours west up the coast from Montevideo is the cute town of Colonia del Sacremento. This town has character. Flowers literally burst out of already colourful buildings, classic cars on every street, cute hidden coffee spots, and an all-round chilled vibe. Unlike Montevideo, pictures can do Colonia justice.
Once again, our hostel interaction highlights: Andrew from Wales travelling solo by motorbike from Ushuaia to Alaska; Becca from the UK who has been travelling solo for 9 months already; and one hostel guest that fancied himself a hypnotist and put on a show trying (unsuccessfully) to hypnotize other guests.
Take a look at the rest of our photos
Check out our second visit to Uruguay!