Montevideo
A city to loosen up in.

Montevideo is a city with short distances. You may go from one tip to the other in few hours. Rambla (the city's seaside drive) offers the best choice of varied and constracting landscapes and is an ideal place for working out and relaxing to start or finish the day. This coastal stretch is ideal for tourists to have their pictures taken with the river as background and sourrounded by people having mate tea, reading the paper, fishing, walking their pets, biking or just walking at a nice pace. We invite you to take a look at Uruguay 's capital city.

Is there a better way to start the tour than with Montevideo 's coast? Unique because of its length, an uninterrupted succession of perfect swimming beaches from Carrasco beach to Playa Ramírez beach make up a beautiful visual image all year round.

White sand beaches and calm waters vary depending on the surroundings and location.

Pocitos beach is the hang out place for young people and home to most of the sports activities that the City Hall usually sponsors during the summer.

This area and its surroundings host the best cuisine selection which may be found in both casual seaside and elegant restaurants. Casino Carrasco Hostel on Playa Ramirez will surely catch your attention and offer you an area to rest or gamble in the respective casinos.

Buceo beach gives the city a different touch with the Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga Oceanographic Museum . The building's attractive Arabic-Moorish construction, which at first sight looks like a castle thanks to the elegant central tower, is home to a valuable sample of exotic and indigenous species.

At our journey's end on the other tip of Rambla, lunch or dinner at the Old City 's Mercado del Puerto (Port Marketplace) is an excellent option. Prepare to taste typical Uruguayan dishes, Medio y medio (a traditional alcoholoc drink in this marketplace) and enjoy street shows.

The Old City is endless for people seeking to discover this neighborhood. Colonial-type architecture, narrow streets, new pubs and restaurants together with a myriad of detalis combine to please the senses. At night, the place becomes the young crowd's favorite scene where anyone can find in just a few blocks a whole array of aesthetic, gastronomic and artistic offerings. From techno to Celtic music or the best Uruguayan rock to foreign guest artists, Bartolomé Mitre and Bacacay streets have become a rich spot for certain cultural manifestations.

The best museums

Montevideo 's Cabildo, the place where Uruguay 's Constitution was signed in 1830, is an unavoidable reference point in the Old City . Inside the Cabildo, visitors will see antique furniture and historical paintings, sculptures, weapons and documents.

At the National Museum of Visual Arts (on Julio Herrera y Reissig St. at the corner of Tomás Giribaldi St. ) about six thousand art pieces are exhibited, most of them by Uruguayan artists such as Juan Manuel Blanes, Carlos Federico Sáez, Pedro Figari, Rafael Barradas and Joaquín Torres García. You will also find recommended painting exhibits at the Joaquín Torres García Museum (on the Sarandi Street pedestrian walk).

Extract of the Pluna Magazine July/Agost 2005.