Last night I took my longest ride yet in Montevideo.
I went all the way from Carrasco in the Easternmost section of the city
to Prado, which is somewhat West of the city center. During my ride I passed the Legislative Palace,
(Uruguay’s Capitol Building)
and also the Presidential Residence and separate Presidential offices. (Unlike at the White House, here the
President has to drive to work, not take an elevator.)
We left the house at 11PM in order to go to Church for the
Midnight Easter Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox Church. We returned about 2AM.
During that ride we went through many section of the city
and they were almost universally laid out with wide tree-lined streets and
replete with open parks. They were
clean, and the pavement was without pot holes.
Every section seemed to have its own “business district†with shopping,
restaurants and bars.
Like Washington
DC, there are traffic circles
(rotondas) and street go off at various angles creating a plethora of
triangular mini parks everywhere.
Unlike Washington
DC, we didn’t find any slums or
areas that looked dangerous—though I have been assured that “slums†do exist.
One interesting side note, for those of you old enough to
remember when Exxon was Esso, it still is here: same colors and layout of the
gas stations as in the US,
but still proudly bearing the Esso name.
Montevideo is a
pretty city—it certainly appears to be a safe city. I am investigating buy a handicapped scooter
so I can explore it on a more intimate basis.
thanks for your blog. i’m interested in moving there myself and info is sparse. can you post more photos as you get them. i am most interested in your description of the city itself.regards
Left by wendy on April 24th, 2006
I have added a link to the blogroll which will take you to a professional collection of Uruguay pictures. As I find more I will add them.
Left by The Southron on April 24th, 2006
I own an apartment in Montevideo – bought it January 2005. I live in Washington, DC. My web site has some photos of Montevideo, which need editing. It is a wonderful place, Montevideo, and I would also like to meet a few North Americans so I can have a conversation now and then without constant struggle with my poor Spanish – but I’m working on it. Dan
Left by Dan on May 1st, 2006
How cosmopolitan of a place is it?Are the better off people snobish and rude? How is the university? Many foreign students? What about opportunities for educated young people?
Left by ron on June 4th, 2006
The measure of cosmopolitan sophistication is largely in the eye of the beholder. It is not Paris, but then neither is it Bismark, North Dakota. If you are from a very big American city, you might find it somewhat provincial. I am from the Tampa Bay Area in Florida and find it quite sophisticated and developed. Uruguay has been called the Switzerland of South America, and many Swiss characteristics are part of this culture. People with money here, tend to act as if they were middle class–everybody here wants to be considered middle class. I have not yet heard the use of the honorific “Don” here, which is so common in Central America. People are not snobbish, though they are sometimes shy. The Universities here are excellent–I am impressed with the high level of education here. Frankly, a university degree here is much harder to earn than one in the States, at least in most subjects. I do not know about the number of foreign students, but I will enquire and let you know. I am sure that a good working knowledge of Spanish will be required under any circumstances. Opportunities seem to be problematic. I see a lot of them, but there is a brain drain where many of the most talented Uruguayans leave the country to “make it” in their career. One of the drawbacks of such a highly educated population, at least in my opinion, is that non one thinks “outside the box”, hence there is less development than there ought to be. An Apple Computer, or FedEx, or even Starbucks, would probably not start here–without some outside influence.
Left by The Souhtron on June 4th, 2006
HiCongratulations for you web site and thank you as well as I’m uruguan.I apreciate your points of wiew they are really wise thinking about the short period you’d been living here it’s amazin your skills of getting properly information and opinions.I did enjoy it!!ThanksNora
Left by nora on July 17th, 2006
Please try these sites of some universities in Montevideo: Universidad Católica del Uruguay http://www.ucu.edu.uy, Universidad de Montevideo http://www.um.edu.uy and ORT Uruguay http://www.ort.edu.uy.
Left by ana ines on August 31st, 2006
I In doing our research we found that BA and Montevideo have floated to the top of our prospects.
We only spent a few days in BA but had to come back to the states as I lost my mom. The short amount of time spent only made us hungry for more and found Montevideo to look as if it could be very much the kind of place we could be very comfortable in.
We feel fortunate to have found this blog as part of our research tools. We are kicking a few ideas around looking at how we will end up ‘pulling the trigger’. Will we live a few years aboad or the rest of our lives? Do we split our time between UY and Florida?
One of the ways we have considered is keeping our condo here as a ‘live in storage place’. The other is just moving our things to a storage unit if we love UY or wherever we ended up and sell our place.
Our first look was BA as our top option as we found there is a lot of info out there. We did a little more research and saw UY as another place but not as much info. What made anyone choose UY? Were there others looking at AR versus UR? Pros? Cons? Your feedback is appreciated.
If this blog looks familiar, I mis-blogged to the wrong category. Am a newbie to blogging. Am a quick study though. Phew!
Left by Patty Guttu on October 21st, 2006