Montevideo Nightlife
For those of us who need the occasional foray into the evening drinking establishments, Montevideo is both adequate and has multiple offerings. For example, not long ago I went to see a Brazilian group called Bossa ‘n Stones. The best way to describe their music is chillout covers of the Rolling Stones, The Police, and Bob Marley mixed with the Brazilian flavor of bossa nova. The concert was held at the boliche ‘Central’ in downtown Montevideo. Tickets ranged in price from 10-23 dollars. Mixed drinks at the bar cost just under 3 dollars. Needless to say I had a very enjoyable time, the crowd of all ages was fun and positive.
After the show I made my way to Lotus, located at the World Trade Center in Pocitos. Lotus on Thursday nights has an upperscale 25 and older crowd. The music varies from cheesy electronic to decent electronic. There was no cover but drinks are relatively pricey. I returned home around 4:30am and at work Friday I had to deflect historical trivia questions from the Southron until several cups of morning coffee were imbibed.
In terms of an ‘expat’ scene there is not a specific place in Montevideo that I know of as an “expat hangout”. As opposed to across the river in Buenos Aires(ie Palermo Hollywood) which has a number of tourists and gringo expats on the weekends.
Generally speaking, nightlife in Montevideo starts Thursday and finishes Sunday morning. The advantage of Thursday night being you don’t have to wade through the throngs of stumbling teenagers, although there are less options. The Cuidad Vieja offers many restaurants, pubs, and discos (called boliches here) with a variety of music styles, age of patrons, and ambiances. Centro, Cordon, Parque Rodo, and Pocitos are other areas with popular nightlife options. If you feel the need to “cut a rug” at one of the boliches then don’t arrive before 1am or most likely you will be sipping beer alone at the bar. The ‘norm’ here is to have a late dinner, visit a favorite pub and then head to a boliche. Most Uruguayos have their favorite places which they frequent regularly, if you find one place you like you will run in to the same faces week after week and the staff will get to know you as well. One point worth mentioning is many restaurants have live music and one can have a very nice meal with drinks afterward spending the night at a restaurant. Here are several internet sites with calenders of upcoming events and listings of pubs and boliches:
http://www.cartelera.com.uy/
http://www.salimoshoy.com.uy/
http://bandajoven.com/
http://www.aromperlanoche.com
-The Copperhead
Well, I have been privy to the tour of the local club scene courtesy the Uruguaya friend I am staying with - most recently within the Parque Rodo (?). I am discovering that when you speak English in these places people turn around and look at you and those who want to talk speak right up. It is like being a minor (very) celebrity. People want to hear you talk and tell their stories of when they lived abroad. Kinda fun. It is a good (?, depending) way to meet people but if you want to keep your Spanish chops up perhaps not speaking so loud is also good. Then again, I had someone come up to me to talk because I had the face of a “Gringa”. The jig was up! I had been spotted. What a nice place.
Left by Gloria on October 2nd, 2006