The Good and Bad of Montevideo, Uruaguay

First, the good part. Montevideo, a population of about 1.3 million, is by far the largest city in this country of 3 million. To put this into some perspective, the whole country of Uruguay measures only 68,000 square miles or about 16% the size of Ontario. 

Historically, there were a number of Europeans coming into this area in the 1500s but left as there was little economic value with no gold, silver, and other natural materials.Then in the early 1600s, the Spanish introduced cattle ranching. Due to the wide open fields and grasslands, they found the lands to be ideal for cattle ranching so settlers began to slowly arrive. With the Spanish and Portuguese competing for territory, it then became a territorial buffer zone between the competing colonial aspirations of Portuguese Brazil and Spanish empire of Argentina. Even Paraguay got involved with their new economic activity in the 1600s and wanting access to the sea. What followed was the Great War, previously blogged, where over 1 million people were killed and after the war, the country came unto its own.

Today, Uruguay is basically an agricultural-pastoral economy with industrialization in the processing of agricultural and animal products. Montevideo is the main economic hub. There is a large pedestrian walkway a few kilometers of shops in the old part running from the ferry docks up to the main square and then the new or business part of the city begins.

   

Like most cities, Montevideo also has a bad side, and we got first-hand knowledge of that. Just 3 blocks away from its center, there starts a large decrepit and unsafe area and this is where we first booked a place. Coming in from Argentina, the taxi driver asked us if we had the right address and when he unloaded our bags told us not to carry anything, no cash in pockets and never walk in streets to our right. Inside the 'rental', in the bedroom ceiling and wall, there was a large area of mould and the smell was awful. It took us 24 hours to find other accommodation (4 star, really nice and 3 blocks back into the safe area). I can only suggest that using Airbnb for rentals here and other areas in South America has not been good at all. Because we are traveling a lot, we knew we would run into some problems. We hope this is the worst we will see- cross your fingers!

Aside from our first horror, the city has a lot to offer.