Montevideo, Uruguay: Jan 2026

Happy New Year to you! After spending the holidays in Buenos Aires (BA) we took a ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Uruguay where we stayed for eight nights in the capital city of Montevideo. Since the two cities are only about 150 miles apart, as the crow flies, there are quite a few similarities. There is a lot of European inspired architecture in Montevideo, just like BA, but there was also a lot more graffiti, even in their tourist areas. Prices were higher and the infrastructure (sidewalks, roads, buses) wasn’t as good as BA. The overall vibe is more laid back and the weather is cooler since they do not have as many high rise buildings trapping the heat. We visited Independence Plaza, Constitution Plaza, Torres Garcia’s Museum, the indoor Agricultural Market, and rode the hop-on-hop-off buses for the whole circuit on both routes. We walked parts of the many wide promenades of the coastline and took a bus out to Punta del Este for a day. We also did an all-day wine tour out to two wineries north of the city.

The country of Uruguay is one of the smallest in South America and has a population of 3.4 million people. It was formed in 1828, essentially as a buffer between it’s two heavyweight neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. Follow this link for a 15 minute video about Uruguay’s geopolitical history: https://youtu.be/UYJfI-SGvGw?si=6-5rZCVYYChqn1z3.
And just to give you a little different perspective…
Plaza de Independencia is the heart of old town Montevideo. Many significant buildings rim the plaza, including the Presidential offices, the historic Solis Theater, and this large building in this picture, Palacio Salvo. The Palacio Salvo was built in 1928 originally as a hotel but later became private residences, offices and a Tango museum. When we first saw this building we were struck by how much the building, and especially its tower, looked like the Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires, that we had just visited about one week earlier. It turns out both buildings were designed by the same architect.
In the center of Plaza de Independencia you can descend the stairs below the monument (the enormous man / horse statue) and visit the mausoleum of General José Gervasio Artigas. He is a national hero, a revolutionary leader, and often referred to as the “father of Uruguayan independence”. His remains, in the urn in the picture, are guarded by the elite Blandengues de Artigas. Interestingly there are no signs, no ticket booths, nor any other obvious indications of this monument in the Plaza above. We simply saw people descending the stairs and were curious about where they were going – so we Googled it.
The pedestrian only streets between Plaza Independencia and Plaza de la Constitución are very attractive and exhibit the same European influences we saw in Buenos Aires.
This ornate fountain is in the center of Plaza de la Constitución.
We have really come to appreciate the Hop-on-Hop-off tourism bus model that we have used in so many cities. Montevideo was no exception. They are a great scouting tool to help figure out where we want to come back to over the next few days.
Just a few steps off the west side of Plaza de la Independencia is the Torres Garcia’s Museum. Joaquín Torres-García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949) was a Uruguayan-Spanish artist, and was one of the twentieth century’s most influential painters, theorists, and authors. At the age of 17 he moved with his family to Catalonia, Spain, where his artistic formation began. His career unfolded across several countries—Spain, the United States, Italy, France, and Uruguay—placing him in direct contact with the major artistic debates of his time. At the age of 60 he returned to his native Uruguay and was / is celebrated as a cultural icon.
Within the the Torres Garcia’s Museum, they were also displaying a contemporary fashion artist, Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada. She is a Spanish fashion designer and aristocrat known for her vibrant, optimistic, and humorous aesthetic. Her designs have been featured in Paris, Milan, and Madrid, and her work has been exhibited in prestigious museums like the Guggenheim and the Reina Sofía. The dress in this picture is one of her more subtle designs. If you need a dose of bright happy color, this is the fashion designer for you.
On what we referred to as “winery day”, we were picked up in Montevideo and driven about 45 minutes north of Montevideo where we started at Bodega (winery) Spinoglio. We were given a tour of much of the property, a charcuterie board, and several tastes of their wine. The entire property was gorgeous and the visit was very relaxing.
The “Winery Dog” at Bodega (winery) Spinoglio. He was very sweet and very sneaky – we loved it.
Next we were driven over to Bodega (winery) Pizzorno, about 10 minutes away from Spinoglio, where we were served a delicious lunch, paired with excellent wines. The service was outstanding (at both wineries).
Following the lunch at Pizzorno, we were given a tour of the property and the facility. Uruguay is known for a grape called “Tannat”, and we found that we like it very much. They do a lot of their wine aging in oak barrels but they also had some concrete tanks, which do not photograph as well as oak barrels – LOL. We highly recommend this full day trip for anybody visiting Montevideo – it was booked directly on the Pizzorno winery website: https://pizzornowines.com/en/
This is the beer menu at the Montevideo Brewing Company (MBC) located next to the Punta Carretas Shopping mall, which is built into the shell of an old penitentiary. We tried a flight and a couple extras and found them to be good quality and very tasty.
The Mercado Agrícola de Montevideo (Agriculture Market). It was built in 1906 to centralize all the agricultural food merchants of the city of Montevideo
Inside the Mercado Agrícola de Montevideo (Agriculture Market) you can find a food court, some gift shops and of course lots of agricultural items as its name implies.
Susan’s tile floor fetish continues…
We took a day trip east along the coast to Punta del Este, a high end resort town. The bus ride was direct and about 2.5 hours each way. This picture is take from the Vista View Tower. In the background of this picture is Brava Beach and in the center of this picture is the “Fingers of Punta del Este”, which is an outdoor sculpture of fingers rising out of the sand.
This is what the inside of the Vista View tower looks like in Punta del Este. It was on the 23rd floor of a mixed use building and it rotated about one revolution per hour – just like the Seattle Space Needle and the Skylon Tower at Niagara Falls. We do like a bird’s eye view, along with a “frufu” coffee for Susan and a Coca Cola for Adam.
The southernmost point in Uruguay is in Punta del Este and we enjoyed a long walk around the point on its wide promenade. We also liked that the water is blue-green. Punta del Este is far enough east that it almost touches the Atlantic ocean. The coastal water in Buenos Aires and in Montevideo is very brown due to the discharge of two sediment-heavy rivers nearby. Notably, the water does not have a bad oder, since the brown comes from natural sediment and not from pollution. That being said, we found the water color in Punta del Este to be much more pleasing.
Many places in the world do not commonly use clothes dryers so we have become accustomed to drying our clothes on these hanging racks. They fold up nicely and can be tucked in the closet when not in use.
Although we arrived in Uruguay via ferry and bus, we left via the airport, which was modern and efficient. At our gate there were several sets of these lounger style seats. Don’t you wish all airport gates had seats like this? Our next blog post will be for Medellín, Colombia – the “City of Eternal Spring”.

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3 Comments

  3. Wow and wow! Summer in the southern hemisphere looks pretty yummy. I love seeing your smiling faces! Looking forward to living vicariously with you in Columbia. Nice floor tiles!
    Love you much
    Bonnie

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