Friday, 7 January 2011 – Montevideo

SNIVELLING TOURISTS

HAL is very health conscious. There are hand washing machines everywhere and the officers no longer shake hands with passengers to prevent the spread of germs- whether it’s from them to us or us to them I’m not sure! When boarding you have to complete a heath questionnaire and if you tick yes for anything such as having a fever, cough, diarrhoea, etc. within the last few days you have the pleasure of paying a visit to the ship’s doctor.

I was okay when I boarded but since then I have developed sinusitis on one side – not a health issue but extremely annoying when one nostril is like a tap, plus the headaches which come with it. Apparently it’s a common reaction to the air conditioning. My medical first aid kit includes an Epipen, a variety of antibiotics, ankle brace, knee brace, moleskin, Strepsils, Lemsip Max, Aspros, etc – but no nasal spray. I did have some sinusitis tablets but they were as effective as a thimble of water against a bushfire. I’ve gone through so many tissues I’m now onto toilet paper.

Now, back to the cruise. Today we visited Montevideo, Uruguay and I had booked a full day tour to the world heritage listed town of Colonia del Sacramento. Unfortunately during the night the Veendam’s progress along the Rio de la Plata  from BA had been slowed down by river traffic so we arrived two hours late and my tour was cancelled. With my sinus, I was rather glad as I don’t think I would have enjoyed sitting in a coach two hours each way to Sacramento. I nearly decided to stay on board and have an easy day but then thought that I probably wouldn’t get back to Uruguay anytime soon so scrambled to make another tour booking. I ended up with the Montevideo Architecture Tour which turned out to be an excellent choice. This was a walking tour and included several interior visits – the Cathedral Matriz, Torres Garcia Museum, Teatro Solis, the memorial to their Liberator (Gervasio Artigas) and the Museum of Decorative Arts. None of my fellow CCers were on this tour but I sat next to Becky from Omaha and had a great chat.

In the Cathedral we found that Uruguayans aren’t particularly religious and tend to go to church only for baptism, marriages and funerals. An interesting thing in the Cathedral was the Freemason references, which reminded me that there were also Mason references in Recoleta yesterday. 




Interior of Cathedral

 

Torres Garcia was a famous early 20^th Century constructivism artist. Apart from seeing some of his works in the museum we also had demonstrated the golden compass which sets out the correction proportions of everything in thirds. I know it as the golden principle through photography and making my own journals and getting the most appealing page size and layout. Regardless, it was a very interesting demo.



A sculpture of the Golden Compass with a copy of one of
Torres Garcia's paintings as a mural on the wall behind



The Teatro Solis is a beautiful old theatre, built along the lines of Milan’s La Scala with its horseshoe shaped theatre and its tiers of red velvet draped private boxes. The government encourages its people to use the theatre so a lot of performances by the philharmonic orchestra are only US$3 per ticket.




Teatro Solis

 On a note about the government, their President has just received a hefty pay rise. From 1^st January he now receives US$310 per month! Yes, there are no extra zeroes missing from that figure!

Our last stop before returning to the ship was the Museum of Decorative Arts which used to be a private mansion and had the French décor and some of the furnishings of the period. Uruguay had been a Spanish settlement until it became a British colony briefly for eight months so there are more than just the usual Spanish influences.

I hadn’t known much about Uruguay, and Montevideo, before I came but it turned out to be a gem. The little I’d seen in my visit made me prefer it to BA.

Back on board I rushed up to the Lido for a late lunch, where I met up with Becky again, then I had a couple of hours rest before meeting up with Robyn and Ken for formal night in the dining room. Two American ladies, Judy and Margaret, were seated with us and as we had all travelled extensively most of the conversation was based around swapping adventures.

With my sinuses still working overtime, I opted for an early night. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.