Day Nine: Thursday, July 7

We got up at 9 to take advantage of the breakfast at the hotel.  Croissants, coffee, orange juice, etc.—pretty much the same as in the US.  We then walked through Ciudad Vieja (Old town) of Montevideo, which was very, very pretty with lots of old Spanish colonial architecture.  At the entrance to Ciudad Vieja was the Plaza de Independencia where there is a HUGE green statue of a man on a horse—José Artigas, the man who founded the city (and won independence for the country?).  Underneath the statue are steps to an underground mausoleum where his remains are held.  We walked down to go in and there was a huge room with an urn in the middle.  The entire room was just barely light enough that we could see two guards on either side of the urn silently standing guard.  No one else was around so it was very unusual and creepy and didn’t go very far in.  We kind of chickened out.  On our way back to our hotel we grabbed lunch at an outside street vendor where we got chorizo sandwiches.  Delicious.  After lunch we walked all the way along the coast, through a park, back up to the main street, and back to our hotel.  We probably walked over 5 miles today.  I bought a Uruguayan flag and a Spanish book, and we looked through many shops along the main street.  Tons of people walk around with mate gourds in hand and a thermos.  Montevideo is filled with hippy folk.  There are tons of hippy street flea markets where you’ll find wool sweaters, scarves, socks, hats, mate stuff, bongs, and medicinal herbs—very interesting to peruse.  For dinner we went to a nice, fancy parrilla (grill) a block from our hotel where we had the menú del día, which is a set daily special where you get a soup or salad, main course, and dessert.  We had vegetable soup, steak and fries, and ice cream all for under $30. After dinner we went back to our hotel to have popcorn for a snack/dessert.  I (Paul) went down to the hotel kitchen to use the microwave.  A hotel staff guy let me into the kitchen and was very perplexed and curious me putting the popcorn bag into the microwave.  They do not do microwave popcorn.  He thought it was the coolest thing how it popped and inflated.  I let him try it when it finished.  He was impressed, calling it “magic” and “the food of the future.”  It was pretty funny.  A great end to the day.