Veendam Day 6 - Montevideo, Uruguay

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, but boasts of a healthy economy, impressive living standard, and the best social services in South America. One and half million people, or over ½ of Uruguay’s population, reside in the capital city of Montevideo, located at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Cattle and sheep estancias (ranches) occupy over ¾ of the land. The coastline, however, is one long sandy beach. A scenic riverside road starting near the port and ending at the city limits links the beaches. Within the city proper, the beaches lie along the river, so water quality is not the best. Montevideo is an architect’s delight, with styles ranging from colonial to art deco.

We’ll be docked here for the whole day. Janet has a cold and might stay in today...the plan is to go ashore and get on the local bus and do some sightseeing. We are late getting in by about an hour and a half. If you get behind a slow ship in the channel, you are stuck going slow. Oh well...stuff happens. We are not doing a tour, so it doesn't matter to us.

Yesterday, Dick and Jim did the HoHo bus while Janet and I shopped and had fun dodging the sidewalk shop hawkers. Lunch and a nap felt mighty good. The show was quite good last night. The guy was part of a group that we saw onboard a Costa ship in the Med back in '02 when there were three guys. Now he and his wife are the entertainment, offering more variety than the guys did.

Having fun in the sun...temps are about the same...then we'll have two sea days before arriving in the Falkland Islands. We'll be editing photos and uploading them very soon.

Ciao!