After a full day at sea yesterday we arrived at Montevideo, Uruguay this morning. It was tet another early (for us) start.
Today’s tour was to see the city of Montevideo and then travel out to a working ranch about an hour outside the city.
Some pictures of Independence Square in the city. The statue below is to honour Artigas who started the movement to free Uruguay from the Spanish
Below is the first concrete building in Montevideo, built in the 1920’s and hated by the locals. It was built as a hotel, but as no one liked it it was a failure. One hundred years later, the locals love it and it now houses offices and condominiums.
We travelled about an hour on the coach to a working ranch
At the ranch we toured on hay waggons drawn in some cases by vintage trucks and a couple of people managed to get a ride in an old Ford car!
It was a hot, humid amid oppressive day, and once we got amongst the eucalyptus trees the mosquitoes considered us fair game !
At one stage we drove through a field of bulls, they weren’t happy, and a few of them made threatening moves against us! Unfortunately I forgot to upload the pictures.
We headed back to the main part of the farm for food and drink with thunder rumbling off in the distance. As we got closer to the shelter, the thunder got closer to us. The thunder won! The heavens opened, the lightning was very close and we drowned!
Once in the shelter we had lunch of beef, chicken, piglet (sorry Catriona!) sausage, potatoes and veg. This food had been cooked over a large wood BBQ.
After lunch there was a drum and dance demo by some local dancers
Lyn got roped into dancing, I ran and hid.
By now the rain had stopped so we went outside so some people could try their hand at milking a cow.
Unsurprisingly the cow was not amused!
Once the humans had finished terrorising her, her calf was let out of it’s pen and ran full speed towards her for its lunch. (Not doing well tonight, another photo I didn’t upload)
To make up for the missing calf here’s a 2 week old foal.
The final demonstration was how they saddle a horse, Uruguayan style and also how they prepare the horse for carrying loads when they ride around the ranch for a few days.
The blog was a little rushed tonight, sorry. Tomorrow is our last stop, Buenos Aries for two days.