Camacho Watcho

I knew it was inevitable; my final weekend in Uruguay had arrived. But, along with this knowledge, was the arrival with two friends from the U.S. – Carly and Ed. They arrived after work on Friday and the vacation began! I’m a little behind on writing, so this one might be a little long to get a little caught up. After Uruguay, there are more adventures in Argentina to be had before we return to the U.S. so I will continue to write as we continue to travel.

Montevideo
Friday night, I took them to experience a great parilla called Terracotta. The ambiance is amazing, along with the food and the wine. In typical Uruguayan style, we had provolone on the parilla to start, a bottle of Bouza Tannat-Merlot and then we ordered steaks. Of course, we could not refuse desserts, so we ordered a lemon pastry with a red fruit sauce and we left very full and satisfied. The next stop was drinks at Bar Tabare which is a bar that we had frequented over the past couple of months and that has a great, cozy atmosphere – great for catching up with great friends.

We had much to see in Montevideo the next day, so we woke up and headed to the clothing market. Vendor after vendor, full of clothing, jewelry, local crafts and food are set up each Saturday in a park in Pocitos. The amazing part is that this market, which is so large in size, is set up within a few hours and then taken down that very night, only to be set up again in a different location, Parque Rodo, the next day. As you wander the aisles of vendors, you get a great introduction to life in Uruguay – friends greet friends and they share a mate as they shop for themselves and for family.

You cannot go to Uruguay and not have a chivito – therefore we next went to Chivitos Marcos….the best chivito in Uruguay. Believe me, in the name of experimentation, I tried my fair share of chivitos just so that I could share with my friend the best one. Although this is a chain restaurant, it’s still a great experience. First, they take the thinnest sliced steak and put it on the firey hot griddle for literally a minute per side. They ask you if you want bacon or ham (or both) on your chivito and they pile it on top. Then you get your choice of toppings – olives, mushrooms, red peppers, carrots, onions, hot peppers, lettuce and tomato. The next question is ‘cheese?’ – of course! Then they put all of this under a broiler to melt it all together and then you have your choice of condiments….mustard only for me, but they have five different varieties of mayo for you selection, if you choose. This is all on a huge bun, which makes the sandwich perfect for sharing. Wow!

Our next destination was to the Old City – La Ciudad Vieja. There, we walked around the Plaza Independencia, down Sarandi to the Plaza Matriz and continued all the way to el Mercado del Puerto. We found el Mercado del Puerto bustling with locals and tourists enjoying medio y medio and asado. We found a spot at one of the many restaurants and ordered food and drinks – medio y medio, Patricia (Uruguayan beer) and a variety of meats from the grill…salchica, chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage), and lomo. Eating and drinking with friends at el Mercado del Puerto is a must do when visiting Montevideo. There is not a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Once we had had enough to eat and drink, we went back to the hotel for the required nap before we went to dinner. For my final dinner in Montevideo, I chose to go to S de Sarten, which is a wonderful restaurant near the hotel and that serves the most amazing fish. In fact, Kyle and I had eaten there a few days before and he insisted that we go back again before we left Uruguay. The dish is called “pez en caja hierro” – literally fish in an iron box. It is two pieces of sole and a variety of vegetables (red, green and yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions and pumpkin). Truly the best dinner I’ve eaten and something that I will try to replicate when I return home.

Punta del Este
Sunday morning took us to Punta del Este, where we spent a relaxing afternoon by the hotel pool. We went all out and stayed at the Conrad – defiitely a great place to stay in Punta. The view from our hotel room was simply amazing. I cannot think of a better way to wake up. That night we went to a restaurant on the port where we ate the freshest mussels, calamari and paella. I could have made a meal out of just the mussels and calamari!!! We hit the casino for a bit and retired early that night – bellies full, skin burnt to a crisp, and exhausted from the previous two days.

The next day we spent a few hours by the pool and then went to Jose Ignacio. I’ve mentioned this beach town before in a previous experience, but it was so amazing the first time that I had to take Kyle, Carly and Ed there to see it too. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at La Huella and then spent the afternoon lounging on the rooftop deck, reading, throwing frisbee on the beach and taking a stroll along the beach. It was terrible to have to tear ourselves away to leave for the airport, but we knew we had a wonderful adventure awaiting us in Mendoza and we had to go.

My final weekend in Uruguay was fantastic – spent visiting and experiencing the best of the best from my travels here and catching up with great friends! I will provide more summaries on the places and things to do in Uruguay in a consolidated list in case anyone is interested for perhaps a future visit to there….and if anyone is looking for a tour guide to go there, look me up!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Food, Travel, Uruguay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.