I have been in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, for about two weeks now and I have officially fallen in love with this city. After a short visit here the last time I was in South America, I knew that I had to spend more time here. I have been staying in the historic neighborhood of the city called Ciudad Vieja (Old City), and every day I become more fascinated with this place. Ciudad Vieja is adjacent to the official downtown neighborhood, so I am very centrally-located and I can walk to almost every place I want to go. My residence hall is one block off of a pedestrian street where there are tons of restaurants, shops and vendors selling artisanal items. The pedestrian street begins at Plaza Independencia where there is a huge statue of Jose Artigas on a horse, Uruguay's national hero, and beneath the statue is a mausoleum that houses the general's remains. Currently there is an art exhibition installed in Plaza Independencia of United Nations Buddy Bears. There is a bear for each country represented in the United Nations, and each one has been painted to illustrate some aspect of each nation's cultural identity.
The United States bear is painted like the Statue of Liberty. It looks nice but a little boring, I think.
El oso de Cuba.
I had to take a picture of the Greek bear for the folks at The Continental, the Greek restaurant where I work in Seattle.
The bears are positioned around Plaza Independencia in such a way that they seem to be worshiping the statue of Artigas. It is almost comical.
The mausoleum of Artigas beneath the statue.
The words are a time line of important events in the life of the general and the history of Uruguay.
Birth of the General Jose Artigas June 19, 1784
Battle of Las Piedras May 18, 1811
Las Piedras was the Spanish headquarters during the revolutionary war to liberate Argentina and Uruguay from Spain. The battle fought on that day resulted in a triumph for the the revolution and was one of the most important victories during the war. May 18 is a national holiday here in Uruguay.
Exile to Paraguay September 1820
Death of the General September 23, 1850
Jose Artigas Repatriation of his remains September 19, 1855
Puerta de la Ciudadela - This wall remains as the original gateway to the city of Montevideo. It is at the end of Plaza Independecia and leads to the pedestrian street that I mentioned before, Sarandí.
The internet here is painfully slow, so that is all I have for now. There has been a crazy thunderstorm happening all morning, but I think it has let up a bit so I am going to wander out to try to find the only lady in all of Uruguay --and all of South America it seems to me-- that sells peanut butter. I'll be posting more photos soon, so check back!
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