Day 4 Montevideo, Uruguay

Today we stopped in Montevideo, Uruguay. We took a tour of the city and visited some of the parks that seem to be the places where they have chosen to erect monuments to various things that have affected this small country. Our experience was very nice and seemed safe, regardless of what some on board had told us. We had a very nice lunch in a restaurant where we all had beef that was cooked over a barbeque, which is the local custom. They don’t use charcoal but rather just use wood. It was very good. Their major export is beef. Enough said. We did see a monument to the indigenous people who were totally eradicated by the people who colonized this country. There are a lot of Spanish influences as you would expect but also some Italian influence as well. They say they are a poor country but seem to have a good sized economy and a rather large middle class based on the number of waterfront apartment buildings and houses we saw, which are not cheap. In contrast to Argentina that has no beaches this country is blessed with great beaches that extend endlessly along its shoreline. Once again while it was a nice place to visit it is not on our “must do again” list.