Phot-o' the Day: Jose Artigas, on Horseback, Views the Palacio Salvo; Montevideo, Uruguay

So much Uruguay packed into this single photo.

The man on the horse is José Gervasio Artigas, who fought for the independence of Uruguay in the early 19th Century. He's the Simon Bolivar, or the George Washington, of his country, to analogize. (And, befitting the George Washington parallel, there is a statue of Artigas in Washington, D.C., at Constitution Avenue, 18th Street and Virginia Avenue, across from the OAS building.) The statue is in Plaza Independencia, in the center of Montevideo, separating the old city from the modern metropolis. He is pointed towards Palacio Salvo, the signature building of the Montevideo skyline, with its art deco "rocket ship" decorations flanking the main tower.

Visited November 2013.

Morning in Salto (Before the Long Drive Back to Montevideo)

Looking down Artigas

I woke up in my hotel in Salto.  The next bed in which I sleep will be my own (with a long overnight flight in between).

The original vacation plan was to stop and visit another Uruguayan city on the drive back to Montevideo's Carrasco International Airport.  Uruguay's tourist mecca Colonia del Sacramento was the likely victim.  But I'm 12 days into this holiday.  I'm tired of seeing new places.  A slow morning in Salto and getting to Montevideo in time for supper seemed like a better plan.

I found two interesting places to keep in mind for the next time I'm in Salto, Uruguay.

Salto Post Office

The Salto Post Office!  I hadn't seen a single post office location in Uruguay before this.  I was suspecting Uruguay might be like Colombia where no one ever mails anything.  So I didn't bother stocking up on picture postcards.  Turns out, I could've mailed them in Salto if I had only planned ahead (i.e., found a post office before Sunday).

Then there was this dessert spot:

Heladeria Nevada!

La Heladeria Nevada!  The Nevada Ice Cream Shoppe.  It probably was named for the Spanish meaning of la palabra "Nevada," "snow-covered," rather than my state.  But maybe just maybe it's a little bit o' the Silver State right here in northwest Uruguay.

The Road to La Pedrera

Lighthouse themed house on Juno (or maybe Mercurio)

I got bored with the beach.  More importantly, I got hungry.  Tengo hambre!  So I had no choice but to leave la playa in search of lunch.  This not being a well-developed turista-town of a beach, there were no beachfront dining options.  There wouldn't have been even if this were the in-season.

So I decided to take a drive to eat lunch in the next beach town up the coast.  The guidebook I am using had much more nice things to say about the eating options in La Pedrera (translation: the Quarry), even though it seemed to be a bohemian surfer town.  It would only be a short drive.  I got there in no time.


The road into La Pedrera

Only to find that the TOWN was closed for the season.

They're rebuilding the whole place for the in-season, so the main road into town was closed.  There didn't seem to anyone anywhere else in the town parked elsewhere.  So I went back from whence I came.

Welcome to La Paloma

I had lunch at the Ballena, which means "whale," which is appropriate since it's near the old whale skeleton on the median of the main drag.

La Ballena

I had sandwich innards, fries and an agua mineral con gas.  "Con gas" isn't a reference to feeling flatulent.  It means I want my mineral water fizzy.  Lots of loose dogs, most looking appropriately fed, clean and health, wandering the streets of La Paloma.  This lass definitely wanted to dine with me.

Street pooch

Lunch filled me up enough that I decided to wander the city a little more.  I found this little plaza off to the side of the main drag, Avenida Solari.



Plaza de Lucho

I'm not sure why the guy in rain gear has an axe.  Weirder yet is the "mermaid."

Ugliest mermaid ever, statuary or non-statuary

There are just so many things wrong with this "mermaid."  First off, I have never seen a mermaid with her tail starting so low.  Shouldn't the fish part start at the waist or hips, so we don't see the mermaid lady-parts?  This mermaid, it's like she's "sagging".  See what I mean:

Sagging mermaid

And she's just plain homely.  Aren't mermaids supposed to be irresistably beautiful?  She looks like something out of a pornographic version of a Rev. Howard Finster painting.

You may be wondering why I did not do a beach day road trip to Cabo Polonio.   It's the isolated, undeveloped beach town about an hour or so northeast of here.  It is the beach of choice for ganja-fueled hippies whose VW microbus makes it to this corner of South America.  Sound like my scene?  Sounds like so not my scene.

The rich jet setters of Punta Del Este?  Also so not my scene.  So I picked the place pretty much equidistant from two things I can't abide:  hippies and rich jet setters (who are many times the same people).  That's why I'm in La Paloma.  For one more night.  Then it's a cross-country drive.

Since the country is Uruguay, the cross country drive is supposed to take eight to nine hours.

Artigas (founder of modern day Uruguay) at the head of Avenida Solari