Montevideo

10 of us took a site-seeing trip to the city to look around and do some shopping. We went to the 'old' part of the city and went shopping in this shop that had all kinds of artisans who sold their creations. I got some neat things such as hand-crafted necklaces, a cute octupus made out of a gourd, and a clay cheese dish with a handle. Here in Uruguay, they take chunks of cheese and put them in a dish that has indentations and then put them on the grill to melt and eat the melted cheese on crackers. They have bar-b-ques (asados) all the time and the melted cheese is a staple that they serve. Anyway, we then ate lunch at Don Peperone and had chervitas, another Uruguayan food. It's a sandwich with ham, cheese, Canadian bacon, hard boiled egg, green olives, lettuce and tomato on it. It came with a side order of fries. It was mucho bueno! Usually, they are muy grande (very large), so Jackie and I split one. I was even able to order my own drink- agua con lemon sin gas (water with lemon, no gas- and no, gas is not petro, it's carbonation!). I bought some t-shirts at a street vendor stand, we explored a beautiful Catholic church and visited the mosuleum of Jose Artigas. Then we drove to Cerro (which means 'hill') and is the highest place in the city where Fortaleza del Cerro (Fort of the Hill) was built in 1809 to defend Montevideo, and used by General Artigas. It was really neat to look out over the city and the ocean. There is also a museum that had a lot of items related to the era, but unfortunately, I couldn't read the history behind them. On the way home, we stopped at another indoor market area that had some cool little shops and eating places (more like cantinas), where I bought a cool little ship made out of a cow's horn. We had a great time and even though it was overcast, windy and cold, I'm so glad that I got to experience some of the Uruguan culture!