Initially,
I was sceptical toward Montevideo.
Having arrived from Brazil, land of colour, party and general happiness (yes,
such generalizations, and there were of course other aspects to Brazil - it's
probably one of the most confounding places I've been to, not up there with
India, but still doing pretty well [to read similar, but more articulate and
longer, musings, go to: http://yuriawanohara.blogspot.com/2008/02/so-what-i-really-think-about-brasil.html]
– yet even so, the vivacity of Brazil was extremely impressive), Montevideo
just seemed a little bit drab. Phew, what a complicated parenthesis. Anyway, the
city itself, Moni and I agreed, seemed nice, but that was about it. I feared
that I had arrived in the Sweden of Latin America, what with the empty streets
and silent bus passengers. I realized that the people we meet while living here
were going to make the difference in terms of how much we like it.
And the
people we’ve met so far have definitely tipped the scales in Montevideo’s favour. First of all, we moved
into a student house near the center of town, about two weeks ago now. It’s an
old building that has the potential to be really nice, but everything is kind
of crumbling and haphazard. The wall next to my bed, for example, is
disintegrating, and the showerhead in the bathroom has to be manoeuvred with a spanner.
The fridge is constantly leaking all over the kitchen floor, we probably have a
few hundred pets consisting of ants and cockroaches and the bathroom sink can’t
be completely turned off. Despite all these things, we really enjoy where we’re
staying. We share the house with four girls from the city 33 (yep): the sisters
Elena and Cecilia, as well as Yanina and Romina. They’re all really sweet,
open, funny and extremely patient with my Spanish (which, just in this short
time, feels like it’s improving, thanks to them). There are two guys living
there as well, but they’re on holiday and I haven’t met them yet. We also share
the house with the janitor, Octavio, a 68-year old little man whose big
anchor-tattoo on the left arm signifies his service to the navy, and who also was
a hairdresser for 40 years (I love the combination). When he’s not out
with his female friends or doing things around the house, he hangs out with the
rest of us in the living room or the front doorstep where we watch the world go
by outside.
Our
roommates have obviously made a huge difference in terms of how much we like
where we’re staying, but there are some other great things about it as well. First
of all, it includes amenities like hot water, kitchen, washing machine, cable
TV, etc. for an incredibly cheap price; we’re paying less than € 30 per month. Secondly,
we have a huge rooftop to hang out on. Third, our house looks out onto a little
plaza with a playground where there are always kids playing, couples cuddling,
people drinking and smoking. I know, great role models for the kids, that last
category, but for us it’s still a nice mix of people to watch and hang out with.
Last night, for example, we had a football game on the street, which included
some of us from the house (I need a collective name for us), a friend of the
other girls, a 10-year old neighbour named Dylan and some teenagers who were
hanging out on the plaza. It was good fun, not only because I hadn’t played for
ages, but also due to the mix of people, from different ages, social groups and
both guys and girls.
Another
group of people that we really like here in Montevideo are the ones that we work with at
Choike. The internship isn’t exactly how I imagined it, but I’m adjusting and enjoying
the discussions with the other choikers about social issues or just random
things in general.
We also
went to a meeting with some couchsurfers the other week. We had lunch with them
and went out in la ciudad vieja, and it was interesting hearing what they
had to say about things from Uruguay’s
educational system and poverty, to its music and food. One of them, Sofía, was
another one of those Uruguayans we’ve met that are tipping the scales in Montevideo’s favour and we’re
hoping to go see Dani Umpi (www.daniumpi), an
artist that she introduced to us, with her soon.
Last week,
we managed to see a bit more of Uruguay,
when we went to Punta del Diablo on the coast during a long weekend we had. Not
realizing how busy such places get during holiday season here, we ended up
having to camp since we couldn’t find any room and didn’t shower for 3 days
since we were too lazy to shower with the cold, well water or to heat it up on
the fire. The first day was pretty miserable, with rain, wind and cold which is
just crap if you’re going to the seaside. The town itself is a bit weird too; the
impression we got was of a fishing town which was only recently discovered by
tourists and which is now being overrun by haphazardly built holiday houses. The
next day, however, we went to the nearby town of Castillos
to take out money to be able to get back to Montevideo and pay for the camping, and we
took much more of a liking to it than Punta del Diablo. It could have had
something to do with the sudden change in weather; it was hot and sunny and we
spent the afternoon laying on the packed beach back in Punta.
We’ve also
done a bit of going out, both with the CSers as mentioned, and our roomies. To
Moni’s and my chagrin, the types of music that seem most popular to dance to
in these parts are cumbia and a mix of Argentine and Uruguayan rock and ska. Luckily,
the people make the difference again, and we had a lot of fun when we went out.
Unfortunately, some other people, namely an overwhelming amount of sleazy guys,
are a nuisance, especially if you’re a group of 6 girls. Ok, I put that way too
nicely. Like in the other countries we've been to on this trip, the guys here can be really fucking annoying and disrespectful when you
go out as a group of girls. Until this whole structural problem is solved, I think Moni and I will make the most of Montevideo's gay clubs.
So that
about sums up my experience of Montevideo,
2 weeks into my stay here. I’m warming up to this place more and more, making
new friends, walking around town, which is getting more crowded as people are coming
back from their holidays, going to concerts and sitting on La Rambla, watching the sun
set over the sea.
