Co-living comforts
Update 3: Montevideo
Stomping into harvest
We kicked off March with a very fun harvest wine tour to Establecimiento Barras de Mahoma about 2 hours north-west of Montevideo in the Mahoma Hills.
It’s a family-run property that doesn’t have a cellar door, but we were able to visit through a tour organised by a local business called Wine Explorers - highly recommend joining an event with them if you’re ever in Uruguay!
March is the beginning of the grape harvest season in Uruguay, so we got to have a taste of the whole experience - cutting the grapes from the vine, crushing them with our feet, and then enjoying their full range of delicious wines. The wine crushing was a new experience and it was very fun, weird, and slippery!
The vineyard makes a variety of white and red wines, including Uruguay’s best Cabernet Sauvingon. We were also treated to a delicious lunch which included a whole roasted lamb expertly watched over by a neighbour who was the asador for our feast. The asador is the person who manages the cook times and temperatures of all the meats on the open flame - lots of responsibility but highly respected role. Everything was locally sourced and perfectly cooked.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the perfect way to celebrate this man’s birthday!
Final Carnaval show
Carnaval is over for the year, but we managed to get to see one last show. We took a chance and walked to the Theatro Verano, the main outdoor stage for carnaval, without tickets, hoping to buy at the box office there. There were a few left, we ended up high in the stands in the second last row but it was an extraordinary show. We loved it!
Learning about the 1972 Andes Crash
The 1972 Andes Museum is dedicated to the story of the rugby team on a flight that crashed in the Andes. It commemorates the 45 people who were on the plane and the story of resilience of the survivors. It’s small, but exceptionally well laid out with excellent exhibits that focusing on the people and the tragic series of events. We haven’t watched the The Society of the Snow (La sociedad de la nieve) yet but were glad to have visited this museum before we do. It was a very impactful experience.
Trying out co-living
We have moved accommodation and are trying co-living for the rest of our time in Uruguay. A co-living is easiest explained as a nicer version of a hostel. We have a private room and access to shared facilities - a big shared kitchen with plenty of gadgets for us to cook up a storm, plus a co-working space, gym, and pool!
So far, we’re enjoying co-living. It’s made life very easy and it’s especially helpful when we have meetings late at night - home is only a elevator ride away. There’s lots of other international travellers staying here and it’s been interesting to get to hear about other people interesting journeys.
The co-living staff also organise regular events which has given us a good chance to socialise - we enjoyed joining a whiskey tasting night but unfortunately had to miss bingo due to work commitments.
The area we’re in now has an interesting history, including hosting the city’s main prison from 1915 to 1986. The location has now been repurposed as a large shopping centre, so we pass through the thick stone prison walls several times per week. This area also has a more international food scene than our previous neighbourhood and we’ve been enjoying getting to taste some new things, like Russian Napoleon cake (layers and layers of pastry and creme patissiere), delicious eggs benedict from a French/USA husband wife team, Mexican tacos with the best roast capsicum sauce, and a Peruvian-Chinese fusion dish, chicken chijaukai (fried chicken thigh pieces in a tasty, spicy, salty sauce).
Of course, we’re still enjoying plenty of Uruguayan food too. Check out the cheese pull on this mozzarella pizza. The classic way to eat this by topping it with a crispy chickpea pancake called fainá. It’s delicious!
Hopefully you also enjoy Dave’s unique cinematography style.
Next time you hear from us will likely be after we have made our first country hop of the trip, heading to Argentina! So to get you ready, do you know which of the below is Argentina’s flag?
Quick updates
Llama encounters: 0 (sadly)
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