January 4, 2018
This morning’s temperature as we approached Montevideo, Uruguay was 23°C, not a cloud in the sky and the wind was northwest at 26 km per hour. The forecast high was 34°C. It was beautiful walking on Deck 3. When we were here on February 24, 2012, it was also a hot day.
The ship had a narrow channel to navigate through the breakwater into Montevideo Harbour in the Plata River which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. We watched as the ship docked near the MSC ship Magnifica which is a larger ship of almost 2,800 passengers. We could see the buses, drivers and guides waiting on the pier as well as, in the shade of a warehouse building, people with luggage who we presumed were new crew members starting today. On the other side of the breakwater near where the ship had docked, we saw at least one dozen old ships grounded in shallow water, kind of a ship’s graveyard. Steps 4,561
One Canadian dollar is worth 23 Uruguayan pesos. The name Uruguay, in the language of the original indigenous people of the land means “river where colourful birds live”. The population of the country is ten million. Montevideo was a walled city in the 1800s, only a few ruins of the wall remain and one of the gates is located at Independence Square. The Spanish founded the city in 1724 as a protection for Buenos Aires. The Uruguayan flag had a sun, like the one on the Argentine flag, and 9 stripes alternating blue and white, which represent the nine provinces of Uruguay in the early 19th century. Today Uruguay has nineteen provinces. It is compulsory for all Uruguayans to vote. One of Uruguay major exports is caviar from the sturgeons that are raised here. If they do not vote they are fined and cannot have legal documents processed until their fine is paid. Uruguay was founded as a Roman Catholic country, but now most Uruguayans do not practice any religion.
Our excursion today was a city bus tour and then a visit to Juanico Winery for wine tasting and lunch. There were 26 people on our bus and about the same on the other bus doing the same tour. We started on the city tour going to Independence Square. We passed the Holy Trinity Church which is shared between the Catholic and Protectant parishioners. In the center of Independence Square is the statue of Artigas, who led the independence movement. One of the buildings surrounding the square houses the Canadian Embassy which flies the flag on the side of the building. There is an iconic building, at the west end, which was inaugurated in 1928 and built as a hotel, but contains apartments today. Across from the Canadian Embassy is the Uruguay presidential offices in a glass building beside the former offices in a two storey stone building. At east end of the plaza is the reconstructed old city gate at the beginning of Avenue 18 de Julio. It was on July 18, 1830 that Uruguay’s received its first constitution. Next, we saw the Pasoviloni Fountain, then on to the Rio de la Plata shore side road. The promenade walkway stretches for 25 kilometers, passing the former hotel built in 1906 that houses the offices of the Union of South America. The Union of South America was supposed to be a kind of economic union for the South American countries, but it has not met expectations. Uruguay has its own Carnival celebrations each year from the end of January to the beginning of March. The next stop was at the famous Monumento La Carreta designed by José Batlle y Ordonez in the late 1920s. It is a tribute to the pioneers and shows a cart pulled by oxen cast in bronze. Nearby is the stadium where the first soccer World Cup was held in 1932. By this time, we saw digital thermometers reading 32°C and there were a few small white clouds.
Next, we passed the 18 de Julio obelisk commemorating the declaration of the Uruguayan constitution close to the marble and granite Palacio Legislativo where parliament meets. It took 17 years to build and has 52 kinds of Uruguayan marble and 17 types of Uruguayan granite. It has many intricately carved details. There are 60 steps that lead to its main entrance. Nearby is the modern glass sail shaped Communications building where the telephone and Internet services are contained.
We passed a beautiful former Roman Catholic church, that resembles a smaller version of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which is rented out for weddings and special events and Christmas and Easter. It is privately owned. This is a wealthy part of the city; embassies and ambassadors’ houses are in the area as well as the President’s house.
We had a brief stop in the Parque Prado by another José Batlle y Ordonez cast bronze carriage sculpture and passed another of his creations showing the six indigenous people who were kidnapped and taken to France to show off to the King. The Parque Prado is a large park with lovely drives and a botanic garden.
Once through the park we were on our way to Juanico Winery which is one of Uruguay’s oldest and largest wineries. The vineyards cover 440 hectares. On the highway, there were more than a dozen double trailer truck full of logs. We passed several depots where the logs were being stored. In the fields we saw cattle, sheep and horses grazing and a few towns on the 40-minute drive to Juanico Winery.
Juanico Winery was established in 1839 by an Italian immigrant and enlarged by descendants in the 1940s. The families own wineries in Uruguay and Argentina. The grapes are picked by hand from mid-February until the end of March when there is an addition of 700 workers to the year around staff of 200 people. There are 17 varieties of grapes grown. We saw small green grapes on vines that do not require irrigation since there is plenty of rain. The green grapes were about a quarter to one third the size of green table grapes. There are no roses at the end of the rows of vines since people rather than machines look after the grapes. People can tell if there is a fungus outbreak. If there is too much rain the harvest is not as good. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes takes the longest to ripen. The wines are mainly exported to Brazil and the United States.
After viewing the vines, we boarded the bus and were taken to the cellars that were built in the early 1800s by Jesuits to store food. The temperature stays at 17°C all year round. The first four wines of the tasting were:
1. Don Pascal Chardonay Resrva 2017, the only white wine.
2. Don Pascal Marselan - a combination of Grenashe and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes
3. Don Pascal 2009 Tannet
4. Selección del Enólogo Casecha 2009 Tannet, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend
Then we were served sizzling barbecued beef, chicken and sausage, cooked sliced vegetables, boiled potatoes and roasted sweet potato wedges.
To finish the meal was a port style Tannet dessert wine was poured to accompany the raspberry tart. Next the Tango dancers, Diego and Lana danced three tangoes and then they began choosing people seated at the tables to dance with them. Then it was time to return to the ship.
We returned at 4:30 in time to see if the Wi-Fi at the Information office was available. After several tries, we were not able to connect to the system so we returned to the ship for cool iced coffee drinks before dinner.
Joyce & Shin and Violet & Jerry chose an eight-hour excursion out to Colonia Del Sacramento, which is the oldest city in Uruguay, and since 1995 is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and only returned just before 6 p.m. Violet & Jerry had other dinner plans. We had six at our dinner table. The choices tonight were Mixed greens salad and Shrimp Tangerine for starters and Sesame steak salad and Caesar Salad for the main Course. Dessert choices were Mango Sundae and Chocolate Bonbon Torte.
We went for a walk on Deck 3 to watch the sunset before the eight o’clock show. The entertainment for tonight is the return of pianist Naki Ataman, the title of tonight’s show was “Somewhere in Time”. He did another 45 straight minutes of playing as he did back on Christmas Eve.
When we returned to the stateroom, the room steward had created a monkey that was suspended from the ceiling.
Steps 11,627
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