Montevideo, Uruguay

We spent only two days in Montevideo, Uruguay. The city was a lot smaller than Santiago but it was nicer in a lot of ways. The city itself seemed very laid back and we noticed that even though they didn't have marked lanes on their roads they still drove better than the people in Chile. It also seemed like more people spoke English; especially people at the bus stations and at retail stores. A lot of the people there looked white/European and were very tall; it was the opposite of the people in Chile. They also pronounce "ll" like "sh" like they do in Argentina. So, pollo ("chicken") is pronounced "po-sho" here, but it is "po-yo" in Chile. We weren't aware they did this so we had a hard time understanding them at first.
The first day in Montevideo we didn't do much. We only went to the bus terminal to buy ferry tickets to Buenos Aires. While we were out we noticed that everyone in Uruguay drinks Mate while walking around! We later asked the hostel workers about that and they said it's a Uruguay thing. They all carry around a thermos of hot water and their mate and drink it on the go.
The second day we spent out exploring the city. We went to the center of the city, the artesanal market, and the Ciudad Viejo. One thing I noticed about Montevideo is that they have a lot of statues and fountains. We visited the main on in Plaza Indepencia. There's a statue of General Artegas (pictured above), and underneath that statue is a tomb with his remains. It had information of his achievements on the walls and was guarded by two soldiers. It had a creepy vibe.
One of the main goals we had while in Montevideo was to eat a lot of meat. We accomplished this by going to the Mercado del Puerto in Ciudad Viejo. The whole market is a bunch of restaurants that have huge grills with every kind of meat imaginable on it. It was an amazing site as I've never seen so much meat being barbequed before.

Jeff and I got a parrillada for 2, which ended up being this:
That's a lot of meat! It had 4 small pieces of steak, 2 big pieces of mouthwatering chicken, 2 huge blood sausages, 2 pieces of chorizo, 2 pieces of delicious sausage, 2 cow kidneys, 2 small pieces of intestine, and 2 neck glands. We tried a bite of everything and most of it was absolutely amazing! We weren't big fans of the kidneys, intestines, and blood sausages though. I thought the kidneys and intestines tasted the same and the blood sausages were too sweet for my taste. We were completely stuffed afterwards and we only ate about two thirds of it. Here's a picture of Jeff after he couldn't eat any more.After the huge meal we went to check out the waterfront. There were lots of people fishing on there. We thought that we were on the Atlantic Ocean but after talking with the hostel workers we found out we were actually on a river. Here's a pretty view of the city from the breakwater we walked onto.Later that night we found out from our hostel that there was a football game going on. The worker told us it was their national team for the South American league and it was a quarter final match so it was going to be crazy. We decided to go experience a proper football game. The stadium the match was in was actually where the very first World Cup was played.
The match was against Brasil and luckily we won, even though the final score was 0-0. After seeing how crazy the fans were for their team we weren't looking forward to seeing how they were if their team lost. The fans went nuts during the game. People had flares going, were shooting off fireworks, had smoke bombs, and were throwing streamers. There were also several chants during the game. It was pretty cool to see because nobody gets that into our sports at home. Here are some pics of the fans having fun:Currently we are in Buenos Aires for the month. We rented an apartment right in the middle of the city which is nice. The city is humongous! We are enjoying exploring the different neighborhoods. We'll post pics up soon!