While my home base, Seattle, was cozying up with coffee and sweaters during the dark winter nights, I welcomed the Summer Solstice in Montevideo, Uruguay. From the Santiago airport, I flew over to the other side of South America. From the airport, I took the bus over to Downtown, which took an hour. I then walked ten blocks to Ciudad Vieja, or the Old City.

While Valparaíso is famed for its steep, colorful hills, Montevideo’s cityscape is flat and even. The streets neatly follow a grid pattern, with diagonals spanning away from the city center and taking you further out–a stark contrast to the winding, maze-like alleyways in Valparaíso.

Even though Montevideo is very different from Valparaíso, colorful murals grace the streets, promoting diversity and pride in this progressive-minded city. Just turning a corner might reveal random art installations, as music plays from the old European-style buildings. People go about their day, with a yerba mate drink in one hand and a thermos full of hot water tucked under the arm. If you’re not going around the city sipping on your open-container mate packed with soaked yerba leaves and drinking out of a metal bombilla (straw), are you even Uruguayan?

Somewhere I read that Montevideo is a bit of a sleepy city. Indeed, the energy of the city is much slower. Shops and cafes tend to open around 10 or 11, and close around 5 or 6 in the evening. The streets can be a little empty, even on a Sunday. Things crawl more of a snail’s pace ’round here.

One thing that surprised me was that Monte is a lot more expensive than Chile and Argentina. It’s not Seattle-expensive, but you can definitely expect to pay more around here.

I met up with a friend that I had met at Burning Man. Alana lives four hours from Montevideo and knew all the best spots in the city. I was so grateful to have a friend come along!

How’s your Spanish doing?

My Spanish immersion was going well. So far, most of my conversations had been in Spanish, even in Chile, where it’s known to be difficult. In Uruguay, people speak a dialect called Rioplatense. The words are different, as is the accent. For me, it’s a little easier to understand. Still, I asked people to speak slowly. Although if you’re immersing yourself and you get stuck, many people do speak English.

My First Impressions of Montevideo

Ciudad Vieja, or Old City, is the historic city center, that at one point was surrounded by a wall in the 18th century to protect against invasions. Along a pedestrian path just blocks from the water, Casa Vegana is a charming anti-speciest vegan hostel in Ciudad Vieja. Exposed brick walls offered a glimpse of history of a 300-year-old colonial building. Animal-rights propaganda in Spanish were plastered throughout the hostel walls. I felt right at home.

Vegan Food in Montevideo

For a country that’s known for its meat, it blew my mind to see how many vegan options there are. From Chinese food buffets to vegan junk food, it was super easy to see what Montevideo has to offer.

Kerop Café & Tattoo

Kerop is a space-goth concept cafe with a tattoo parlor, offering coffee, snacks, and black-and-white tattoos with some color. The pink, purple, and turquoise mural in the back portrays an inquisitive woman with psychedelic optical-illusion eyes, as bubbles float along her bionic hand. A few things on the menu are vegan, such as the semi-frío, a light ice cream mousse on a cookie crust and topped with passion fruit puree. Having that with coffee was the perfect treat to have on a warm summer day. I didn’t get any new tattoos, though!

Sui Yuan

For lunch, Alana showed me her favorite pan-Asian restaurant called Sui Yuan. This buffet restaurant sells hot food by the pound, as well as goods such as rice, sauces, nuts, dried fruit and tea. The vegetarian hot food bar clearly labeled vegan food like vegetable chow mein noodles, faux meats, breaded kimbap (a Korean rice roll with veggies, like sushi), greens, steamed dumplings, tofu, and more. While I wanted to try everything, I piled my plate with whatever looked the most delicious.

Guacamole

Guacamole is an eatery inside an unassuming shopping center. We stopped by on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, when the streets were almost empty. The building was dark inside, and we thought it was locked, but a couple was walking by and opened the door for us. Inside, all of the stores were closed; it felt rather lonely with most of the lights off. Guacamole was the only place that was open and running. Alana and I had a slice of rich chocolate pie; an adorable strawberry milkshake topped with dairy-free whipped cream and rainbow star sprinkles; and a gramajito: a handful of breaded vegan chicken balls, olives, caramelized onions, cheese sauce, and veggies on top of a bed of fries. It reminded me of poutine in Canada. While the food was good, the ambience left much to be desired.

La Temeraria

La Temeraria, meaning “bold” or “reckless,” is a vegetarian burger joint just above Parque Rodó. In any country I visit, I always try the veganized national dish. The chivito completo was a warm Uruguayan grinder stuffed with seitan, lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions, aioli, and melted vegan cheese. It came with a side of potato wedges with a dip. Which gave us a lot of energy for the long walk that followed.

Places I loved in Montevideo

After having that delicious chivito completo, Alana and I strolled through the expansive holiday market in Parque Rodó. I’ve been to Christmas markets in Germany, and this is a totally different setting. In Berlin, you’d bundle up and sip on hot drinks as you meander among the dazzling lights. In Montevideo, it’s warm enough to walk without a jacket, and people are drinking mate. Even though it wasn’t as decorated in the holiday spirit as its German counterpart, the market still offered a lot. There were lots of handmade wares: soaps, jewelry, clothes, toys, tinctures, and more. It’s big, it’s friendly, and it’s a great place to do some holiday shopping.

Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales

Further down Parque Rodó is the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (National Museum of Visual Arts). This art museum features paintings and sculptures from famous Uruguayan artists from the past and present. Many refined 19th-century oil portraits feature gaucho culture, or Uruguayan cowboys; historical portraits of prominent political figures; landscape paintings, and more. The Museo Nacional thoughtfully links past and modern works in the open space inside. After an afternoon of seeing art, we relaxed in the lush sculpture garden outside. It’s free to enter.

Museo de Arte Precolombino e Indígena

Museo de Arte Precolombino e Indígena (Museum of Pre-Colombian and Indigenous Art), or MAPI, showcases archeological and ethnographic pieces from indigenous tribes throughout the Americas. The museum spans three floors in different rooms, all under a sun-lit glass atrium. One room has an exhibit on the Blackfoot tribe in the United States and details how members of the tribe lived their daily lives. Another exhibit includs tools and handicrafts from the Mapuche tribe in Chile and Argentina. My favorite was the intriguing mask display from various cultures throughout Latin America. There were colorful masks for festivals, carnivals, and theater, as well as traditional celebrations. They were made from various materials, from straw and bone, to plastic, cloth, and found objects. All of them were on a curious wavelength. Some of them were downright creepy! Nonetheless, it was still a striking exhibit.

I also felt that the museum had some room for improvement. Even though the it spanned three floors, many of the rooms were empty. There also wasn’t a lot of information on some of the exhibits. and there weren’t English descriptions for visitors who don’t know Spanish. I still enjoyed what was there. Plus, it was only a block away from the Casa Vegana hostel, so that was easy.

Cafelino Cafe & Adoption Center

There’s nothing I love more than sipping coffee and petting cats at the same time. Cafelino Café has a room full of the sweetest, adoptable kitties. First, I enjoyed coffee before going into the cat room. Then I stepped in for some adorable cat therapy. Since I was one of the first guests, the kitties were well-rested and ready for attention. One of the employees even brought out a four-month-old kitten. Eventually this kitten fell asleep on me! Sometimes I wonder how anyone could hate cats, when they probably just haven’t found the right one. I mean, who could resist a cute, friendly kitten who just wants to love you? I could have stayed there all day.

Final Impressions of Montevideo

After experiencing Montevideo for three days, I would say that it’s a very laid-back city. I’m glad that Alana was there to keep me company. But perhaps three days wasn’t enough. Perhaps there are more hidden gems to be discovered, if I knew more people in this city. Would I come back? Yes, I would, but next time I’d rather explore the neighboring Colonia del Sacramento or Punta del Este.

In the last evening, I walked to the ferry terminal from Casa Vegana. I passed through immigration and boarded the foot ferry to make my final stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina.