MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (DAY ONE)

Yesterday we were in Argentina. Today, we’re in Uruguay. Both face each other across one of the widest estuaries in the world, so moving from one to the other was simply a matter of crossing the river.

I had hoped the cold would turn out to be a short-lived affair, unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I’ve felt like death warmed-up all day, and I’ve been on tour escort duty.

The tour was an eight-hour trip, to Punta Del Este (not the on-the-bus-off-the-bus short-haul excursion we’d hoped for), which started with a two-hour coach drive to our destination, some way up the coast.

Fortunately, my coach was accompanied by a good guide, who knew when to talk and when to stay quiet, and who could impart information in an easy and entertaining manner. The two hour journey there passed quickly.

When we finally arrived in Punta Del Este, we were given ninety minutes of free time. Unusually for an excursion of this length, there was no lunch included, so for most people, a portion of that free time would have been spent looking for food.

The place itself, as far as I’m concerned, didn’t have a great deal going for it. Essentially, Punta Del Este is a seaside resort; a bit like Skeggy, but with good weather and a better beach. Tracey was escorting bus 8, mine was bus 9. Once we’d found each other, we headed off to a beachside bar for a drink and something to eat. I’m certain we could have found somewhere a little cheaper; a plate of chips, a can of Heinekin and a bottle of Sprite cost us the princely sum of $21 (about 20 quid!)… they must have seen us coming!

Other than a huge sculpture of a giant hand, seemingly rising out of the sand, there was absolutely nothing about the place that interested me, and I was happy to finally reboard the bus ninety minutes later.

After a brief photo stop at the point where the great river meets the sea, and an anchor memorial commemorates the Battle of the River Plate, we drove through the expensive district populated by the rich and famous, known as Beverly Hills, to our next stop, which was the Ralli Museum.

The Ralli Museum was the highlight of the day. For starters, it isn’t actually a museum, it’s an art gallery, housing paintings and sculptures by the likes of Beryl Cook and Salvador Dali. Not only was the work on display, quite magnificent, but the building itself, clearly built for the purpose, as equally as magnificent… a very satisfying place to visit indeed!

From here, we travelled to the home of another artist; Carlos Paez Vilaro. Built in 1958 by his own hands, the house stands overlooking the ocean, with open verandahs that would be marvellous to relax and watch the sunset from. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t get planning permission to build the same in North Yorkshire. With barely a straight line or 90-degree angle in the whole place, and looking like something from Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine, the dazzlingly white Spanish-Moroccan architecture was quite simply bonkers.

Both Tracey and I agreed that the artwork on display wasn’t really to our taste. Photos dotted around the house showed Vilaro posing with Picasso, whose influence was very much in evidence – really not my cup of tea at all. In fact, the thing about Carlos Paez Vilaro that I found myself most interested in was that he was the father of one of the Uruguaian football team who were on their way to a match in Peru when their small aeroplane crashed in the Andes. Sixteen of them survived after a 70 day ordeal in sub-zero conditions and very little food except each other; their story was told in the film ‘Alive’, which I remember vividly, and have always been a big fan of.

The two hours return journey back to Montevideo was the perfect opportunity for a snooze. I was able to close my eyes and will my nose and eyes to stop running.

Having not been able to use our data sim in Argentina, I was looking forward to catching up with some online stuff in Uruguay, where the sim is supposed to work, which it does… but not very well, unfortunately. This is a disappointment, since we have two days in Montevideo before we begin our two-day journey south towards the Falklands, so I was rather banking on being able to do updates, downloads and all manner of other online operations before conditions and access to the internet becomes even harder.

Still feeling under the weather… an early night will hopefully sort me out…