Montevideo was described in my guidebook as South America’s most laid-back capital and populated by lots of college students. It was a three hour bus ride from Punta Del Este into the capital. Again, I found the bus terminal was in the outlying area, but decided to walk into the center of the city – this was a long 45 minute walk. I found a nice hotel on a public square for only $25 US per night. It was a nice neighborhood too – the Uruguay Supreme Court building was only 100 meters away.

Plaza Independencia was the next plaza from my hotel

I wandered to the “Centro Historico” section of the downtown, which was build in the 1800s and contained a lot of ornate architecture with wrot-iron balconies. It was sort of run-down, and I imaged buying one of these classy buildings cheap and fixing it up.

Historic city center - many buildings were vacant

My guidebook said the Atlantic beaches get better and better the further south you go from the center of the city, so on a sunny afternoon I walked along the waterfront for a couple of hours. There was a continuous, wide sidewalk and nearly continuous public open space and parks.

Beach scene in southern part of the City of Montevideo