Montevideo

Yet another french joke (thanks Damien) : "Avec quel logiciel ?"... Si, c'est drôle. 

Here I am, away from Brasil, and far South to Montevideo ! Thanks to my flu, I had the most perfect sleeping trip in my whole 5 months (phew...) travel. That's why I took only one picture from the bus :

Yeah. No point in it. I just wanted to take one... :-)

Soooo, what can I say about Montevideo ?? First, I didn't go to beaches. In Brasil neither, by the way. Yeah, I'm not fond of beaches, I'm not fond of sun, I'm not fond of sand and all the correlated stuff. And as a travelling friend says : No se trata de ver el mayor número de lugares posibles, sino de disfrutar al máximo de cada un de ellos. 

Instead, I visited the town, I had fun with friends, I drank, I sang, I did many things : I jus had a break. 

So, I'm gonna present you a few things about what I just talked about. 

 First off, the town. Very grey and dangerous as soon as you leave the touristic area. Benevolent cops tell you so, by the way. I've been told the same story, by the way, about La Boca. Some arrogant tourist was wandering in La Boca, out of the Caminito (= the safe touristic nice authentic path). Then he got closer to the "outskirts" of La Boca, and an old lady told him "don't go further". He insisted. She did too. He insisted again. She started to shout at him "don't go further !!". Finally, this prick just passed y her and... passed. No, I'm joking. He just got assaulted 10 meters further. A bunch of guys popped out of surrounding houses, blades drawn, and begged him to give them his X thousand costing camera. Aaaaah, tourists...

Well !! I enjoyed the "safe part" of Montevideo. Very alive, though ugly and grey as I said, but many people, very good atmospher, muy buena onda.

Did you read the same as I did ?

Parillas, of course. Yumme !

So ! I been hosted by an awesome friend, in an awesome flat, with an awesome view of the town. Paradise.

I have to admit, sometimes : it rains. I witnessed the most impressive rain in my life, but... I reckon that even rain looks beautiful when you look it this way, that high :

Still awesome when rain stops. Autumn-looking colors, eh ?

 

And the port, of fricking course. My friends had a boat we had to work on, and that's what I did. ... a little bit, OK, but I did !

Let's have a look over the port-area.

Yeah I know. Viewtiful. 

Hi !

Port by night. 

Port by day. 

I have a problem with ripped flags. I just think they absolutely rock. 

Having hard time on breaks...

♥

Don't be anything jealous : I didn't try. 

To the non-spanish-speaking people : ... find a translator, I'm polite. ;-)

Kill tobacco before it kills you !! 

I litterally love the atmosphere down in the port. The sun, the boats, the smell, the people, the never-stopping move of workers, even the movement of the boats themselves. I mean, as soon as you got used to it and managed to deal with the provoked nausea, it's just great, comfortable, and tranquilizing. 

Now... the boat. An 60 year old boat, made of varnished wood and old bronze. So beautiful and old-fashioned, though totally working. And as everytime I step in a boat, I felt how functional everything is. Small edges on shelves to avoid things to move and fall while the boat is pitching ("rolling" ?), handles everywhere to avoid being thrown on walls and everything. A boat is definitely a sailor thing made by and for sailormen. My logical rational brain loved this.

A glass of beer enjoying pitching. 

A genuine true sailorman. 

Isn't it great to work on this small perfectly shaped table ? Aside with the radio and flags ?

 Bronze before cleaning, ... 

... and bronze after cleaning !

Good old oil lamp before...

... and after ! Enjoy these hands swollen by Cif and nails full of verdigris ? (verdigris is the name coming from the french "vert-de-gris" which describes the color of the copper rust (as you know, bronze is made of a mix of tin and copper) which is, it's important, a protective rust (unlike the iron one). No, I didn't google-wikipediaed anything, I just listened and got interested in my chemistry lessons at school.

Mobidick ? Mobydick ? Moe be dick ? Moving di... OK, I stop. 

Now, i'm back again in Buenos Aires ! Incredibly awesome time with my friends from Montevideo, let's all wish them success on their upcoming trip across the world and the seveeeen seaaaas, everybody's looking for something, and I think they are on the verge on finding it. Thank you guys :)

Hasta luego, más al norte esta vez.