Montevideo

Montevideo has around 1.3 million inhabitants and is the capital of Uruguay. The city was founded by Spain in 1724, where the Ciudad Vieja stands today.

Montevideo was originally of purely military importance, but it was not until 1750 that trade and commerce began to develop.You do not see a lot of military history maybe the only exception is perhaps the Fortaleza del Cerro, aka Fortaleza General Artigas, the white fortress outside the city centre of Montevideo on the 'highest’ hill in the city

Uruguay gained its independence on 25 August 1829, but this was not recognized by either Argentina or Brazil. The country's history was characterized by several wars with Argentina, Brazil and England, who wanted to annex the country, as well as civil wars between the political groups of the Colorados and the Blancos. The last military dictatorship ruled from June 1973 to February 1985.

You can find out more on Wikipedia

Coming from Buenos Aires, it feels like arriving in a small town. It was a 40-minute walk from the Terminal de Buquebus Montevideo to my hotel and I had already seen 80% of the sights. There are buses here too, but you can easily explore the city on foot.

I noticed 2 themes. One is the diversity that is visible in the city if you look.

And secondly, the poverty and the deterioration of the infrastructure

Whereas in Buenos Aires there was a rubbish bin on every corner, in Montevideo you have to search hard for one.

The Sights

The Ciudad Vieja is surrounded on 3 sides by the Rio de la Plata and the south-eastern side has a large promenade. The most important sights, offices and hotels are located along Av. 18 de Julio. For me, it looked as if you had reached the tourist border when you arrived at the Obelisco a los Constituyentes de 1830, the Faro de Punta Carretas or, to the north, the Palacio Legislativo.  Then the barrios, the neighborhoods where you live, begin. Even further out you will find shopping malls.

What did I like?

• Cementerio Central, the city cemetery
• Candombe drummers in Palermo
• Museo Andes 1972
• Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual
• Palacio Salvo, with a height of 105 metres the most striking Art Deco building in the city
• Teatro Solis, the municipal theatre
• Intendencia de Montevideo. A huge administrative building. I didn't really understand what they do -> coordinates the decentralization process in the municipalities

The Cementerio Central is relatively rarely mentioned in TripAdvisor, Insta etc. and is therefore not overcrowded. It offers so much history and a large number of monumental tombs. I marveled for 30 minutes and then went back a second time.

The Museo Andes 1972 is about Flight 571 or the plane crash that took place in the Andes in 1972. It's about a group of Uruguayan rugby players who stayed at 4,000 metres for 72 days and 16 out of 45 survived!

Candombe

Candombe is a traditional Afro-Uruguayan style of music and dance. I learnt that this art form is particularly widespread in Montevideo and the surrounding regions. In Palermo, candombe is played at a comparsa , which takes place in various districts/streets on Saturdays or Sundays from 1800 on wards

At the beginning of the comparsa, a cardboard fire is lit and the drummers' skins are warmed up to tighten them. People from the neighborhood get together, hang out on the pavement, drink beer and smoke. We only spotted 3 tourists in Palermo

As soon as the drums are ready and everyone has gathered (it took us about an hour), the comparsa drummers line up, the dancers go to the front and the drumming starts.

The comparsa moves very slowly along the street and people join in. All in all, the whole thing goes on for about 2 hours.

Of course there's more! Squares, monuments, markets, museums, but they didn't knock my socks off. But we didn't find a real market. Whether Mercado Agrícola de Montevideo, Mercado del Puerto or Mercado de la Abundancia.  Mercado Agrícola de Montevideo and Mercado del Puerto offer shops and restaurants in an indoor market. Mercado del Puerto is a good place for a steak 😇. The Mercado de la Abundancia is an abandoned building. The market on the Plaza de la Constitución is more of a flea market.

⚓ You can find the Komoot tour with more pictures here ⚓

So if you've had a leisurely look at everything after 2 or 3 days, you still have day trips to Colonia del Sacramento or Punta del Este.

The next thing I noticed is that Montevideo is EXPENSIVE. Food and drinks feel more expensive than in Germany. A Milanese with a beer starts at €20, a burger with fries and a Coke starts at €12 <not at MacD or BurgerK>.

What did I do?

Firstly, I spent half a day getting a Certificado de Llegada    from Migraciones . It wasn't that difficult.

• You go there, queue and hand in your passport.
• Then you stand around with a crowd of other people and tell an employee your telephone number and hotel address
• Then you stand around again, chat to other Overlanders and receive a request for payment, which you pay directly next door with a credit card.
• After you have handed in the receipt, you stand around again and then get a piece of paper that you have to sign and are allowed to leave.

This is the Certificado de Llegada, which you need to get your camper van out of the harbor

All in all, it took about 2 hours. Then to the agent, where you hand in your documents. He makes copies of your passport, Certificado de Llegada, vehicle licence, vehicle insurance. Then you have cleared hurdle 1.

Hurdle 2 is getting the van out of the harbor. I now know that you can only start the process once the ship has left the harbor. So it doesn't matter when it arrives 😳. My ship arrived on a Wednesday evening and left the harbor on Friday at around 17:30. We started it on the following Monday at 11:00. After check-in at the harbor, you wait. In our case 4 hours. Then you take the agent's car to the other part of the harbor and after weeks you see the camper van again. You inspect the campervan, wait for a harbor employee to confirm this in writing and drive to the Buquebus terminal, where you get the TIP at customs. At 17:00 everything was done. 

StarLink

Since I spent a lot of time with Vera and Stefan buying a StarLink Mini in Uruguay, here are a few sentences about it.

Why a StarLink Mini?

After 2 weeks in South America I have only found Claro Uruguay, which offers me as a tourist a roaming option in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay. I also managed to top up the SIM with a debit card in Uruguay, this didn't work in Argentina. In my opinion, topping up at a kiosk is only possible for a local SIM. That would have meant buying a new SIM in every country. eSIMs don´t work for me because they cost a fortune.

But the problem remains that rural areas don't have good coverage. StarLink now offers the Roam service in South America excluding Bolivia.  The cost for 50 GB is €40 which is within my budget <as of 27/10/2014>.

Delivery time of the StarLink Mini via StarLink was given as 2-3 weeks. We used MercadoLibre and had the part delivered after 2 days.

We were concerned about 3 issues. Firstly, the power supply via USB <12 V> and the registration process and service coverage.

USB C because I don't want to have my sine wave converter running all the time! Starlink writes that you need a 100 W socket for USB C, but the USB cable is not part of the delivery. There are a few good YouTube videos that explain which third-party cables you can use to achieve this.

My USB C socket only does 85 W and in Germany only the one from tigerexped can do 100 W at the moment. I decided to buy a 100 W PD USB type C plug input to DC 5.5 Mm X 2.1 M and a female to female coupling adapter. I couldn't find what I was looking for locally, not even at MercadoLibre. Amazon does not deliver the parts to Uruguay! So for now I will use the 230 V option and wait until I get the rest delivered in Argentina.

But the frustration was great when I found YouTube videos showing that this also works with 65 W, because the Mini apparently only needs 30 W

If that was already frustrating, the registration process and service coverage is much more frustrating. Status 27.10.24 StarLink does not really have its documentation under control

In the TnCs you can find

The Roam Unlimited Service Plan allows you to access Roam Services at any land-based destination and in any coastal waters (up to 12 nautical miles off the coast; up to 5 consecutive days at a time and for a total of 60 days over the course of a year) where Starlink provides active coverage around the world.

If you use Roam Unlimited Services for more than two months in a country that is different than your account address, Starlink may require you to move your registered address to your new location or return to the country listed as your account address

Then there are StarLink's support pages, which are either out of date or just confusing

Country: All areas labelled as ‘Available’, ‘Waiting list’ or ‘Coming soon’ on the Starlink availability map are considered land regions. Regional Mobile contracts can be used on land within your continent (see availability map), while Global Mobile contracts can be used on land anywhere Starlink offers service worldwide.

On blogs like kasteninblau.de you will find

Example: You have registered your Starlink in Germany and want to spend the winter in Portugal for 5 months. As soon as you leave Germany, the internet connection via Starlink is active for 2 months. When you arrive in Portugal and the 2 months outside Germany have expired, you change the service address to an address from a campsite in Portugal, for example, and are online again via Starlink. As soon as you leave Portugal, you still have 2 months of Starlink Internet. You can, for example, travel to Spain and back again. Or you can travel home to Germany and change the service address again after your arrival in Germany by transferring the Starlink hardware to your German Starlink account. Please note the 90 day or 120 day rule as described above.

No idea what applies now, in South America or in Europe, but we'll give it a try.

I will register my Mini in Argentina to reduce the problem, so in the worst case I can only use it for 5 months.

And as kasteninblau says so beautifully, ‘While traveling, it was already possible before and the country has always been a continent. In 2.5 months, everyone will see it...’