Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Then I saw a replica in bronze of Michaelangelo's David, this statue was apparently made in Florence in 1931. And finally, I saw a Gaucho Monument, built in 1927. And then I finished my self walking tour! It looked like I had walked quite a distance, but actually it was quite doable, as the buildings and plazas are nearby each other. I took about 3 hours to complete the walk, including all the stops in churches, lunch and for photographs. So then I had to retrace my steps back to the hotel. The stop nearest to my hotel for the city tour had a bus arriving at 3.40 pm, so I was just in time.
When I got on the bus, the tour guide informed me that the bus will not make a complete tour of all the places as this was the last bus. The timetable said the busses ran until 7.30 pm, but the tour guide said this was wrong, it only ran until 5 pm and this was the last bus. I asked her what are the places I would be missing and she said the Old City, and since I had already seen that on foot, I went on the city tour by bus.
On the city tour we entered the Barrio Sur or Sur neighbourhood and the Palermo neighborhood. The Parliament building is located some where near here. Then I saw the Obelisk at the end of Avenida 18 de Julio. It is a three sided obelisk made of granite, 40 metres tall with 3 bronze statues on its sides, representing "Law", "Liberty" and "Force". It has a hexagonal water fountain around it with six spheres on its outer circumference. It was built in 1930 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Constitution of Uruguay. Six years later, a similar but larger monument was built in Buenos Aires, the very same one that I saw when I was in Buenos Aires. Then to Parque Battle, a new neighbourhood. We saw a sculpture of what looked like a gaucho on a horse with cattle around him. It was made by an Uruguayan artist.
Then we saw the Centenario Stadium, the stadium where Uruguay won the first ever FIFA World Cup in 1930! This was fascinating for me. And then the journey back along the river, the scenery was beautiful, I never knew a river had waves and sandy shores, because most if not all the rivers in Malaysia do not have sandy shores, not that I have seen anyway. The coastal avenue of about 13 km is known as the Rambla. There is an avenue named Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, the guide said it is to pay homage to various international icons, there is also a statue of Confucius somewhere.
Then I had a dilemma. One of the stops was near Punta Carretas, and there was a lighthouse there known as the Punta Brava Lighthouse. The lighthouse was erected in 1876, is 21 metres high and its light reaches 24 km away. In 1962, the lighthouse became electric. Initially my plan was to stop here, go to the lighthouse, and then take a later bus back to town. But now there was no later bus, but that was not my concern; I could always take a taxi back. My head ache didn't go away despite the 2 panadols I took earlier, and the lighthouse was some considerable distance away from where the bus stopped. In the end I decided against the lighthouse, and remained on the bus back to the Montevideo Port. Later, I regretted my decision, but I suppose health should come first.
From here I had to walk back to my hotel, and on the way I had dinner. At the hotel my shower wasn't working so they gave me another room, I had a standard single room earlier and now I had a double! Yay! When you are all alone half way around the world, it is really the small things in life that make you happy.
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