cruising again - Montevideo

Yesterday we boarded the Star Princess and set sail to Montevideo ('I see mountains'). The storm in Iguazu finally caught up with us and storming in BsAs. But we were one step ahead of it. Montevideo was hot and humid. The capital wasnt very interesting. The Ciudad Vieja didnt look old. The acclaimed one remaining gate La Puerta de la Ciudadela was but repaired and the Plaza de Independencia was small and unattractive. The huge statue of Jose Artiga was impressive but one couldnt really get a good picture of it because there's a tall and ugly apartment building behind it. Again we couldnt go inside the Teatro Solis. This trip seemed not to be a teatro seeing trip. First the Teatro Colon in BsAs was closed for renovations and completely covered up so not even a picture of the outside was possible. And now there were no more inside tours for the day in the Teatro Solis. But we did make it to the Palacio Legislativo, a marble white building with a Greek temple on top that resembled the Hera's temple on the Acropolis. Loved this building. But again we missed the guided tour to the inside of this brilliantly white building. Trouble with this building was that it was in the middle of a not so nice area of town and away from the other attractions. We had to taxi there and taxi back to town. I had wanted to walk some of the ramblas , a long street that boards Montevideo's coastline, and visit some pocitos, the fashionable seaside neighbourhood but there was no time. In the late afternoon we sailed out of the Rio Plata into the Atlantic, and a fantastic lightning storm lite up the pitch black sky like fireworks. It was an awesome display that not many on the ship saw. I saw it by chance on the aft deck. I've never witnessed storms like this. No rain. Finally in the early morning on the next day the rain came.

Video of Lightning storm on Rio Plata [1.7M]

Tango onboard Star Princess [7.9M]

Teatro Solis

Statue of Artiga with Palacio Salvo

Palacio Legislativo