EVS in the country of MATE: Day life and night life in Montevideo

Few weeks ago I went to spend some more days in Montevideo and I had tremendous time.

It was Thursday morning and I felt that it was a perfect day to find out if hitchhiking works here. It works :) Actually, you can always see some people on the road going from one place to another one 'a dedo'. Moreover, sometimes you see teachers from rural school who travel ‘a dedo’ . So I tried and arrived. I shared some mate, learned something more about Uruguay and enjoyed those sharing moments which one can experience on the road. In 3,5 hours I was in Montevideo, by bus it takes about 3 hours. And what makes hitchhiking here easier is that there are no highways.

Life in Montevideo has a different rhythm than life in Colonia. There lives a half of all Uruguayan population. It is a city of students and young people, who come there to study, work or try a life in a big city. So I stepped in and let the life flow.

Greengrocer's

I visited the faculty of Psychology which was recommended to me even before arriving in Uruguay. It has a tremendous ‘patio’ with trees and flowers where one can just sit, relax, study … This faculty is said to be a place of alternative relaxed people and one can smell it passing around. By the way there is a perfect coffee place close to the faculty − of course :) - called 'verde'. I can recommend it. I was lucky because just on Friday evening there was a seminar of Biodanza which I hadn’t known before, but I wanted to try. Biodanza is a technique based on the philosophy of the body mind connection and dancing/working within a group. I enjoyed so much to let everything flow and communicate nonverbally and to be able to express everything.

And after the dancing encounter the Friday night continued with Slovakian girls who do their EVS in Montevideo. Our daughterhood was strengthened by sharing mate and bottle of wine sitting in the park and waiting for the night to become. We went to a concert which was supposed to start at 2am, but as it was Uruguayan time, it started at 3am. It is something very typical here that people go out late… it means about 2 in the morning. Clubs are open till 6 or later. It is a bit ridiculous for me, because if I want to go out, I don’t want to wait all night. However, it is also funny to be in the middle of a concert at 4am. The band we went to listen to is a Uruguayan ‘Abuela Coca’ . Tremendous, I felt in love and since then I listened to it every day.

Czechoslovakian girls in Montevideo :)

Sunday market Tristan Narvaja

On Sunday morning I could not miss the traditional market Tristan Narvaja which is a place where one can enjoy different colors, smells, hand-made jewels, second hand books, live music... You can see people who you see the day before collecting things from the garbage bin to sell them in this market.

Making the living

And the Sunday night we went to ‘candombe’. Candombe has its roots in Africa, because as there was lot of slaves from Africa brought in the era of colonization, they used to gather on Sunday and play their music (drumming on tambores), sing and dance. This tradition survived and nowadays candombe is an essential part of the carnival which takes place in February. There are different groups / comparsas of candombe which play every Sunday in different neighborhoods, and prepare for the main event in February. So on Sunday evening people gather, drink grappa miel to warm up and accompany the drum players by dancing, laughing and being happy… after 2 hours when candombe is finished, the party continues...

Candombe - warming up tambores

Typical Sunday in Uruguay includes lunch with family. The main dish is usually 'asado' (barbecued beef) made outside accompanied with red wine 'tanat' and as a dessert ice-cream 'dulce de leche'. After that people go out to enjoy the sun and 'tomar mate' with bizcochos in Rambla. As Uruguayans have teir roots in Spain and Portugal, to go out means to ride a car. If you are not sure what the day of the week is, Sunday you can recognize by many low-speeding cars passing close to Rambla.

Sunday afternoon

Winter afternoon in Montevideo :)

Manu - Peanuts are very popular in Uruguay. The most common nuts you can find here. In Montevideo there are lot of older men who have their carriages and sell them fried with sugar. Delicious.

I know that I repeat myself, however I adore this river. It fascinates me.