Purplelake: Day 19 – Jul 10, 2019 Montevideo, Uruguay

After we had our waterfront setting breakfast, we boarded a big interurban bus to Montevideo, 2.5 h drive away. Uruguay is a small country of 3.4 million people and 1.8 million live in Montevideo. Even though Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, it has achieved a very high living standard for its citizens. Most of the industries here revolve around beef and dairy. Its government is democracy and is regarded as having the least corruption in Latin America. They enjoy the best press freedom, big size of middle class and prosperity. If Uruguay, such a small country, can achieve so much by having honest government, how much more can other bigger countries like Brazil and Argentina achieve if their governments truly care about their citizens rather than lining their own pockets?

Uruguay also has very progressive laws. We learnt from our opera house tour that all ticket prices are the same inside the opera house, from the best box seat to the standing seat on the 5th floor! They also regularly bring children and old people from rural area into the capital and let them watch opera/concert for free. It is no utopian (as shown by the amount of garbage on the ground) but goes a long way to show that progress can be made and people’s equality can be achieved.

We checked into the best hotel of our trip here - on 18 floor in a big suite. It is a blessing as both of us were starting to fall under the constant coughing and sneezing among the population here in their winter flu season. We still managed to walk around the small old town and see some museums housed in beautiful stately residences. By the way, all museums here in Uruguay did not charge admission.

For dinner, we finally caved in and ate in a Korean restaurant even though it was not very authentic. Interestingly, they did not have typical kimchi here probably due to shortages of cabbage. Their kimchi was made with cucumber! In any case, we missed the MSG and tastes of our Asian food!