Day 216. Wednesday, 3rd April, 2025. Sightseeing in Montevideo.

Breakfast was hearty, but not healthy. Too much bread and cakes. Our food consumption during the day wasn’t any better. We didn’t want a big lunch, so a rather greasy empanada with chicken, ham and mushrooms sufficed. This was soon followed by very large ice cream cones. Dinner didn’t improve very much. Pork with sweet potatoes and large deserts. Dennis having cheesecake and ice cream and me crumble and ice cream. Things will have to improve when we get back to the UK.

Central Railway Station

We’re attempting to justify our excess consumption by the fact we walked miles. Yesterday, when driving to the port, we passed a grand looking building which Dennis thought was the railway station. Looking on Google we saw a picture of the building, confirming it was the Central Station, with some lovely old steam trains.

When we arrived at the building it was in a state of some considerable decay. All fenced off and inaccessible. A guard (fast asleep) was posted in front of the building. We walked around to the side to see if there was any way to enter. Impossible though, as there were solid walls for as far as we could see. Sadly, when we Googled again, we found the place had closed in 2003! No wonder so much rot had set in. The first picture we found was obviously the station in its heyday.

Interesting balconies

The Museo Andes 1972

We were very close to where we had put Poki in the container yesterday. The port is right be side the old city. Our next stop was The Museo Andes 1972. A museum dedicated to the 1972 plane crash in the Andes. (Is this a good idea when we’re flying tomorrow!)

Uruguayan Airforce flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile. There were 45 passengers on board, including 19 members of a rugby team. The inexperienced co-pilot was flying the aircraft at the time and mistakenly judged their location. This resulted in the aircraft hitting a mountain ridge, shearing off both wings, with the fuselage plummeting down a glacier into a deep valley.

Some passengers were killed on impact, some later died from their injuries. An avalanche caused a further 13 deaths. Searches to find them failed as the white fuselage was not spotted against the snowy background.

During the 72 days that followed the crash the survivors suffered extreme hardships. Bitter sub-zero temperatures, exposure, strong wind, complete darkness at night and starvation. This resulted in the remaining passengers eating the flesh of those who had died, in order to survive.

Convinced rescue wasn’t coming, they decided the only possibility of survival was if some of the group went for help. Three men set off to climb out of the valley. On reaching the summit they were shocked at their location. All they could see were mountain peaks. One member of the team went back, but the two others continued. They trekked 53.9 kms into Chile for 7 days. Once they came across grass pastures and cows, they knew they would find help. They saw a herder and managed to communicate with him across a river they could not cross.

Help then came with helicopters flying in and the remaining 14 survivors being rescued. Several films have been made and books written about their amazing survival. The museum has a chamber where you can experience simulated conditions. Cold, wind and darkness, although the temperature only reduces to -15, whereas they experienced as much as -30.

Mercade del Puerto

Continuing our walk around the old city, we came to the Mercado del Puerto. It is rather like the San Telmo market we visited in Buenos Aires. Smaller, though, and far less crowded. It has similar restaurants serving huge meat platters, bars and shops. It was here we had our greasy empanada.

We took a break and sat in the sun for a while before walking through the pedestrianised streets full of restaurants, cafes and small shops to the main square, Plaza Independencia.

Plaza Independencia

We entered the square through the stone gateway, Puerto de la Ciudadela. Centre piece is a huge statue to the independence hero, Jose Artigas, mounted on an imposing horse.

Other important buildings being the 19th century Palacio Estevez and the landmark 26 storey Palacio Salvo. This was the continent’s tallest building when it opened in 1927 and is still the most prominent landmark. It houses the Tango Museum and both residential apartments and offices.

Palacio Salvo

Phoenix palms, sadly victims of the Red Weevil.

Returning to the hotel for a short rest, later in the evening, we walked almost all the way back to the Mercado del Porto where the streets had been full of restaurants and cafes. We expected it to be buzzing at night, but it was very quiet. Some restaurants and cafes not open. We eventually found somewhere for our final South American dinner.

The hotel has booked us a transfer to the airport tomorrow. Annoyingly we have been unable to check in online. LATAM’s system will not accept Dennis’s passport number. The only reason I can think of is because it contains two letters and isn’t all numbers.

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