January 20th Montevideo, 21st

Saturday, January 20th and we cruised very slowly with only two metres of ocean beneath the ship as we entered the harbour at Montevideo through a very narrow channel. It was incredible steering by the pilot as he slid us into our mooring sideways churning up vast amounts of sand from the ocean bed as he did so. We all stayed on deck to watch as this took almost an hour. It was a very hot and sunny day with temperatures over 30 degrees again but as there was a nice breeze it didn’t seem too bad - my hat wouldn’t stay on! We hadn’t booked a tour of the ‘old city’ so we decided to take the shuttle bus into the city centre, which was a beautiful place with tree lined avenues and plenty of shops. En route, ‘street boys’ were approaching both drivers and pedestrians carrying very large kitchen knives - to sell - and had several more stuck into wooden crates by the kerbside! We thought how unusual!! Anyway, when we got to the city I bought a pair of sandals for $13, I couldn’t believe how cheap things were. In an arcade we found a barber’s shop so Alan grasped the opportunity and had his hair trimmed. When I asked how much? It was $2!! I gave him $5 and he thought it was his birthday. (We didn’t take pesos because dollars are accepted here.) Spanish is their language and few speak English so it was fun, but the people are charming and very friendly. The barber suggested a nice restaurant so we went to eat lunch at El Fogúm, which had a huge barbecue in view (more like a log fire!) Alan had suckling pig and I had moules provéncal and both dishes were superb and only $16, so he got $20 as we didn’t want pesos in our change. We had trundled the streets with Alan pushing his wheelchair for long enough so we got a taxi back to port. The wheelchair was hanging out of the trunk and the tail gate left wide open – I kept looking at our reflection as we past shop windows to check we hadn’t lost our baggage! His charge was $5 so I gave him $10 (it was good to see his big smile!) We had time to shower before our 5.00pm departure to the Hippadrome for our evening at the races. It was a very impressive ‘dirt’ race track, and the elegant marble buildings had been renovated during the last three years. We were able to walk past the open stables as the horses were being groomed for the parade ring opposite. We had arranged to go with Jill and Geoffrey, whose company we have enjoyed since we sit near each other in the Queens Grill. We had tables reserved by the window, each with their own tv, and the dining room overlooked the track and winning post.

There were 9 races starting at 6.00pm and it was more luck than studying form as we didn’t know any of the horses or jockeys, but it was great fun anyway. The three course meal was unusual and we didn’t eat very much, but we drank plenty of Uruguayan wine!!!! The evening ended with a deck party around the swimming pool with lots of music and dancing and a midnight buffet (which Alan was soooo…looking forward to!) What a super day we had.
Sunday, January 21st at sea. Bliss again, we have five days cruising to look forward to before Valpariso. It doesn’t seem like three weeks away from home – I hope we still feel this way in another month! We are finding so many extra complimentary opportunities available to us as ‘world cruisers’ that were not advertised and all worth accepting. The latest is a black tie dinner in Athens. By noon today we had travelled 160 nautical miles from Montevideo and were still in shallow waters (only 100 metres beneath our keel) but increasing our speed in the afternoon. (I sat on the balcony typing this while Alan went to a lecture on the Falklands War by Air Vice Marshall Ronald Dick.) We expect to reach Cape Horn at mid-day on the 23rd. Tonight clocks go back for the first of six hourly changes before we reach San Francisco (so we will be three hours behind you tomorrow) and we are currently 40 degrees south of the equator on a level with New Zealand. I expect this afternoon will be gym, Jacuzzi, evening dinner, show and casino before bed so I will close now and meet Alan for lunch.