This month is the inaugural TBI/BBisp miniconference. Lords and ladies of the Republic Most Serene are invited to visit lovely and temperate Montevideo, Uruguay in a celebration of the first Republican ISP achieving internet connectivity.
Accomodations
Available accomodations in the city include:
- Hostels in Pocitos, Punta Carretas, and Ciudad Vieja
- Love hotels honestly advertised as such in Tres Cruces
- Love hotels of advanced age advertised as Historic in Ciadad Vieja
- A variety of other hotels scattered about Pocitos and Punta Carretas.
Living in a hostel I hear a number of travellers telling stories of great deals they have had from Airbnb, while these other travellers were for some reason guest in the hostel I call home rather than some Airbnb clickpot. Travellers I have met who were staying in Airbnb rented accomodates frequently produce stories along the lines of:
The power went out when I used the electric kettle. After a fucking bit of cursing, the place has a single 10 amp breaker.
When picking a place in the city to stay Bingo colocates his person and hardware in Pocitos while gladly shitting in other parts of the city. As a rule of thumb the stretch of the city from Ciudad Vieja in the west to Punta Carretas tends towards a rocky basalt shoreline. From Punta Carretas east though Pocitos, Buceo, and beyond you get beaches.
Sightseeing
Aside from the prolific statues and plazas, sights and events include the Carnival going on now, the Sunday ferias, and the great Punta Carretas Shopping which was a prison until it became a Shopping. And then there's the Rambla, which I am surprised the locals do not call the Walking.
Outside of Montevideo places which come highly recommended by travellers passing though my home include: Rocha in general with Punta del Diablo and Cabo Polonia in particular getting favorable reports. On the other side of the country Colonia also gets a lot of enthusiasm
Punta del Este in Maldonado gets mixed reviews and some beaches there have been problematic for people vulnerable to jellyfish stings.
Places that get less favorable reviews include Paraguay, which is not Urugauy and has no coast line. Paraguay however is a popular vacation destination for locals here when they want a cheaper and more lawless place to go wild.1
Transportation
Carrasco International AIrport is in the far east of Montevideo. Copa was a good airline. I hear frequent complaints about the jet that handles the American Airlines Miami-Montevideo direct route.
Busses run on time here.
Cars yield to pedestrians.
The locals occasionally bitch about road traffic they hallucinated experiencing.
Vice
There are casinos around. Cannabis is everywhere, they even sell the brownies during the Sunday street markets in a prominent high visibility place from a table and everything. Just like the other vendors. Un baked brain baking herb however requires asking to find, occasionally. Some people ask. Others follow their nose. Still more people just go to the beach and weed falls into their lap.
Other Questions
Ask away.
- Disclaimer: I have doubts as to their actual success [↩]