Montevideo, Uruguay - Passing Through

A few trivia questions for the day!

1. What South American city has a human population of 3.5 million with almost 12 million cows.

2. What city hosted every match during the first FIFA World Cup in 1930?

3. What is the capital of Uruguay?

If you haven't guess based on the title of the post, the answer is Montevideo.

I had the opportunity to spend a few hours there yesterday. There were no excursion to view amazing wildlife, no unique museums, no interesting cultural interactions or craft demonstrations.  It was just a city tour followed by a craft beer tasting at a local brewery.

It was a nice day.  Nice, but nothing really stood out.  It seemed like just an ordinary city that could be located most anywhere.  One of my fellow travelers referred to it as the Cleveland of South America.  Not the perfect comparison, but I get it.  A nice place with nice people but nothing particularly remarkable. 

I guess I’m saying that I found Montevideo boring, and I don’t want to say that.  It seems disrespectful to the citizens that live there.  It also makes me sound horribly ungrateful.  I mean, I had the opportunity to visit a place thousands of miles from home on another continent and I have the audacity to refer to it as “boring”.   Makes me sound like some entitled brat. 

Perhaps if I had more time there I may have found something memorable that I connected with.  Or maybe if I had traveled out to the countryside.  Who knows.  I suppose my point is that not every stop on our journey is going to be full of fabulous photos and lifelong memories but we should at least look for the positives and make an effort to learn.  With that in mind, here are a few interesting and notable things that I learned about Uruguay.

1. Elections are mandatory.  With few exceptions, all citizens over the age of 18 are required to vote.  To make it as easy as possible, election day is a national holiday and all public transportation is free.

2. Uruguay was the first country in the world to provide every elementary school student with a laptop.

3. At least 98% of Uruguay’s electricity is generated through renewable resources. 

4. Uruguay is regarded as the least corrupt, most democratic country in South America.

5. Uruguay is a leader in progressive policies, it was one of the first countries in South America to give women the right to vote, legalize divorcee and legalize gay marriage. 

6. The vast majority of the country is middle class with few living in poverty and few living with major wealth.

7. It is considered one of Latin America’s safest countries. 

What we travelers see and experience as tourists too often only surface level.  Sometimes the most interesting things about a place are those things we don’t see when we’re only passing through.