URUGUAY

THE LAND OF MATE

Welcome to Uruguay...

Uruguay means 'River of Colourful birds'

We sailed from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento

The Uruguayan numberplate

There are several different variants of the numberplate with plain white ones with Uruguay written underneath, red ones for lorries, yellow ones for taxis and ones like this one that are specific to the town.

Uruguayan money, the peso, which comes in the form of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 denominations. At 2007 exchange rates $50 = £1.

Uruguayans are obsessive Mate drinkers. They can be seen walking around at any time of days with a leather thermos flask slung over their shoulder and slurping from their leather mate cups.

COLONIA DEL SACRAMENTO

A UNESCO world heritage town, Colonia del Sacramento has cobbled streets and old buildings. You can even have dinner in one of these old cars!

MONTEVIDEO

PIRIOPOLIS

Piriopolis is a seaside resort 50km outside of Montevideo and boasts what used to be the largest hotel in south america, the Argentino Hotel

PUNTA DEL ESTE

The swanky beach peninsula of Punta del Este. Many Argentine and Brasilian politicians own a property in this restaurant and hotel crowded area to the northeast of Montevideo.

Multinational yachts are crammed into the marina.

Most of the main towns in Uruguay are located along the Atlantic coast. The rest of the country is rural with rolling green hills with the highest point reaching a staggering height of 514m!

The temporary import document for Uruguay

Back to Photo Diary