Yesterday morning we took an Uber to meet Nacho at the Parque Rodó, not far from our hotel. The Uber ride was amazingly cheap, about $4 one way. The Parque Rodó is a large public space with a central lake and an open-air stage. The park also features a castle, a gazebo, an Andalusian-style patio and a wide variety of native and imported plants. There’s even a statue of Confucius!

In our Cada Día Spanish class, four weeks in the year are devoted to a Book Club, and one of the recent books we read was “La Uruguaya,” which takes place right here in Montevideo. It was so exciting to see some of the scenes described in the book, brought to life!

We also saw a outdoor memorial to the Holocaust, which opened in 1994.

Here’s what I found out on Wikipedia about this memorial: Following several acts of anti-Semitic vandalism, the memorial was renovated, and rededicated in June 2016. Apart from cleaning the memorial of anti-Semitic graffiti, the renovations included the addition of lights and staircases. The renovation was funded by Uruguay‘s Jewish umbrella organization, the Israelite Central Committee. However, a year later, the memorial was again vandalized with anti-Semitic slurs.

One of my “must do” things was to visit the Montevideo sign, and here it is!

And here is a photobombed version!

We were shocked that the place was empty and we were the only ones here!

I was inspired to take photos of street art, after seeing Elliot’s collection of street art in Chile (I think he had at least 400 different images on his iPad which he showed us!)

On Wednesday night, after that huge asado lunch (grilled meat) we were in the mood for something lighter, so we ate at a vegan restaurant called The Mushroom Bar. The dishes were all surprisingly good, considering that the cheese was made with cashew milk!

Are we having fun yet? Definitely!