Montevideo, Uruguay (Sunday, March 18)

We awoke to the worst parts of yesterday's weather forecast for today - lightning, thunder, rain and poor visibility.  Today's forecast indicated no likelihood of improvement until evening at the earliest.  We could not see Montevideo just a few miles away. 

Pam and I were so glad to be here rather than at anchor off Punta del Este.  I was not envious of the people determined to go there today.  They were taking a tour bus 2.5 hours each way on a 9-hour tour.  

Although SIRENA arrived at the Montevideo pilot station on schedule, "port congestion" delayed the pilot coming aboard and our entry into the harbor.  When we did enter the harbor, it was raining so hard that we could barely see where the ship was going.

We docked a few minutes after 11:00 AM.  The weather remained so poor that Pam & I did not do anything different than we had while waiting to dock.  I came up with a new term - "pier cruising".

Eventually the weather let up.  We left the ship, walking through the port.  Near the main gate was an area with some port relics, one of which was a rangefinder from the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee that was scuttled in the outer harbor after being chased into neutral Uruguay by three British warships during World War II.  

Under threatening skies, we left the port, walking to a complex called The Port Market.

From the market, we wandered up Pérez Castellano Street for several blocks before retracing our path back to the ship.

Toward evening, the skies began to clear, the sun casting its light on the communications building, the waterfront and the derelicts in the harbor.

I took this picture of the sunset from the stern of SIRENA while we ate dinner there.