MS Fram docked in Montevideo early in the morning. I looked out of the the cabin window and opposite was a blue pickup truck parked on the quayside. We were in Uruguay.
At the end of our corridor the scanning machine and metal detectors were already setup and the passenger gangplank was lowered. As we passed by on our way to breakfast, new crew members were coming onboard.
Our expedition voyage on Hurtigruten’s MS Fram would take us from Ushuaia to Antarctica, to South Georgia, around the Falklands and then onto Montevideo.
Montevideo was the last port of our Antarctic adventure. After docking on Tuesday March 14th, we planned to spend a couple of days taking in the sights of the city. Just as important was getting our land legs back and hopefully having some sunshine.
Montevideo
Fram had docked in Montevideo while we were asleep and we had not noticed her arrival. The quay was very busy …
… and astern of Fram were container ships. On the pavement passengers were already making their way out of the port.
At breakfast we said our goodbyes to fellow passengers and went down to reception on Deck 4 to pick up our passports.
On Deck 7 and Deck 8 I had great views of the harbour. Away from the quay was a large collection of abandoned fishing vessels. Some of the boats looked derelict and others were half submerged.
The biggest party leaving the ship was that for the highlights of Montevideo tour that appeared to fill 3 or more coaches.
The Expedition Team were there on the quay helping everyone else find their places. The ones that were staying with the ship were all looking forward to going up the Amazon and some more warm weather!
Goodbye MS Fram
Our party was much smaller by comparison and we were encouraged to go out onto the quay and join our coach early at 8.35. This was the signal for our cases to be brought out of the hold and put on the quayside. After I gave our cases to the driver we learnt that two Norwegians were missing from the coach.
They had left the ship but were nowhere to be seen. It seems that Norwegians are as bad as some Brits for keeping everyone waiting. So at 9.01 we finally left the quay just after the scheduled time.
Morning in Montevideo
At the dock gates was the anchor from the Admiral Graf Spee. The coach turned right and headed out through warehouses until we had the sea again to our right. Our hotel was only a short drive from the dock gates. Our rooms would be available in about 2 hours and our luggage was stored by reception until then.
Armed with a map from reception we walked around the hotel and up the street towards the city centre.
After a couple of blocks we turned right onto a pedestrianised street towards Independence Square.
We were so early that that quite a few of the shops had not even opened. At the square we bought water at a mini-supermarket and I had to use my credit card. This was the first place so far that had declined to take US dollars for payment.
Here’s some of the street art we passed.
Hotel check-in
Once we were back at the hotel at 11 am we checked in. Our passports had been photocopied earlier by reception so we were quickly through that process as no pre-authorisation of credit cards was needed. Back in the lobby the Hurtigruten travel representative had arrived while we were out. Our pickup for the airport would be at 9 am.
She very kindly booked us to to go to a tango show in the evening promising us more details later when she had finished with the queue of other passengers. Now we had to up to our room but the lifts in the hotel were all stopped somewhere else so getting to our room did take quite a while!
As we left the hotel we decided that after our experience in the shop we changed some of our dollars, at reception, using their exorbitant exchange rate.