This is the Plaza of independence, probably the most significant and well known of all the plazas in Montevideo (other than our little front yard personal plazita, of course!). At the top of the tower of the very ornate building in the foreground you can see two side-by-side tall buildings in the background which are actually located in the far right exit of the plaza. It is difficult to make out, but the lower building next to the tall building on the right is the building where Bonnie works.
The Old City is the historical center of Montevideo and covers the peninsula part of Montevideo. Originally it was surrounded by a protective wall. A replica of the door to the Old City stands in it's original position at the top center of the plaza.
The old city is a really interesting place- lots of contrast from the past to the present. Amazing buildings and architecture in all sorts of conditions. Above is an interesting building we photographed on a stroll through the old city.
This is the front of the building and it looks beautiful.
Back to the Plaza of Independence. From the Plaza side, this is the view of the aforementioned "ornate building" (Salvo Palace) which was originally built as a ritzy hotel and is now an apartment building. I guess not enough people knew about Uruguay to generate enough business to make the hotel a success, and it appears Uruguay continues as a very unknown country to the rest of the world.
SIDE NOTE: Originally a dance hall, La Giralda Gran Cafe y Confiteria, occupied the site where the hotel was constructed and it was at that same dance hall where the most famous Tango melody (La Cumparsita, composed by an Uruguayan) was first played (1917).
Here’s a link to listen to "La Cumparsita" (you will immediately recognize the tune) which also shows early 1900’s pictures of Montevideo, including the cited dance hall (the 9th photo at 0:38 seconds). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkfzK_nX-QM
Down to the other end of the plaza... At the left far exit between the two monster modern office buildings in the first photo of the Plaza, surprisingly, can be found one of the most beautiful theaters in the world, The Solis Theater.
For those who care, it is a beautiful example of 18th century neo-classical architecture (which to me, simply means it is fancy as all get-out!).
The theatre was built from 1842 to 1856 (those mean old Argentine bullies had the city besieged from 1843 to 1852). While the Solis is not the oldest theater in the Americas, it does claim the high-brow title of the oldest functioning great opera house in all of the Americas.
The theater was named after Juan del Solis, who discovered the Rio de la Plata River in 1516 and that was the last of Senor Solis' accomplishments
SIDE NOTE: Shortly after his discovery of the River, Rio de la Plata, Juan del Solis noted, while sailing up the river, there were many houses and people on the shore watching their ship. Solis led a party of nine people to shore to find out who these people were (they were Guarani) and, if possible, to kidnap a man to bring back to Spain.
However, once on land, the tables were turned. In plain sight of the ship and crew, the entire party was ambushed, killed, butchered, and cannibalized, except for Francisco del Puerto, a 14 year old cabin boy (It was the custom to eat parts of enemy warriors, but not children or women; I guess they had to draw the line somewhere). The crew sailed back to Spain abandoning Francisco to his fate.
11 years later, Conquistador Sabastián Gaboto visited the Rio de la Plata and recorded he saw "a huge native making signals and yelling." The native turned out to be Francisco del Puerto.
Francisco was brought aboard where he served as Gaboto's translator until, feeling Gaboto was cheating him, Francisco plotted revenge. In a deal with local Indians Francisco organized and launched a surprise attack inflicting heavy casualties and driving the Spanish away. Nothing more was ever known of Francisco del Puerto.
I had to include a picture of this chandelier because our guide made a really big deal about chandeliers being manufactured by an old company that was destroyed during Uruguay's 13 year-long civil war (1838 - 1851) and in all the world only seven chandeliers created by this company survive today. Three of them are found in the Solis. The one above is the smallest of the three.
SIDE NOTE: One day a week the tours are free, which is the day we took our tour. We signed up for the Spanish tour, but when the tour began we noticed that while we had about 20 people in our group there was only two people in the English group, so we switched, only to be informed the foreign language tours were not free because they were "harder to do." I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why a company would charge more to have an employee speak in a different tongue other than Spanish.
We have been told that due to Montevideo's location between Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo, the Solis Theater hosts many famous and quality international acts because since the acts are already in the region, they feel they may as well perform in Montevideo, as well. Bonnie and I are looking forward to taking advantage of these opportunities.
Inside the main auditorium I caught Bonnie admiring the third chandalier and ceiling paintings.
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This is looking towards the back of the hall from the stage. The sides of the auditorium are surrounded by private boxes.
Here is a better shot showing the five levels. The two main boxes in the center of the second and third levels are the Presidential boxes.
On the tour we learned Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, will be playing and since the theater is owned by the government, the production is being subsidized and all seats in the hall are the same price. Bonnie and I reserved our own private box on the first level. It is the second one from the stairs on the left. We invited our good friends Gerardo and Rosario Galvez and our Bishop and wife, Daniel and Gabriela Collato to join us this Saturday night. Bonnie is going to make us dress to the nines, so we will be transported back in time to truly enjoy the experience!
I'm being totally irresponsible and Monday I'm going to ignore all the "to-dos" and spend the day at this little oasis- The Uruguay Golf Club!
And Monday night for our Family Home Evening activity we are going to go watch our friend, Kyle Lamonte, lead the Aguada team to another victory! After starting 0-5 they had eight straight wins (until the last game) and are now 8-6! After this game the season will be half over but it looks like Aguada will have a chance for the playoffs, which seemed totally impossible after the first five games.
Tuesday is farmer's market day and in the evening we are going to a classical guitar concert by our new friend and guitarist, Ulises Pena, whom we met this weekend in the town of Minas, about 120 miles from here. We've really enjoyed listening to his CD.
Wednesday we go to a school to speak English with the students. In the town of Minas I was impressed because the kids spend four hours a day in immersion English.
Notice the cool computer that every Uruguay elementary public school student has! You won't find that in any other country in the world.
Thursday is Tango class and probably my day to work at the Bishop's storehouse. I didn't know this couple was watching us, but they seem to have our moves down pretty good!
Friday is our ward's adult dinner. The ward rented a restaurant and everybody brings their own meat to have it cooked on the "parilla" (grill) which is a wonderful part of Uruguayan culture. Parillas are wood fired grills; no gas, charcoal, or anything else that isn't "good" firewood. The fire is started hours before the cooking starts and then the coals are spread underneath the parilla. It is hard to imagine how many wood fires are going every evening in this modern city (and how good it smells!). We have invited our friends Gerardo and Rosario to come with us so it should be very fun.
SIDE NOTE: We keep mentioning that the night life is a very late night life here. We called up to order pizza to be delivered to our friend,s, Aaron and Shannalee Hansen, house but found out they don't start deliveries until 7:00 (or 19:00, as they say it here). We asked if we "Sure," the voice on the phone responded, "When do you want it ready?" "As quick as you can," says I, only to be told in a "what-are you- some-kind-of-dummy voice " that they don't start the oven until 19:00! What was I thinking? Who in their right mind would want to eat before 7:30 (at which time the food might be ready) at night?
Saturday is another farmer's market day and, of course, in the evening we will be attending the play, Macbeth. Somewhere in this week, there will be a High Priest leadership meeting, a temple trip, exercise and running, and probably another dozen things I have forgotten!
