Montevideo

We spent 2 days wandering the city of Montevideo where we found some great cafés, tasty empanadas and a couple of interesting markets and other landmarks. One of the most unusual things, especially for Alex since he had never witnessed it before, was the local tradition of drinking yerba mate tea. Although apparently common across a few South American countries, Uruguayan’s are completely crazy about the stuff. It’s an important cultural phenomenon with its own special traditions, including the perforated metal straw (bombilla) and gourd used to drink it. Most locals walk around with a gourd in hand or their mate kit (hot water thermos, straw and gourd) thrown over their shoulder. To get an idea of the prevalence of mate drinking, imagine an American city and substitute the to-go coffee cups with yerba mate gourds. So really, no more strange than that, but still rather exotic to the uninitiated.