Montevideo, Uruguay

Today we did a city tour of Montevideo, Uruguay. Because of the early start, we had breakfast delivered to our stateroom. What a life! Our tour guide was quite proud of her country and kept our attention throughout the tour of monuments to gauchos, heroes of the Uruguayan revolution for independence, and those honoring the natives who were completely exterminated from this country during the colonial period.  We especially enjoyed seeing and smelling the huge eucalyptus trees and gigantic aloe Vera plants. The beaches here are snow white sand and palm trees line the streets. For South America, Uruguay is fairly stable with less poverty than some of the others countries (average income of $1400 per month). 1/3 of the country’s population lives in this capital city. We were also surprised to learn that even though it appears to be the sea, we have been sailing on a very wide river this whole time. Sometime tonight we will be in the Atlantic.

After a little shopping in the market, we took it easy and napped – it is after all, vacation! A late afternoon visit to a lounge to hear one of the many musicians (and a mojito) got is in the mood for a sophisticated evening. Dinner tonight was in formal attire with a menu of shrimp cocktail, lobster and filet mignon. Three other guests joined our party – all are still older than Diana, but it certainly livened up the conversation. We were surprised to have the ship’s First Officer join us at our table – he was wearing his format whites and certainly made us feel special. After dinner, we went to the theater for free champagne, introductions of the captain and officers, and a wonderful Broadway review. Tomorrow is a full day at sea. We plan to sleep late, take a computer class and generally relax.

 The satellite internet is very slow, so we are sorry we can't post any photos today.