Are first impressions trustworthy? Probably both yes and no — as someone recently observed, maybe truth isn’t truth. So I’m sure some of my first responses to being in Montevideo were pretty off-target. On the the other hand, there is a delightful and poignant vividness to that first glimpse of a new place.
My first stroll through the Ciudad Vieja on a bright and warm spring day in November. Contrasts between the old and new — many graciously beautiful old buildings, some shockingly ugly new ones. One feature which struck me was the recurrence of vegetation sprouting from roofs and cornices of the older buildings. Some of these appeared abandoned, but others were definitely active businesses.
Is Montevideo a little dilapidated in places? Certainly. Yet it is also charming.
‘La maleza’ is one of the terms for weeds in Spanish. Funnily enough, although weed in the other sense of the work is legal in Uruguay, I smelt less of it on the streets here than I do on a typical summer day in Edinburgh.
I like the little tree on the roof of the second picture. It looks very brave ☺️