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Interesting Facts
- A small but beautiful country that boasts rolling plains and sandy beaches, Uruguay holds a little less than 3.5 million people. Amazingly, about 80 percent of the nation's entire population resides in the bustling capital city of Montevideo.
- Drink like a native! Mate, a strong herbal tea, is the unofficial drink of the country, and Montevideo residents are so addicted to it that they carry aroundspecial thermoses with metal straws, ensuring they are never without the elixir. As you traverse the streets and pass through shops, you'll see many of these mate containers for sale. Who knows? After you try some, you might even find yourself taking one home with you.
- Sultry and sexy, tango music captures the essence of Latin culture and has become wildly popular throughout the world. Montevideo has its share of hot tango clubs, as well it should, especially considering that the famous "La Cumparsita" tango piece was first played by the Roberto Firpo orchestra in the city in 1917.
- Just what the doctor ordered for some R&R, Uruguay boasts over 500 km of spectacular coastline, and the many beaches around Montevideo beckon visitors to spend lazy days sunning themselves and enjoying any number of water sports. And, since the capital city is packed with restaurants, shops, clubs and sightseeing activities, there's plenty of additional diversion as well.
- Pass through Montevideo's Plaza Independencia, one of the city's main squares, and you can't help but notice the imposing statue of José Artigas, one of this small Latin American country's notable heroes. This beloved soldier battled the Spanish valiantly, but he could not circumvent inevitable defeat by the Brazilian forces.
- When visiting Montevideo, pack for relatively mild climate year round. Because of its unique location towards the south of the country and at the northern end of the River Plate (Río de la Plata), the city maintains temperatures between 10° to 16°C during winter months and between 21° and 28°C in the summer.
- An unusual one, the name Montevideo is reported to have come into existence from one of two places. First, the Portuguese statement, "Monte vide eu," translates to "I see a mountain." Second, when Spanish explorers recorded their discovery of this area, they noted the existence of a mountain as "Monte VI De Este a Oeste," which means "The Sixth Mountain from East to West." Interestingly enough however, the city's entire original moniker is San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo.
- A neutral port during WWII, the port of Montevideo has an interesting story to tell regarding the Germans and their battleship dubbed the Admiral Graf Spee. Following fierce fighting with the British during the Battle of the River Plate on December 13, 1939, the commander of the German battleship sailed into the port of Montevideo and promptly sunk his ship to avoid risking his crew. However, this deed was more than the stalwart Captain Langsdorff could endure, and he took his own life within two days.
- Football, anyone? One of the world's most popular sports, known as soccer in the USA, has a strong fan base in the capital of Uruguay. Among the sport's die-hard followers, it's known that Montevideo hosted the 1930 FIFA World Cup, and many say that the city's Estadio Centenario (stadium) is the very Mecca of football itself. Montevideo does host two of the best South American football teams, Peñarol and Nacional.
- On the way up, Montevideo was ranked as the city with the best quality of life in Latin America by the Mercer Human Resource Consulting firm in April 2006. An honor, this ranking has been hard come by. The city began as a small settlement and grew to hold over 100,000 people in the late 1800s. The area then became a magnet for immigrants, and by the early 20th century, 30% of the population was made up of non-natives. An extreme military dictatorship during the mid 20th century brought about depressed economic conditions, causing many of the country's poor to inundate the capital city. Never one to be kept down though, the city has rebounded and strengthened ties with neighboring countries to provide for agricultural development and positive economic effects.
