Just a few hours from Buenos Aires, crossing the Río de la Plata, Montevideo appears as a slow sigh in the meantime. With its cobbled streets, centenary coffees and that breeze that seems to have no trouble, the Uruguayan capital is the ideal place to escape a weekend and return with the soul a little more light. This city has its own rhythm, more calm than Buenos Aires. And that familiarity with the Buenos Aires adds a cozy air. In a two or three days getaway, one can get lost in its emblematic neighborhoods, sit at a table with history, watch the sunset from the Rambla and provide for the simple. The best way to start a walk through Montevideo is from its oldest heart: the old city. Here, among buildings with more than a century of life and cobbled streets that creak under the steps, time seems to be arrested. The door of the old citadel marks the entrance to a neighborhood that is an open sky museum: the pedestrian Sarandí, the cathedral, the colonial squares and the facades that tell stories without speaking. In this area the most bohemian and literary spirit of the city beats. One can start the morning with a breakfast at the Coffee Pharmacy, a former apothecary deprived in a cultural bar, or sit at one of the Brazilian coffee tables, the oldest in Montevideo, where Juan Carlos Onetti imagined his first novel and Eduardo Galeano used to be inspired between coffee and coffee. From more pure verse, a bookstore with coffee in a building recovered from the old city, to skirmish, in the Cordón neighborhood, where words live with croissants and art samples. In every corner, poetry is breathed: Benedetti, Vilariño Idea, Ida Vitale, Marosa Di Giorgio, all left traces in their paths. And if yours is the story, there are plenty of options: the Carnival Museum, the immigration, the Andes 1972 or the decorative arts, all a few blocks. At noon, the walk ends, almost by inertia, in the port market, where the smoke of the grills is mixed with the sound of guitars, talks in Buenos Aires and smoking chivitos. Eating well is part of the trip, and here the experience is complete. After the center, the trip continues along the 18 de Julio Avenue, a backbone of the modern city, which leads to the Tres Cruces neighborhood. There you can go up to the Panoramic viewpoint of the intention and see from the heights how Montevideo embraces the river. But the soul of the weekend is located in La Rambla, that long coastal hug that joins beaches, parks and neighborhoods. Pocytes, diving, Ramírez, Carrasco … Each beach has its charm, from the most urban to the quietest. Montevideo lives facing the river, unlike Buenos Aires. And that makes people run, fish and feel to look at the horizon or take mate in front of the water. By closeness, accessible prices, relaxed rhythm and multiple cultural and gastronomic options, Montevideo is consolidated as one of the most chosen destinations by Argentines for a weekend getaway.
