Day 3, 11 Jan 23, Montevideo

We had breakfast again at Mamsen’s and then proceeded to our shore excursion here in Montevideo, “La Rabida Cattle Ranch Encounter”. We left at 9:30 and stopped a few times on the way for pictures of Montevideo.

When we arrived at the cattle ranch before noon it was 73 degrees and sunny. We went on a tour of the property, incuding its “beach” on the Rio de la Plata. This “Rio” is actually an estuary, which at Montevideo is more that 60 miles across. The ranch is a beef cattle ranch which handles animals as they grow from 200 to 400 pounds, after which they go to feed stock ranches to reach marketable size. Susan and I got to ride in a 1939 Model A for the trip around the ranch. Others were in “hay ride” configuration.

During the drive, we stopped to look at the river shore. The water is quite brackish and was very rough this day.

After the tour, we had lunch, barbecued beef, chicken and pork, and then peopled milked cows and showed the methods that gauchos used to saddle their horses.

We then drove back to the ship and in the process saw our ship from the coast.

Once back on the ship, we had dinner and went to bed early.

Fascinating story from our guide: Montevideo is a name which has no meaning in Spanish, but is combined from “Monte” or hill, number 6 “VI” from the east to the west (del Este a Oeste), or “demo.