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Montevideo (Uruguay) often doubles as Havana in films. Is Montevideo therefore quite underrated as tourist destination?
And for those of you've been to Montevideo, do you think it actually does look like Havana? And if so, in what way?
I guess the other argument is that Havana isn't worthy of visiting, that it doesn't look good, so therefore Montevideo wouldn't be worth visiting either from a touristic perspective. But, from all I've seen of Havana in pictures or movies, it has a very romantic beautiful image connected to it!
I've never seen Montevideo doubling as Havana. I have seen Barcelona doubling as Havana (Voyage of the damned) and Cadiz (James Bond, I don't quite recall the name of the film).
I have seen Santo Domigo doubling as Havana in Godfather II (an insult for Havana, even for a Havana falling to pieces).
Havana is very beautiful in a post-apocaliptical way. Unfortunately, one of the buzzwords of communists was to destroy one of the most beautiful cities in the wolrd, and they did it.
Not an easy city for Americans because Centro Habana and Habana Vieja are mostly black, almost a black ghetto, and some Americans think they must be like American "hoods" (they are not).
Still is far more beautiful that any city in thousands of kilometers around, just like Rome must have been beautiful 50 years after the Ostrogoths.
I'm a gringo living in Argentina and I've been to Uruguay a total of 3 different times with my Argentin wife. Uruguay is a sleepy, rural version of the Argentine Pampas ( although it's not as flat ) and the accent and dialect of spanish like Argentina called "Voseo" or "Rioplatense" is virtually the same. They replace the "tu" informal with "vos" and the "Tu Puedas" or "Tu entiendas" becomes "Vos podes" and "Vos entendes" in Uruguayan/Argentina-Buenos Aires spanish. Even the local folk music "El Chamame" which is popular right across the border in Entre Rios and Corrientes is very similar to Argentina. If you go to Montivideo or Uruguay in general, ask for "Chivito" it's an Uruguayan version of the "Sandwich de Millanesa" a thin breaded steak on Frenchbread with lettuce tomatoes, muzzarella cheese and Salsa Criolla....very tasty
Montivideo in my opinion has maybe a few things, however, mostly very little in common with what I've seen of Havana. Now to be fair, I've never visited Havana, but from the photos I guess it does share some similarities as far as the old colonial spanish architecture. However, it's not a tropical climate at all, barely even subtropical, as it can actually get quite chilly on winter nights in Montivideo, sometimes dipping below freezing. Montivideo does have some african-americans, albeit much more than Argentina, which has virtually none, and this because of it's closer proximity to Brazil just to the north. So, I guess in that apsect it's similar, although Uruguayans are by and large a majority of descendants from Spain, Italy, Portugal and some of the Balkan states in Europe. Uruguay is also known as one of the most "atheist" countries in the world and tends to be very VERY liberal, even more so than other latin countries
Montivideo is a very run-down and very old and historical city, however they don't seem to have invested much in keeping the older infrastructure in good condition. The homes are falling aprt, sidewalks and streets are in great disrepair. I mean they say Uruguay is a more prosperous nation then Argentina but I'd say not by the looks of it, it seems like a much poorer country IMHO. Montivideo has a huge "villa" ( slum ) and I saw lot's of dirt poor folks, 3rd world without a doubt. The highway between "Frey Bentos" on the Arg/Urug border was in terrible condition until you got within 150 kilometers or so of Montivideo when it suddenly widened to 4 lanes and was actually in better paved condition than most US interstates. That's how it is in latin america, all the investment, infrastructure and population are centered around the capital cities, the further outwards you get from those cities, much much less so. Even so, Montivideo in my opinion was rather run down and dark. Although, the beach area on the "Rio de La Plata" was kind of nice with a few upscale areas and they do have a very nice mall. All in all it reminds of a much darker, more worn down and smaller, older, much older version of Buenos Aires without all of the charm.
Also they are having a serious problem with crime and insecurity like Argentina is right now. Murders, robberies, muggings, burglaries.....things are really going downhill in this part of SA, it's not the secure mecca it was once touted to be. When we were there, we wre told to be very careful walking in some of the areas of the city at night, especially the "barrio" ( neighborhood ) close to the bus station.
I mean, aside from the "Uruguayan Carnival" which Uruguays version of the Brazilian Carnival or "Mardio Gras" in the US, I don't see it having much of a big pull regarding tourism. However, it is a popular destination for tax evaders and ex-pats from the US and Europe because of it's gov't funded healthcare, excellent exchange rate with the US dollar or European Euro and also Urguayans and Argentines by large have a greater tendency of speaking better English as opposed to some of their neighbors.
Last edited by EricOldTime; 08-14-2014 at 04:19 PM..
Also they are having a serious problem with crime and insecurity like Argentina is right now. Murders, robberies, muggings, burglaries.....things are really going downhill in this part of SA, it's not the secure mecca it was once touted to be. When we were there, we wre told to be very careful walking in some of the areas of the city at night, especially the "barrio" ( neighborhood ) close to the bus station.
But Uruguay does have better police and other institutions - less corrupt and everything - than Argentina. Shouldn't that be a deterrent to a sharp increase in crime?!
My first visit to Montevideo was late 1971 as a teenager who had just graduated from high school in Chile. I was there with a couple of school friends to visit some of their relatives there. After a long train trip from Chile to Buenos Aires (which went out of service decades ago), we took the overnight steamship ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo. The trip across the southern part of the continent was a grand adventure itself. There were no hydrofoils or turbo powered fast ferry boats at that time. There was a lot of political turbulance in Montevideo and the atmosphere was pretty tense. Two months earlier a prison break by 100+ Tupamaros (former leftist armed militia group) occurred, and I remember being stopped a few times by law enforcement to show ID while walking around.
In the early 1970s, Montevideo looked and felt like it was the early 1900s, and that was not a negative observation. There were almost no "modern" looking box shaped buildings built from steel and glass. Most were traditional masonry office and apartment buildings or row houses, sort of what you might find in many places in central Europe. Everything was rather plain looking, not exactly bright and colorful. Lots of old cars driving around, many from the 1930s or 1940s.
I visited Montevideo again about 16 years ago. The physical appearance of the old town part of the city had not changed much from 1971. Sure, some newer cars on the streets and some different signs and businesses. Outside of the old town district, there were plenty of newer steel and glass apartment buildings, something that won't be confused with a street scene in Havana.
One place in Uruguay that still has a mostly intact physical look from 80+ years ago is the small city of Colonia, directly across Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires.
Havana is Baroque, Classicism, Nouvelle Age, Electic, Art Nouveu, etc,
By electic you mean eclectic? I find that hard to believe. Frankfurt is eclectic, Warsaw too... but Havana?
You might be right, I dunno... for me eclectic includes a significant amount of contemporary as well. Also, what is "Nouvelle Age" architecture?
There are some Baroque buildings here and there, like some cathedrals and whatnot, but they could also have passed as semi-gothic. I haven't been there for 5 years, but back then it was mostly, by far, colonial. It is very strange to me that you don't agree if you've been there. Though there are an important amount of neo-classical buildings as well.
Havana colonial:
Colonial Center (lol)
Plaza de Armas
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