Sights in Uruguay
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Centro de Tortugas Marinas
While Uruguay has no nesting beaches for sea turtles, the area from Barra del Chuy to Punta del Diablo is an important foraging area. The Center for Marine Turtles provides information on when to see these cute creatures, as well as running a volunteer program and educating visitors on environmental factors threatening the turtles and their habitat.
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Plaza Independencia
Plaza Independencia is at the heart of Montevideo's Ciudad Vieja (old city). This broad square, lined with palms, is dominated by a huge statue of José Artigas, Uruguay's greatest hero. You can pay your respects to Artigas at his underground tomb beneath the statue.
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Mausoleo de Artigas
In the middle of the downtown Plaza Independencia is the Mausoleo de Artigas, whose aboveground portion is a 17m, 30-ton statue of the country's independence hero. Below street level an honor guard keeps 24-hour vigil over Artigas' remains.
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Biblioteca Museo Eusebio Giménez
The Biblioteca Museo Eusebio Giménez displays paintings by the local artist.
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Catedral de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes
The imposing Catedral de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes dates from 1788.
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The Uruguayan Riviera
This is one of the most Westernized places in Uruguay, with innumerable beach resorts, plenty of water activities and lots of well-groomed, narcissistic tourists sporting hibiscus shirts. Immediately east of the capital is the major resort of Atlántida, and Piriápolis is a mere flick of the towel away.
The largest and best known of the resorts is Punta del Este, one of South America's most glamorous and exclusive destinations. The place is awash with yacht and fishing clubs, golf courses, casinos and beautiful holiday homes. If that's not enough, there are excellent bathing beaches, perfect for swimming and sunbathing.
Just offshore are Isla Gorriti, which has more…
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La Mano en la Arena
Punta del Este's most famous landmark is the monster-sized hand emerging from the sands of Playa Brava. La Mano en la Arena, sculpted in iron and cement by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal in 1982, won first prize in a monumental art contest that year and has been a Punta fixture ever since. The hand exerts a magnetic attraction over visitors to Punta, who climb and jump off its digits and pose for thousands of photos with it every year.
Up close, the hand is starting to show its age. There's graffiti scrawled all over it, and its ungraceful cement base often gets exposed by shifting sands. But watch out - the hand's still likely to reach out and grab you!
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Real de San Carlos
At the turn of the 20th century, Argentine entrepreneur Nicolás Mihanovich spent US$1.5 million building an immense tourist complex 5km north of Colonia at Real de San Carlos. The attractions included a 10,000-seat bullring (made superfluous after Uruguay outlawed bullfights in 1912), a 3000-seat fronton (court) for the Basque sport of jai alai, a hotel-casino and a racecourse.
Only the racecourse functions today, but the ruins of the remaining buildings make an interesting excursion, and the adjacent beach is popular with locals on Sundays.
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SOS Rescate de Fauna Marina
Ten kilometers south of Piriápolis is Uruguay’s premier marine-animal rescue and rehabilitation center, SOS Rescate de Fauna Marina. Run entirely by volunteers, its emphasis is on educating schoolchildren, who can assist with daily feedings and observe penguins, sea lions, turtles and other rescued wildlife. Visitors willing to support the center’s mission with the requested donation are welcome with advance notice.
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Museo del Indio y del Gaucho
Paying romantic tribute to Uruguay’s gauchos and indigenous peoples, this museum’s collection includes stools made from leather and cow bones, elegantly worked silver spurs and other accessories of rural life.
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Plaza Mayor 25 de Mayo
At the southwest corner of the plaza are the Casa de Lavalleja (formerly General Lavalleja's residence), the ruins of the 17th-century Convento de San Francisco and the restored 19th-century faro (lighthouse). At the west end, on de San Francisco, the Museo Municipal has antique homewares, dinosaur remains and huge petrified mushrooms. The Casa del Virrey - which was never home to a viceroy - is just to the north.
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Bosque de Ombúes
The Ombu is native to the Pampas, a hardy, fast-growing tree able to survive on very little water. A tour through Bosque de Ombúes (Ombu Forest) takes an hour by jeep or tractor, or two hours by foot. Your guide will point out unique forest flora, fascinating birdlife, and carpinchos - large rodents used traditionally to cure influenza and the common cold.
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Punta's Beaches
From Playa Mansa, west along Rambla Williman, the main beach areas are La Pastora, Marconi, Cantegril, Las Delicias, Pinares, La Gruta at Punta Ballena, and Portezuelo. Eastward, along Rambla Lorenzo Batlle Pacheco, the prime beaches are La Chiverta, San Rafael, La Draga and Punta de la Barra. In summer, all have paradores (small restaurants) with beach service.
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Iglesia Matriz
Plaza de Armas is the home to Uruguay’s oldest church (begun in 1860), though it has been completely rebuilt twice. The plaza also holds the foundations of a house dating from Portuguese times.
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Playa Mansa
Beaches are the big daytime draw in sunny Punta, and there are plenty to choose from. On the west side of town, Rambla Artigas snakes along the calm Playa Mansa on the Río de la Plata, then passes the busy yacht harbor, overflowing with boats, restaurants, nightclubs and beautiful people, before circling around the peninsula to the open Atlantic Ocean.
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Casa Pueblo
Casa Pueblo is an astonishing Mediterranean villa and art gallery at scenic Punta Ballena, a short trip from Punta del Este. The villa was built by Carlos Páez Vilaró entirely without right angles and boasts jaw-dropping views. Visitors can tour five rooms, view a film on the artist's life and the building's creation, or have a drink at the bar.
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Casa Pueblo
Casa Pueblo is an astonishing Mediterranean villa and art gallery at scenic Punta Ballena, a short trip from Punta del Este. The villa was built by Carlos Páez Vilaró entirely without right angles and boasts jaw-dropping views. Visitors can tour five rooms, view a film on the artist's life and the building's creation, or have a drink at the bar.
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El Faro del Cabo Santa María
The 1874 completion of this local lighthouse, marked La Paloma’s genesis as a summer beach resort. The unfinished first attempt collapsed in a violent storm, killing 17 French and Italian workers who are buried nearby. Outside is a solar clock using shadows cast by the lighthouse.
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Mercado del Puerto
No visitor should miss Montevideo’s old port market building, at the foot of Pérez Castellano, whose impressive wrought-iron superstructure shelters a gaggle of reasonably priced parrillas (steak restaurants). On weekend afternoons in particular, it’s a lively, colorful place where the city’s artists, craftspeople and street musicians hang out.
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Museo Didáctico Artiguista
A colonial relic, the Cuartel de Dragones is a block of military fortifications with stone walls and iron gates, built between 1771 and 1797. Inside, the Museo Didáctico Artiguista displays colorful maps tracing the peripatetic military campaigns of Uruguay’s independence hero.
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Teatro Bastión del Carmen
At the north end of Calle España is the Puerto Viejo, the old port, now a yacht harbor. One block east, the Teatro Bastión del Carmen is a theater and gallery complex that incorporates part of the city’s ancient fortifications. The huge chimney is newer, dating from the 1880s.
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Punta Del Diablo Village
Fabulously remote, seriously underdeveloped and stunningly picturesque, this little fishing-surfing village of wooden cabins and winding dirt streets attracts a nature-oriented crowd. Parque Nacional Santa Teresa is within easy hiking distance. Horse riding can be arranged; ask in town for Sr José Vega.
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Isla de los Lobos
This small island boasts large colonies of southern fur seals and sea lions. A welcome break in your beach-lazing routine, be sure to make reservations in advance as this popular destination often books out. Tours to the island leave daily in the high season, and on weekends in the low season.
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Termas de Daymán
Termas de Daymán is the largest and most developed of several thermal bath complexes in northwestern Uruguay. Surrounded by a cluster of motels and restaurants, it's a popular destination for Uruguayan and Argentine tourists, offering facilities for a variety of budgets.
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Laguna Negra
Located in Parque Nacional de Santa Teresa, and a popular destination with Uruguayan and Brazilian visitors, the enormous Laguna Negra and surrounding marshes support abundant bird life, as well as some highly venomous snakes. You can also take a scenic boat ride on the lake.
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