Day 33, Museums

(Wednesday, the 10th of February, 2016)
What a day today was, with the national holiday over people are begrudgingly returning to work and the museums are finally open. I spent the late morning after breakfast planning the best route around the old town to hit all of the museums I was interested in.

With the battle plan ready and all of my water bottles full, I headed out. First stop, the mausoleum of General Artigas, the founder of  Montevideo. The mausoleum is located right under the giant statue of Artigas in Please Independencia, and it was quite a sight to see. A giant ceremonial urn, a timeline of the General's life on the walls, and two soldiers standing ever still, guarding the remains of the general that created their regiment. It was quite a lot to take in.

The next stop is another depressing place, the Museum of the Andes; 1972, a museum dedicated to telling the story of the plane crash that left a Uruguayan soccer team stranded deep in the Andes mountains for over two months. That might have been the worst description of the event ever written, but the museum really told the story well, I suggest people at least read the Wikipedia page for the incident, its quite riveting. The museum was great and it really highlighted how dire the situation was at the top of that mountain.

The National History Museum was up next, and it was a flaming bust. On the outside it looked pretty beautiful, housed it a regal old building but that vision was soon ruined. It seemed like every single window in the whole museum was open, which let in the noise of the traffic outside, but it also let in so much light that it was nearly impossible to see the paintings on the wall. The light reflected off of the oil and painting would be obscured. Add in to the mix some noise guards arguing, cleaning staff yelling, and a whole wing that smells of piss, and you have a winner for the worst museum so far. Sorry Montevideo!

I finished off my tour at the Museum of Precolombian and Indigenous Art, hoping for a better experience than the previous one. This museum was quite large, and yet seemed to house and display not much at all. What was present was interesting stuff and I ended up with some great pictures from that museum. And that concludes my whirlwind museum tour. I have to say, the caliber of museum was just so much higher in Buenos Aires and I'm not sure why, although I still enjoyed my time at three of the four locations I visited today.

I stopped for some groceries on the way back to the hostel and I made myself a super late lunch of pasta, and consequently a super late dinner. Nothing much interesting happened after that, so that concludes the day.

See all of my photos here! Full size here.