When we arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay February 11th we set out to find a short-term apartment. Ken had been emailing realtors for 2 weeks to aid us in this task. When he did the same for Rio we had scores of replies. Not known for being a real tourist Mecca we got only one reply to Ken's inquiries. Other than folks off the cruise ships that visit the port area for a few hours several days a week and tourists flying in and continuing on to the hot vacation hub of Punta Del Este, travelers just don't stay long in the city. After checking out the one referral we had our first day we felt like we'd found another perfect apartment. Restored and housed in a 60 year old 4-unit building sandwiched between scores of 200 year old architectural gems in Ciudad Vieja (Old City), it was a block from the trendy Port Market and 2 from the shipping port. We'd scored a great deal with this modern one bedroom that cost a tenth of what something similar would've run us in Rio. (Juliane Moore was it's last tenant while filming the movie "Blindness" here.)

After settling into our new digs the next day we immediately sought out a schedule for Carnaval events. Back in Spanish speaking heaven we were unable to do this as easily as we anticipated. When we asked about parades they mentioned the big one we had missed a week earlier. But what about others?, we asked. No others. But every night, for 40 nights, they have competitions of various murgas (groups from neighborhoods throughout the city) at the Teatro Verano. Yes but what else? Street parties? Other parades? Again they'd direct us to Teatro Verano and the competing murgas. Hmmmmm. We needed an English/Spanish interpreter.

Putting that aside for a while we took full advantage of the lovely late summer evening to take a stroll down to the jetty on the end of Ciudad Vieja to watch our first sunset over the water in a long while. After sitting and talking to a friendly elderly fisherman and later a lovely young talkative lad and watching the sun drop below the horizon we took our leave. Not yet dark we followed our footsteps back and were only a few blocks from home when we heard someone running up behind us. Before we could react Becky's very tiny purse was grabbed from behind, broken and stolen. We immediately gave chase, Becky furiously cursing the bugger, who we guessed was around 16 years old, with Ken taking the lead hollering for help. He chased Speedy Gonzales into the open doorway of a building with a roomful of confused folks. Having the kid cornered Becky ran to find the policia. A nice women ran over and pointed toward the police station 2 blocks away before a nice gentleman in a doorway offered to call them for us.

Soon Becky saw Ken and the kid came running back out of the building . Watching them round the corner of the next block Becky took off down the other side of the same block on the off chance the kid would run back her way. What luck! The kid ran right to her (Ken claims she tried to cattle herd him...arms stretched out to make herself larger than life...and it is surely a tactic used in herding cows) and she took up the pursuit for another block until he ran out of steam and finally came to a stop. At that time she implored him in Spanish to keep the money but to please return her 2 pair of eye glasses. He dropped his shorts to prove to the bystanders that he didn't have a purse . She made little headway but at least stalled him until Ken caught up and renewed the chase.

The same scenario repeated itself several times with us playing Starsky and Hutch ...one of us chasing him around another corner and the other backtracking and cutting the kid off at the pass. But, both being 40 years older than the kid, we started to loose steam. Giving up as he rounded yet another corner a car came out of nowhere, took up the chase and stayed on the kid's heels for another half block running him smack dab into the arms of the waiting motorcycle cops. Just like in the movies...help had arrived right on cue.

We caught up as they were cuffing our bandito and within seconds a much younger boy (probably 8) was at Becky's side trying to return the money from the purse. The police tried shooing him away but realizing he was involved, took him off in handcuffs as well, all of us heading to the station nearby where it took 1 shift change, 5 police officers and 2 hours to fill out the paperwork (in Spanish) before we could call it a night.

Lest you're reading this thinking how foolish we were to chase after this kid, let us relieve your worries. Like we said, he appeared to be quite young and by himself. Had he been accompanied by a gang of hooligans, like he might have been in San Salvador we'd have let him go. Or if we'd felt he had a weapon on him (he wore only a pair of shorts....no shirt to hide anything) as might have been the case in Brazil we wouldn't even have considered it. It was still light, there were plenty of folks around, the police station was 2 blocks away and we'd read Montevideo is one of the 30 safest cities in the world. Besides, our guts said "go get him". To be able to spend that enormous burst of adrenaline the way it was intended, by giving chase, was the best feeling in the world. The rush lasted hours after the chase...that's how potent it is!

We'd been told to go to the Justice Department the next morning to make an official report. Afterwards they took us separately into the "line up room", complete with one-way glass where we each chose "Numero Quatro". A few minutes later Ken was off to the police station from the night before retrieving our money ($1,100 pesos or about $50 US...no purse or glasses, though...go figure) Through the whole process the police officials were great to us. When they could, they'd try to have an English speaking person to help translate. I guess in most of these situations they never catch the guys and if they do, the tourists never go to the JD for the full report (without that part completed they have to let the thieves go). They were over-the-top with thanks for helping get the bad guy. By the way, they let the little tike go the night before. It may be too late to change the life of the actual thief, but we hope a visit to jail in cuffs made an impact on the younger boy.

Back at the apartment we began to get a feeling for just how edgy the area we had moved into was. All at once it was as though we'd been transported into the "Twilight Zone", with a cast of characters you won't believe. We'll describe them as the "Squatter" (in the ratty building across the street), the "Screamers" ( in the ratty building 2 doors down from ours...they don't talk they growl and scream like wild animals), the "Crazy Guy" (we don't know where he lived but could always tell when he was near as the street below sounded like the inside of an insane asylum), more garden variety thieves (the nice guy across the hall from us had his camera stolen in a similar manner months ago and Ken and Doris witnessed another purse snatching last week), the sailors from the ships and the ladies of the night that service them (though we didn't discover them until 2 nights before our departure) and a varied assortment of drunks interspersed with enough normal folks to keep us lucid. We certainly teetered near the edge of our comfort zone. Live and learn...this won't happen to us again.

So what was good about Montevideo...

Parts of this capitol city has some the most unique baroque architecture we've seen on our trip. There's excellent and cheap transportation to anywhere you want to go. And the town is surrounded by some excellent beaches with gently warm bay waves making swimming a lot easier than on the Rio beaches. And the Cartoneros (those guys that make a living out of going through the town's garbage) use horse drawn carts here, so every hour or so you hear the sound of clip-clopping horses outside your window.

A highlight of our stay was that our friends Doris and Andrea, from Buenos Aires, came to spend five days with us around the end of Carnaval. Both speaking beautiful Spanish, we finally were able to confirm there was nothing going on in the way of parties and parades...just the competition of the Murgas at the Teatro Verano. But that didn't stop our fun. We spent our days soaking up the sun at the beautiful beaches and our nights enjoying long conversations, knowing it was our last time for us all to connect for many years.

And....we celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. When a night is special, we're always careful to find 'just the right' place to celebrate. Being in Montevideo we had some great choices, a quiet Bistro located in a picturesque 200 year-old building (the French Cuisine choice); the top of the Radisson, which had the best view in town on..are you ready - the 25th floor (the traditional choice and somewhat cosmic) or the La Cotte, the chic location in the old city frequented by George W. and Condi Rice when they visit (the trendy choice). We finally decided if it was good enough for W. it would be okay for us. Our break from the norm was that our favorite photo of the event was shot "flogger style"... a self-photo.

We do really regret having had our visit tainted by the seedy area of our apartment and the theft. The area we were in is on the cusp of becoming gentrified with more and more buildings being sold and restored to their former glory. We imagine two years from now the area will be like the 'Pearl District' in our old home city of Portland. From other interactions we could tell the rest of the city's residents were normal, though quite and reserved. Had we stayed in one of the up-scale areas, odds are our story would be told very differently. But we didn't so our tale is what it is. But one thing would not change...our dream of Carnaval was not to be...no matter where we stayed in Montevideo. It was the party that never happened.

But the good part of not having the greatest Carnaval while down here, is that it's still on our list of things to do in life. We still know there's a world class Carnaval somewhere in our future.