Today was the official first day of our 2nd episode featuring Uruguay and Argentina. We start things off in Montevideo, Uruguay where Renzo (Supervising Producer) and I (Executive Producer/Host) have been pre producing for a couple of days now.
Moses (Cameraman/Editor) arrived around 6AM Montevideo time after an all night flight from Bogota. I’m sure he’s exhausted so we arranged for him to crash at the hostel in an unused room where, selfishly, he wouldn’t disturb mine or Renzo’s beauty sleep!
Still, at 9AM Montevideo time (6AM NYC time) it’s a pretty early wakeup call and Renzo and I head out the few blocks down from our hotel, the Posada Al Sur, to shoot at the famous Puerto Marqueta. We quickly spotted the incredible Parilla restaurants that have been featured in every travel show I’ve ever seen on Uruguay.
Alas, we won’t win any awards on originality on this one, as we too will be shooting me stuffing my face with all different types of meat at the famous Parilla. After the BBQ last night at Peyo’s (Rudos Wild) house and the gigantic parilla lunch today, I vowed once again that I’m going vegan just as soon as I get out of Uruguay/Argentina!
We headed back to the hotel to grab Moses and to meet my friend Camilo from Rudos Wild who had graciously agreed to show us around El Ciudad Vieja (the old city) a bit.
We hit all the hot spots of Ciudad Vieja. In addition to Puerto Marqueta, we shot Plaza Independencia, Palacia Salvos and a few artisan shops . We learned about Mate From some of the local vendors, the ubiquitous tea everyone in Uruguay seems to be drinking, brewing or carrying around.
We had some technical issues with the audio on the camera in downtown Montevideo and I think it was a result of the signals in the air down there being scrambled because this particular issue didn’t pop up again the entire trip.
Nonetheless it forced us to cut our shoot short so we bid adieu to Camilo and headed to one of the city beaches to get some B-roll (footage) of me soaking up some rays and ingesting some much needed Vitamin D! I’m telling you, this hosting stuff is really hard work!
Then it was off to rehearsal for Rudos Wild where we interviewed the guys and helped them shoot a music video for “No Toleramos” (We Won’t Tolerate”), one of their best known songs and one of my favorites of all time. Luckily I didn’t have to hold the camera steady and could rock out right along with the guys.
As a matter of fact, I did, this time I had the words to Social D’s “Cold Feelings” printed out, so no forgetting the words this time. We had a little extra time so we did a version of “Don’t Drag Me Down”.
It’s late when we finished and we had another early start so we headed back to hotel for a quick bite to eat. We stopped off along the way to pick up a big old drum Renzo had specially made by a local, world famous percussionist. How the hell is that going on the trip with us I’m not sure.
The next day we were scheduled to shoot some more Montevideo footage and then catch a bus to the lovely and historic town of Colonia del Sacramento but I took the camera and shot a few stills of some of the kids hanging out in front of our hotel in Ciudad Vieja. I’m pretty sure they do this every night!
