Kindness I Encountered from Strangers while Traveling: Montevideo Lovely Hosts

I’m happy to participate in this new travel writing contest host by @invisusmundiand and be able to talk about the kindness I encountered from strangers while traveling. On this occasion I will share with you some experiences and anecdotes from my trip to Montevideo, Uruguay, where I met some beautiful and generous people that made my stay more comfortable and pleasant.

To get to the Uruguayan capital city, we took a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia city, and then we took a bus that would take us through a coastal road to Montevideo.

It turns out that we arrived at the inn very early in the morning, and according to the reservation we could only access the rooms after 10am, so we would have to wait several hours before being able to check in, and the fact that we were very tired because of the long hours of bus travel made things ever worse.

However, a great human being called Arthur, who was in charge of the inn, allowed us to enter and go to the living room to rest and use the facilities and even offered us breakfast, which was not included in the reservation for that specific day.

It was really moving to receive such warm and friendly treatment; he made us feel at home. He also gave us a city map and spent some time teaching us interesting facts about the city history and pointing out the main sites of interest and the best way to get to them;he made many recommendations that made our experience in the Uruguayan capital more meaningful and satisfying. Our group of traveling friends kept in contact with Arthur on social media because he is the kind of generous people who stay in your heart.

Another awesome host that I met on my trip to Montevideo was Diego, an attentive and friendly waiter who, upon learning that we were Venezuelans and that we had recently been in Buenos Aires, treated us in a very special way, and tried really hard to assist us in the best possible way; he wanted us to have a great impression of Uruguay. I remember that he told us, as a joke, that they were more helpful and friendly than Argentines. He even served us more things than we had ordered and told us that it was on the house. What a nice guy, we had a great time with him because he was very funny.

I remember that at the end of this experiences in Montevideo, I reflected on how extraordinary it is to have the opportunity to get to know new places and cultures, but the most wonderful thing is to get to know their people, their stories and somehow understand their idiosyncrasy and way of seeing life, especially when these people have a great human quality; it enriches you in such a way that you feel that you’ve become a better person than you were before.