Uruguay Day 2: The Biggest Street Fair We’ve Ever Seen!

After hitting up our hotel’s breakfast buffet, we met Daniel and took a leisurely walk to the Sunday street fair/market. It’s by far the biggest street fair we’ve ever seen, and it happens every Sunday! It’s called Feria de Tristán Narvaja, and if you’re visiting Montevideo, you shouldn’t miss it. (Come early for slightly smaller crowds.)

Feria de Tristán Narvaja

The Sunday street fair has been going strong since 1909, and is an authentic and vibrant experience that combines elements of a flea market, farmers’ market and craft fair. The main street (Tristán Narvaja) goes on for over 20 blocks, and most of the side streets are also closed for anywhere from 1 to 5 blocks (and many of *those* streets also branch off). It’s absolutely massive.

You’ll find fresh produce, antiques, used books, housewares, used tools, toys, arts and crafts, second hand clothing, food vendors, and more. One stretch of Tristán Narvaja is also lined with antique stores, so there’s even more to explore!

Mate cups (called mate…which means cup) for drinking yerba mate.

Eggs were everywhere, and people were buying them by the flat

An egg chair in one of the antique stores

Verde Comidas Naturales

For lunch we stopped at Verde Comidas Naturales, which is right on the main street of the fair. They specialize in pasta (there’s a long history of Italian immigrants in Montevideo, dating back to the 1800’s, so Italian food is prevalent).

Teresa had ravioli with Bolognese sauce (I’ll forgive them for not saucing them in the pan, as the flavor was very good), and I had gnocchi with creamy leek sauce, which was equally delicious.

To top it off, they had live music during lunch!

Here are the performers who played during lunch:

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel for our daily siesta, but not before stopping at La Cigale for some ice cream.

Dinner at La Pasiva

After our siesta, we relaxed in the room until 6:45pm then met Daniel to get dinner. (Many places close around 3pm then re-open at 7pm for dinner. There are definitely places that stay open, but many that don’t.)

We headed to Plaza Juan Pedro Fabini to watch tango dancing, which happens every Saturday and Sunday. We grabbed an outdoor table at La Pasiva so we could see the dancers across the street. La Pasiva is a chain, but it’s solid, and they have a huge selection: burgers, sausages, pork cutlets, salads, pasta, pizza…I had a massive burger (the Pasiva Burger). It was delicious, but I definitely had food coma afterward.

By the time we finished dinner, the tango dancing had stopped, so we walked a couple blocks up to Plaza Libertad (aka Plaza Cagancha – it turns out most plaza’s have 2 names) to see the lights. When we walked back towards Plaza Juan Pedro FabiniPlaza del Entrevero), a band had started playing, so we stopped to have a look, listen, and a little dancing. It was a fun ending to the day.

Here’s a video of the band, shot from behind: