An unexpected labyrinth visit in Montevideo, Uruguay

I had never been to South America before and I decided to start in the capital and largest city in Uruguay, Montevideo. I always check the labyrinth locator website to see if there are any labyrinths nearby to visit, but at the time of this writing it only lists 2 labyrinths and neither is near here. But, I still managed to find one near my Airbnb.

I spent a month in Montevideo living in the Parque Battle neighborhood just east of Parque Villa Dolores. I want to start there. The park is part park and part free small zoo. It seems it had more larger mammals in the past but what is left is still enjoyable. You’ll find about 20 peacocks wandering around which seem to be the main attraction, but also a few monkeys including a mandrill, something I thought was a hairy pig called a peccary, 2 ostriches, many flamingos, some deer and many colorful parrots. It is very popular with families on the weekend. Here is a gallery of some of my photos from the park

I have visited mazes/labyrinths in Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Mexico and Spain. Now, I can add Uruguay to the list. There is a small plaza in the middle of a crossroad that converted its walkways into a labyrinth. It is called Plaza Manuel Freire. While I cannot find when it was converted to a walkable labyrinth, I can find old pictures when it was just regular walkways and benches (as recently as 2020 on Google Maps). I wouldn’t call it well maintained but I did enjoy walking it. The initial sign shows the labyrinth pathway best, with extra entrances allowing you to walk it in all 4 directions. Here are my pictures of El Laberinto de la Plaza Freire:

And my attempt at a panorama of the labyrinth standing next to a bench:

El Laberinto de la Plaza Freire

Vehicle Maze - Jet Ski Maze

This Jet Ski Maze reminds me of every time I ever rode one, which is twice. I remember both loving it, almost seriously injuring myself, and being sore the next day. Part of the Land, Air, Sea and Space Vehicle Maze collection.

Jet Ski Maze

Downloads are available in the Vehicle Maze section of the site.

Maze of the Week Redux #81 - Munson Proctor Williams Museum of Art

I started this year by remaking many of my earlier mazes with new techniques. Most of them came out better. A few were a matter of preference. This particular maze of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art was adjusted but never made the blog line-up because I was having trouble rendering it (what was on my design screen was not what was produced as an output). It was a software issue that got fixed when I updated to a new version. This project also only features minor changes so I wasn’t working hard on a fix. Here is the original blog post:

Maze of the Week #81 - Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum of Art Maze

Here are the enhancements I made to improve the maze:

  1. Added textures - The sections in front of the building all have new textures - the grass, the steps, the walkway, and the bushes all have a new look.

  2. Wider Pathways - A favorite change I make. I widened the pathways from 1.5 to 3 so the maze is more pleasing to solve.

  3. Picture Dimensions - The height was 8.5 inches but was reduced to 7.5 to eliminate some of the empty sky. This also pulls the picture forward to make everything look larger.

Here is the before, before, and after: (The first version was only in black and white)

So the final version is a slight improvement if only because the pathways are wider. This maze sits in the archive section of the site.

File Details: Full Color version was 254KB is now 447KB.

If you like this type of content check out all of my case studies:

A Collection of Maze Design Case Studies to Improve your Mazes

Vehicle Maze - Pontoon Boat Maze

I don’t know about you, but every time I see this type of boat I think holiday, relaxing on the lake with food and drinks and friends. I have been a bit light on the Sea department of the Land, Air, Sea and Space Maze collection, but this Pontoon Boat Maze helps fix that. Most of these boats are not very colorful, but I kept it balck and white so it could be a dual maze/ coloring page.

Pontoon Boat Maze

Downloads are available in the Vehicle Maze section of the site.