Friday, December 4, 2009

Punta del Este Uruguay

Hi, how is everyone doing?   We're winding down our travels here in Uruguay.


We spent 5 wonderful nights in Montevideo.  The largest city in Uruguay.  From Montevideo we hopped on a bus and traveled east to Punta del Este (2 hour journey).   

We had heard Punta del Este was another Miami beach scene and extremely touristy and expensive but we had to check it out for ourselves.   It was fabulous.   First of all, this city is a "seasonal" city meaning the tourist start arriving mid December and is at full capacity in January and tapers off late February.   The population for 9 months of the year is roughly around 15,000 people and very relaxed.  Then the elite of Buenos Aires and Brazil arrive, bumping the population for the other 3 months to 500,000.  From a few days after Christmas through the first 2 weeks of January, the Punta area and several other high scale nearby towns draw movie stars, models, and high power executives from all over South America.  So in our opinion, we timed it perfectly.  Restaurants, shops, hotels and other touristy places were opening back up and the crowds hadn't gathered around as of yet.   If you want to own rental property...this is the place to do it.   Apartments rent from $3500 a month to $15,000 a day during the peak months and they are fully booked...Unbelievable! 




La Lomita del Chingolo Bed and Breakfast - where we laid our heads for 3 nights

Rodrigo and his wife are amazing hosts.   If we come back, we will definitely stay with them again.   The guesthouse has accommodations for 12 guests and offered a great breakfast.  Rodrigo also provided an amazing BBQ for his guest and we had a fabulous feast.


The BBQ pit was roaring.



Rodrigo cooked pork, steaks and sausage.
We tried this one sausage called Sweet Blood Sausage.
It was very dark in color and really doesn't look all that appealing in the grocer
but I'm glad we tried it.   It had the taste of Christmas.  Heavy in a cinnamon flavor.
It was so good.



Rodrigo's wife and son.



Hush.  The family pet.

Other guests in the house with us and enjoying the BBQ cookout are...


Jia Li Moore from Chicago.

 
Bob, Yin Hung, Jerry Hufanda (both from New York)
and Rodrigo



Chuck and Miriam Verhdef  from Holland

Chuck has an interesting hobby.  He collects papers and news clipping from
all over the world and files them.   Every time he travels; he pulls the file of the country
they will be visiting and compare the news of what he had versus what was
happening of the time of their visit.



Here he's reading a newspaper dated 2001 of Punta del Este

 





We found this city being the best of both worlds with its high dollar fancy apartments, glitzy restaurants very similar to those found along South Beach in Miami while only a few blocks off the beach you'll find the suburbanites with large yards, beautiful homes, McDonald's and large grocery storesI had the best time walking around the grocery store.  It resemble that of Central Market back home.  


Apartment High Rises



This is Mansa Beach.  
As you can see the beaches were empty.
In a few weeks it will be hard to find a spot to lay out.



Just a few blocks of the beach turns into this beautiful subdivision



 Huge yards and nice homes.


Punta del Este has accommodations to meet the needs
of both the city folks and those who prefer the burbs.




One of the famous city landmarks is called La Mana (the hand).




 
How is this for photography?   I was able
to include myself.   ha-ha.



El Faro de Punta del Estes
Lighthouse built in 1860

Punta del Este is an exclusive resort town for the wealthy South Americans but it is also rated as being one of the safest cities in the world.   Here the wealthy come with their fancy cars, high dollar jewelery and flash money without worries of being robbed any time of the day or night.  We had a very relaxing time here and learned early December or March is the best time to visit.


Our next destination destination in Uruguay is Colonia de Sacramento.   
Till then,
Bonnie and Bob

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Montevideo Uruguay


Hi.  We hope everyone has fully recovered from that "over-stuffed" feeling we uncontrollable sacrifice everything that we have pledged "not to do" in order to keep alive the tradition of properly celebrating our blessed American holiday, Thanksgiving.  We sure missed the enjoyment that is associated with this blessed feast and believe me... our thoughts continuously reflected back on previous trips to the seemingly endless trough that represented every food group & beyond.  To compensate for the absence of that juicy plump turkey I'm sure most of you feasted on, we settled on another species of the poultry family, a juicy rotisserie chicken.   When we get back to Texas, I plan to grill up a few jalapeno stuffed turkey legs.  Woohoo!  Can't wait.

In the meantime, we are having a very nice time in Montevideo, Uruguay.  A fellow world traveling friend of ours, Chef John (from Houston, currently living on the isle of Utila); told us to spend more time in this country and especially this city.  Wish we would have taken his advice more to heart.  Unfortunately, we only allowed ourselves 5 days to explore this marvelous city.

Uruguay borders Argentina and Brazil.  It's the 2nd smallest country in South America with a population of 3 million.   Montevideo is the capital and host the largest population of 1 million.   The exchange rate for us Americans is 20 to 1; not too shabby.  But it's all relative, right?


Steaks, seafood and pastas seem to be the common denominator of most restaurants.     





Nothing like the smell of grilling meats.   
Chicken, steaks, sausage, pork loins, etc.. 





Awe... Look it's Babe (Priscilla to Nancy) 

Butterflied, basted and cooking to perfection.


The average cost for a steak is $11.00 plus beverages.  Even though we are on the coast, seafood is a bit expensive.  Those dishes average over $20.  What we found to be annoying is that most restaurants charge a "cubierto" fee of $1.50 - $3.00 per person (depending on the restaurant).  This fee is for the table setting, fresh bread & packaged crackers & bread sticks. What the hell?  We thought we'd beat the charge by seating at a bar with barstools and no tablecloth.  Nope, the charge was still on our bill.  Fortunately we did get a basket of bread and we ate it all. We should have taken all the packaged

bread & feed them to the birds.



Montevideo reminds us a lot of Mazatlan Mexico and its so much more quieter than Buenos Aires.     




An active boardwalk lines most of this city
with walkers, runners and bikers






 




 

Town squares are filled with vendors on Saturdays

 

Mostly with antiques and not my thing.


 

Finally... a sunset!  Been missing these special times.


 


What's this?   A gas station!
How about this for a novel idea?

 

It's a place to hang, drink some gas station brews and watch the sunset. 
Yeah, not the greatest sunset but who cares, it's still
another day in paradise.



 

We've seen several gas stations and convenient stores loaded with
people hanging out and partying thru our travels in S. America,
but didn't see the attraction of drinking beer at a gas station.
But here.. this gas station has oceanfront view and a park.

Family, friends and pets enjoy a few hours as the daylight dissipates. 
We shared a few liters of Cerveza with them and had a great time.
 


Bob humored me and saw the movie Julie / Julia with me.  He's such a good sport... (at times)



"anything for my wife, right?"




Here's my new friend.   She was walking around the square; not a care in the world nor a adult nearby.  Some of the local folks must have known who she was.  I heard them talking to her as she walked around.


She loved the camera and wanted me to take her picture.


I'm thinking 3 years old.  
Maybe? 

Today is the Presidential election and folks are very passionate about their country.   Flags are flowing from vehicle windows, rallies are in full throttle in surrounding plazas and cars are honking showing their support for their political party.



The hotel that we laid our head at over the past 5 days was called Hotel Palacios.  We couldn't have asked for a better staff or location.   This historical hotel was in the Cuidad Viejo (Old Town) area, one block from Plaza Indepencia and on the corner of a pedestrian walkway.

 

This is our hotel.

 


  



Plaza Indepencia


Beautiful Plaza

 

An apartment building with a few
offices.

The architect was fabulous.  
Most of Uruguay is 90% of European decedents
and is reflected in their buildings.

 


 
Of course with a growing city
you'll find several modern buildings.

There's nothing 3rd world about this country. 
It's actually ranked 41st in the world as a top destination 
for living an upscale lifestyle.
Gotta like this stat... 97% literacy rate.

 


Bob can be so creative in his photography skills.

 

The centro area has tons of squares and
these were just a couple.
 


We really enjoyed our time here in Montevideo and look forward to our next destination.  Uruguay is becoming my top pick of South American country's.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to a city called Punte del Este.  This is another coastal town and is compared to Miami Beach (upscale & pricey, Bob would like u to know that we do have a PayPal acct in case u want to support our lifestyle).


Hope everything is going well for our friends and family.  We miss you guys and look forward to seeing everyone soon.

Ciao,

B&B
 
 
 

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Mom's Visit

Well, we just put Mom in a taxi.  She's on her way to the airport to fly back home and she's is pooped.    She was here for 10 fun-filled days.

It all started on Saturday, November 14th when we met her at the airport at 10:30 a.m.   She was in pretty good shape for having traveled 12 hours and was ready for whatever we had planned for the day.  We admit we took it easy on her the 1st day here.   We have a nice square a few blocks away from the apartment and we hung out there most of the afternoon eating, window shopping and walking the area.



We had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe




  The Serrano Plaza



 
On Sundays the area to be in is San Telmo.   We hopped a bus and made our way to the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires.   Weekends host an Antique Fair in Dorrego Plaza.  


  The fair brings out musicians





 


Weird art lined the cobblestone streets



 

And performers were on most street corners

 




We walked and walked and walked most days showing Mom the various neighborhoods.   One of the more exclusive neighborhoods is called Puerto Madero.  It's an old port area which is lined with contemporary high rises, loft style apartments, restaurants, cafes and a casino.



 
The artsy bridge located behind us is called
the Woman's Bridge. The center of the bridge
pivots out to a 90 degree rotation to allow
large boats to pass thru.


Marina for private boats

As I stated, there was a casino in the Puerto Madero area.   My Mom loves to gamble.  Slot machines were her thing while Bob & I headed for the table games of 3 card poker and blackjack.  None of us were big winners but we had a good time.

Mom got a good dose of the public transportation and she was a great sport about it.   In one day, we rode the bus to the subway station,  then took the subway to the train station to spend the day in a small city called El Tigre.  For those who don't know, my Mom is somewhat the princess and we weren't sure how she'd take to riding the city bus and subways.  You did great, Mom!



El Tigre was an hour train ride out of Buenos Aires and it was beautiful. 

   

Cute train depot


El Tigre is an island surround by a web of rivers and streams.  The city was very clean with some exceptions around the river banks.   There were lots of kayaking and rowing clubs.


Argentine Rowing Club


 


La Marina Regata club

 

These boats were available for rent.
You could go out yourself or hire a guide while you sit back and relax.



 

Kayaking is a popular means of exercise

 

Parana Delta

Along the banks you could buy tickets for boat rides of all sizes, catamarans, and kayaks.  Bob noticed the large catamarans were much slower and didn't seem to maneuver as well as some of the smaller wooden boats.  So, we opted for this boat.
  
 




 
The boat ride was an hour and cost $5.00 per person.   On this tour we saw some homes for sale or rent, plenty of camp grounds and restaurants along the banks.



 
 


   






The houses in this town were very cute and the park areas were very well maintained. 



Municipal Museum of Arts

I could have stayed in this small city longer.  The marketplace was amazing and so many cool shops.   Did I mention this city has a casino?   haha... it did.  We spent all day in El Tigre and I'm thinking this was one of my favorite days.  Mom seem to really have enjoyed it here too.

Other tours included a walking tour of a few of the barrios & a full city tour by open-air double decker bus.   We enjoyed a mother/daughter spa day and overall explored a major portion of Buenos Aires & everyday we had aching feet as proof. 


and Bob tolerated us.
We love you, Bob!

Mom,  thank you very much for visiting us.  We really enjoyed your company and look forward to seeing you and Sandy in a couple of weeks.  Love you very much!   

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately for us, it's an American holiday which means no turkey and all the fixings.  Make sure to eat plenty on our behalf.

We will be traveling to Iguaza Falls which borders Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for a couple of days and then flying down to Uruguay for our final leg before heading back to the states.

We're missing everyone and hope all is going well.  Won't be long till we fly home for the Christmas Holidays.  


Much Love,
B&B