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