Road Trip to Punta del Este

So, apparently, Columbus Day is a holiday in all of North and South America.  Who knew?  Anyway, what does that mean for us?  Long weekend.  To celebrate the long journey of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, Anne, Mark and the HBomb decided to do their own long journey over the holiday weekend to seek out riches in the land known as Punta del Este.

ROAD TRIP!!!

Although Google Maps helpfully points out that this is a 50 min flight, in the spirit of exploration, our trio made their first long road trip to get there. This entailed driving north in Argentina to Guayegualchu, crossing into Uruguay, and then driving all the way across that country.

Punta del Este is mostly known as a summer time hot spot for the cool kids of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.  Since we are still in spring in this part of the world, it is not quite high season, so the throngs of party people have not yet descended upon the city yet.  As such, it was a great time to visit the sights.

Anne checks out Casapueblo

The "must see" attraction at Punta del Este is a structure called Casapueblo.  Casapueblo is a sculpture/ hotel/ museum/ work of art by an artist named Carlos Paez Vilaro.  Before passing away last year, Paez Vilaro built this structure, as well made hundreds of paintings, sculptures and other works of art.  One of his sons, Carlitos Paez Rodriguez, was a survivor of the Andes plane crash in 1973 made famous in several books, including one he wrote called "After the Tenth Day," and the 1993 film "Alive."  ...but more on that in a future post.

I've seen worse places.

Anne, Mark and HBomb made it out to Casapueblo, which is located just outside of town, for dinner and a sunset.  The entire structure appears similar to the buildings in Santorini, Greece, although the artist definitely instills his own style in the various parts as well.

In addition to eating at the restaurant, touring the artist's museum, watching the sunset and generally relaxing, visitors can also stay at Casapueblo, as it is a fully functioning hotel.  We are told that all the room are different and are individually designed.

But Casapueblo is by no means the only thing to see in Punta del Este.  Anne, Mark and HBomb did a quick lap around town on their first afternoon there and saw some pretty cool stuff.  The sculpture of the hand reaching out the sand is a popular tourist site.

The cafe in the background is "the fingers" cafe.

HBomb found the fingers to be a bit dull, but was willing to let us take his picture with them.  The sculpture does have a sense of humor, however, as it even gave HBomb bunny ears.

After that we moved on to the park near the lighthouse.

Then, as the walking tour continued, our trio eventually found the water (this is a coastal town after all).  They noticed the fact that Patrick Henry must have been a big deal here, given what's written on these flags...

Libertad o muerte

They eventually made their way down to the fishermen's warf.  From there, they watched the seagulls feed on the fish parts thrown into the water by the various assorted fishmongers.  After a few minutes of fish parts flying into the bay, a monstrous sea lion joined the group.  At first it was reasonable to ask if it was, in fact, a walrus, based solely on the size of this big fella.  (After a little while, it was no longer reasonable to ask this because, you know, they are two completely different animals.)

That's a big one.

As long as we were out and about, HBomb and Mark decided to check out the ocean.  HBomb was a bit aggressive and even tried to take off his jacket to make his swim a little more fun.  Mark put the ki-bash on that, however.

Although HBomb was not happy about not being able to run into the freezing cold ocean water, eventually he got over it and had a good laugh with the old man.

Chilling in the most popular restaurant in Punta del Este.

And that's how you spend a day in Punta del Este.