Punta Del Este

Punta del Este is a beach city modeled on Miami as it appeared in the early 80's. Geometric brick highrises are sprinkled liberally over the peninsula and surrounding areas. It has the synthetic look and feel of any mid-sized city which exists solely for the summer month tourists. When we arrived, the off-season was in full swing, so barely a soul wandered the pebblecrete pavements or browsed the designer shops. However, plenty of old women were on hand to read our palms or receive money 'for the baby' (theirs, not ours).

I finally had my first surf in South America, and it was cold. The waves were definitely nothing special, but they were brown and tasted like riverwater.


Scooterising Punta Del Este.





Along with our Danish friend Isak, we hired a trio of mechanical ponies to explore the further reaches of this strange beach city. The little beasts were a blast- we zipped along the wide, smooth streets (all three had broken speedos, so I don't know how fast we were going) and had a look at Casa Pueblo, a huge mansion/hotel/museum, built on a hillside by a Uruguayan artist. The entire building was handmade; it had no straight lines or geometric curves. The whole structure is organic; fluorescent white under a stark Uruguayan sun. We also found the best bridge in the world, an exciting double-dip affair that Angie scootered over three times.

This confirmed for Angie that she will be purchasing a scooter upon returning home. One with a speedometer, though.