Punta del Este and Back

We arrived at Montevideo's International Airport and waited about 20 minutes for the Thrifty Car Rental shuttle to take us to the rental office. Well no shuttle came, so we started walking the 500 meters to the office, only to find the shuttle driver asleep alongside the entrance to the airport. After gently nudging him awake, he took us to the counter where the old "bait and switch" took place. We had made a reservation on Thrifty.com for a $23.99 per day rental with unlimited kilometers The drive to Punta del Este was about 120 kilometers. Well it turns out, the special rate was for an non-airconditioned car (I think it was a Chevrolet Swift or some bizarre name I'd never heard of). So, by the time we finished, we spent $89.00 a day for a Fiat (about the size of a small US sedan) with air conditioning. The temperature was approaching 90 degrees so it was worth the investment.

After two hours along a coastal highway, and witness to two pretty serious looking motorcycle accidents, we arrived at the Joan Miro hotel - a very quaint boutique hotel just one block from the beach and five blocks from the Conrad Punta del Este, the best hotel/casino in town.

After checking in, we headed out for a chivito, a delicious hamburger type dish served with ham, cheese, egg, and more - pretty filling and it costs under $3.00 US! Later that night we took the car to the casino (I won 50 Uruguayan pesos, about $2.50 US) and then headed to dinner at Isidora, a restaurant recommended by the Conrad Hotel for having outstanding seafood. I had a pretty decent seafood casserole, but nothing outstanding. I've had better seafood in the south of France and in Thailand.

Later during dinner, a very obvious looking Yanqui (slang for American) came into the restaurant and I swore I knew him. Well, it turns out it was a friend of a friend, who is an attorney in the US and who invests in properties in Argentina and Uruguay. He was vacationing at his newest place in Punta del Este. We exchanged business cards and agreed to catch up in Buenos Aires. What a small world!

Other than beaches, there isn't much to do in Punta del Este (except for shopping and a few regional museums), so the next few days we ventured to the beach. I walked for a few hours each day, got slightly sunburned and then took a siesta before heading to the shore to find a new place to eat. Punta del Este's claim to fame is a sculpture at Playa Brava, which are literally five gigantic fingers sticking out of the sand. It's pretty hokey but it's on all the postcards and of course I had to get my photo there on one of the afternoons.

Well now I'm back in BA and back to work tomorrow. Time flies....