"La Mano"
Last weekend, after spending our first couple of weeks in South America getting to know Montevideo, many of my fellow Remoters and I decided to partake in a quintessential Uruguayan summer tradition (remember, December, January and February are summer months below the equator): spending some time in the coastal beach town of Punta Del Este. We only had a weekend to spare, but many Uruguayans, Argentinians and Brazilians spend the bulk of their summer months in Punta del Este and the nearby towns of La Barra and José Ignacio.
On Friday afternoon, we hopped on one of the COT buses that runs hourly to Punta del Este from the Tres Cruces bus station in Montevideo. Seats are assigned, the buses have WiFi and air conditioning, and the ride was a quick two hours up the coast (most of which I slept through).
Upon our arrival in Punta del Este, my group caught a couple of cabs and headed for our Airbnb in the heart of town. There were 11 of us staying there, while two other groups of about 10 people each were staying in nearby Airbnbs and a larger group of 30 was participating in the surf trip organized by Remote Year at a hostel a little further out of town.
A few of the Remoters staying at my Airbnb drove up to Punta del Este from Montevideo on Friday morning and stopped at the grocery store when they got into town. We’re staying at a hotel in Montevideo and the lack of a kitchen has everyone craving a home cooked meal. Dinner preparation was well under way by the time those of us who rode the bus arrived at the Airbnb. Not wanting to disturb the process, we hopped in the pool until the chicken tacos and spaghetti bolognese were ready. After dinner, we headed out to the downtown port area to see what the famed Punta del Este nightlife had to offer.
One of the biggest adjustments that the Americans in the group have had to make in Uruguay is with respect to what time we eat dinner and go out. Restaurants typically don't open for dinner until at least 8:00 p.m. and most Uruguayans don’t eat until at least 10:00 p.m. As a result, bars and clubs don’t open until around midnight but stay open until 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. Because Punta del Este is a summer beach town, these hours are even more extreme; dinner typically doesn't start until 11:30 p.m. and clubs don't open until 2:00 a.m.
We learned this the hard way in Punta del Este when we showed up to a club at midnight. They gave us wristbands and told us to come back around 2:30 a.m. Yes, really (you should have seen the incredulous looks on our faces!). We managed to stay awake by hanging out on the beach and when we made our way back at 2:30 a.m. the party was just getting started.
In an attempt to adopt the Uruguayan lifestyle, on Saturday night we didn't head out for dinner until 11:00 p.m. By the time we met up with the larger Remote Year group after midnight to hear stories about their day surfing at Bikini Beach, we felt like we had the Punta del Este lifestyle down. When we finally left the club at 6:00 a.m., we made our way to “La Mano”, the famous sculpture of a hand emerging from the sand at Playa Brava, to watch the sunrise.
On Sunday, after a few hours of sleep, some of us decided to take the long way “home” to Montevideo in a rental car. We began the day by driving about 45 minutes northeast to José Ignacio, an old fishing village turned glamorous beach destination. We had a lot of stops planned for the day so unfortunately did not get to spend much time in any one place. From José Ignacio, we stopped to check out the Laguna Garzón Bridge, a unique circular bridge that recently opened to connect the cities of Maldonado and Rocha. I had seen aerial pictures of the bridge online and, while still very cool architecturally, it was a little underwhelming in person without the ability to get a bird’s eye view. From the bridge, we made our way to Punta del Diablo, a hippie beach town another two hours to our north. We sat and had lunch there then walked along the crowded beach for a bit.
As the fishermen came ashore to bring in their daily catch, we left Punta del Diablo behind and drove north to the border between Uruguay and Brazil. Chuy, the border town, is nothing to write home about, and as the sun was setting, we snapped some pictures at the border before beginning the four hour drive back to Montevideo.
I could easily have spent two weeks exploring Punta del Este and the surrounding towns, setting up shop at a different beach each morning. I’ll definitely be back one day, but for now I’ll have to settle for spending next weekend in the tiny beach town of Cabo Polonio, which I hear is the exact opposite of Punta del Este's busy party scene: no electricity, roads or running water. More on that next week!