Day 315
Punta Del ESTE, (pronounced OST) URUGUAY South America POPULATION: 7,200
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Today was going to be an easy day..we´ve got our accommodation booked..and we just have to catch our taxi, hop on the bus, and get to Punta Del Este, an Eastern Uruguayan town with a population of 7,200 people...in one of the hottest tourist beach spots in Uruguay.
It´s a town where Montevideanos (as they call themselves!) go for their holidays..and one we´ve heard is not only expensive, it is populated, with tourists during the tourist season - Dec - March. It´s quiet the rest of the year..so our first thought - we're here at the wrong time!
But that can´t be helped...at least we have our accommodation!
We left on the bus at 11am and arrived in Punta Del Este at 1.30pm. The bus station was crowded with backpackers and the taxi stand was crammed. We finally got our taxi and arrived at the house where we were to stay. (The taxi driver ripped us off another 20 pesos - for luggage he said! These charts they produce after watching the fichas click over are all a farce..
He had a few words with Rodrigo who was waiting for us outside his house. And from what we gather, armed with our practically non existent knowledge of Spanish, even Rodrigo was squirming at the taxi driver´s audacity! On our way inside his house Rodrigo said, F--k the taxi drivers´´They´re all out for the tourist dollar! It was then we realised we were speaking to a Uruguayan who also spoke fluent English - including all the euphemisms!
Rodrigo didn´t look the typical B&B or hostel owner. He was tanned, had long dreadlocks, was adorned with an ornate stirling silver bracelet and was dressed in boardies and an embroidered sandy coloured jesus shirt. The sort of guy I was used to decking on the boats off the WA coast!
The house was beautiful. It was his home which he converted to a B&B. It was his grandmother´s beach house used only when they holidayed from Montevideo. His grandmother had died, left it to his mother and she wanted him and his wife and 6month old baby (named Augustine who was absolutely a gorgeous little thing!) to stay in Uruguay instead of charging back to Europe so she said he could make a business from it.
And he has done a fabulous job too. It was done up so beautifully, in a cottage style with lots of trees and flowers and the outside had deck chairs and hammocks beckoning us to laze about...and a huge bbq and free access throughout his lounge and kitchen. Very homely and very beautifully decorated as well.
We were met by his tanned coloured labrador dog as well who took a shine to both Greg and I. He looked like Rav in a brown coat. So cute! The double white doors of our room opened from the outside of the house so we all, including Mr Brown Coat, went in for the show around Rodrigo´s house. He introduced us to his wife and daughter and his maid and housekeeper!
He told us straight away that someone had cancelled and do we want an extra 2 nights. Unfortunately when we arrived at the station in Punta del Este we´d organised a bus trip with no refunds for the next day to Punta del Diablo so we were committed. Drats!!!
If only we´d known it was going to be so beautiful...and so close to the beach..and town..and in a house that was only a couple of doors down from another beautiful house that belonged to Madonna´s manager!! It was in the upper class suburb of La Loma. It was an expensive accommodation, comparatively for SA prices, but not for Punta del Este, which we´ve been told is the most expensive place in South America! The house we stayed in, for US$90 a night is not as expensive as the hotels. Half and a third of the price of other places we looked at.
Greg and Rodrigo got to discussing surfing. And the beaches. And after that..Rodrigo took us under his wing and decided, because we only had one day in Punta del Este, that he would show us his beautiful beaches! He said he had to go there for work anyway and we could get a free ride.
So, we got changed, and headed for the beach in Rodrigo´s 1973 broken down Range Rover. His pride and joy he paid US$5000 for! He told us cars were really expensive here and a lot of people just drive old bombs because that´s all he could afford. He also shoved in a couple of boards with jewellery. That´s his job he said!
Didn´t seem to fit. This beautiful, beautiful house in the ritzy area..and him in his hippie clothes and broken down vehicle! We loved it!
He stopped at a supermarcado so we could eat and get something to drink. He told us to get a milanesa sandwich because they are the best. We all had sandwiches and warm coke and headed out to Jose Ignacio beach. He gave us money. We insisted we pay and he insisted we didn´t. We left the money for him in the end. It was so unusual for someone in South America to be so generous. He was already giving us a free tour!
On the way there i was questioning his hospitality. I thought, we´re on a remote road, in a house that doesn´t seem to fit his clothes, his car..what if this is a ¨Wolf Creek¨thing!! ha!
But onwards we went..he told us all about Uruguay and he really seemed to have a shine for Greg. A father figure perhaps? Not sure, but they were in the front relating as if they´d known each other for years! He said Argentines seemed to think the Uruguayans thought they were better..but really..the truth is..he said they are better! Was funny. He said, afterall, they won the first World Cup and have beat Argentina as well! He also said Carlos Gardel WAS Uruguayan but the Argentines just won´t accept it!
I sense a friendly rivalry. He also said there were a lot of rich Argentines here at the beach and that´s where he intended to make his money. And he was not happy unless he made US$300 per day!!! No wonder he sold jewellery at the beach. He said he had to have a beach vendor licence but it was only US$20!
He spoke in terms of US dollars all the time. Since we were used to the Pesos and didn´t have any US dollars..we asked why that was..and he said that´s what all the ´normal´ tourists used. But tourists like us and a few others used the local currency. We did wondered what he meant by ´tourists like us´! We were under the impression he had pegged us as tourists that were really struggling...on holiday with backpacks, 4 kids at home, and couldn't afford a hotel!
Which in a sense was true..but he didn´t realise our holiday had now extended to past 10 months! And he didn´t have time to ask either..he was too busy telling us all about his life..and we absorbing and thrilled with what we were hearing. We couldn´t believe our luck, meeting a local so willing to share his life with us!
It was funny watching him at work on the beach. (At a distance, so we didn´t cramp his style!) He was an expert at selling his wares that´s for sure! And to the most beautiful women! If i had to say what was most memorable about the beach..i´d have to say..the women were so stunning. Ánd thong bikini´s is the fashion here!!! It was quite the beach beauty parade!
But there were families there as well. Kicking soccer balls. Playing paddle ball. Listening to music. Talking. Drinking at the bar. Sun. Sand. Surf. Beach. Movement, movement everywhere.
Mate drinkers were in abundance again. It´s mate madness. I´m sure it has to be a drug when people can´t leave their houses without their flask of hot water and mate pot! It continues to thrill me. And i wanted photos. I hadn´t seen anything like it...apart from those who carry their addiction in the form of a packet of cigarettes. But carrying a flask under arm, pot and metal straw in hand..is such a new, interesting sight to me!
We finally went for a walk and into the town centre at Jose Ignacio and if i was to have a house anywhere in the world..this has to be it. The houses are situated right on the beach..and it´s so blue..(no river beach water here!) and the rocks sillhouted against the sky just looked so gorgeous.
The streets leading adjacent to the beach were so quiet and lovely....and the architecture of the houses were so eclectic. All sorts of designs from thatched roofed houses to wooden mansions to stone to tin to brick. Incredible. But it just ´made´the town. SO LOVELY!
We stayed at Jose Ignacio beach until 6pm and then headed off over the Puente Leonel Viera Bridge, which is a roller coaster of a bridge that even got my centre of gravity confused! It was a ride for sure!
Rodrigo said 3 people had already died on that bridge since xmas because they drive so fast over it and get airborne and crash. Geepers. I had seen big placards in the Montevideo Bus station of this waved bridge and wondered what it was..and now we know. Rodrigo was driving slowly and we still got the thrill! I wonder how long that bridge will last? Seems to be a bit of a landmark for Maldonado tho..which is where it crossed from.
Playa Montoya Beach was just as beautiful. And here the music was playing so it created an excitement. We watched as all the vendors walked the beaches..from guys carrying huge wardrobes of different beach clothes on a big rack to guys like Rodrigo with their jewellery and girls selling bathers and towels. Very colourful. And once again, more beautiful bodies. Is this where all the models come?
The sun went down at 9.30pm, we spotted Rodrigo heading back to the carpark, happy wiht his day of selling; we loaded ourselves back into Rodrigo´s old bomb and listened to more of his tales.
On the way back..Rodrigo was waved at, and whistled at, and tooted at, from a lot of people. he said everyone knew him, but he didn´t remember them! He´d worked in the local bar from the age of 20 - 28 so he knew a lot of people. And we saw this on the beach, and in the streets. A popular and friendly local guy. An asset to the town and to tourists. We would surely remember this personable, hospitable man.
He told us how he planned to change the windows in his car but to do it..he has to go to London, buy another old Range Rover, import it to Brazil, where he has friends and where the import tax is low, go home and drive to Brazil, then rip the parts off for his car, sell the London range rover..and drive his new sporty edition home again!!! Sporty, because he says it only has two doors.
Gosh this man is a contradiction!
He said he loves his dreadlocks but can´t have them completely dreadlocked because his 87 year old grandmother on his father´s side doesn´t like them!
SO much to tell about this character.
Once we got home, he recommended a few places for us to eat. He went to his wife in the kitchen, who was baking apple cake for the morning breakfast and became the family man with baby and dog.
Our dinner in the city was a nightmare. Reminiscent of the Calafate crowds. We ate and strolled and thought..don´t these places ever shut? It was past midnight and all the shops, restaurants and even some businesses, were still open!
We were happy to get back to our cosy house..and sleep. And get away from the maddening crowds.
For tomorrow..we head off to a place that is remote, we have no accommodation booked..and it only has a population of 700.
