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Published: January 3rd 2008
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**please note we are having to post the blogs we wrote earlier now that we have a solid internet connection!**
December 23, 2007
Random thoughts so far…
-The trend so far in our experience (El Calafate, Argentina and Punta del Este, Uruguay) is that everyone eats dinner very late (we went to dinner at 9pm and no one was at the restaurant. By 10pm families with kids arrived as well as other tourists, etc. Dave and I have felt like “the early bird special” a couple of times, and we’re late eaters by comparison to most in ATL!!
-The people in Uruguay so far have been super nice. Our luggage did not make it with our flight (such a bummer after another full day of airplanes and airports!). We got a reco for dinner, and upon leaving, a restaurant employee was translating for us with the taxi. She told us if we need anything during our stay, to just let her know - we hadn’t even really met her! The taxi driver wouldn’t let us pay her since we lost our luggage. At Hertz at the airport, the attendant explained the road rules of Uruguay, and said if we need anything
while we’re here, to just ask. The hotel reception is very helpful even though most of them don’t speak English and our Spanish is awful - they still managed to book us dinner reservations and give us advice. The list goes on.
-It is not so summery in summer in Uruguay. Although the forecast before we came was sunny in the 80s, now that we are here, it is overcast, rainy, and very windy, making it feel pretty cold. My guess is it’s in the 60s - not really beach weather!
-We had an incredible Christmas Eve dinner at El Viejo Moreno. We arrived late at around 10:30 and waited for about a half-hour for a table. The manager brought us a drink on the house while we waited. He was very nice and accommodating since we really probably needed reservations for Christmas Eve. During dinner, it turned midnight, and the manager rang this bell and everyone in the place cheered and wished each other Feliz Navidad! It was a nice moment - the manager came over to give us his good wishes along with the many waitresses. It was very nice. Families with kids were coming in to dinner
fun bridge to La Barra
it feels like a roller coaster when you drive on it the whole time we were there - arriving around 12:30am to start dinner. Again, a very late culture. We had a very good meal of squid and vegetables, caprese salad, seafood paella, and wine from Uruguay. When we were leaving the manager wished me a happy birthday (Dave had told him earlier) - very nice! I’d say this was our best meal of the trip so far.
-La Barra is a nice little community a few miles beyond Punta del Este. Cute shops, restaurants, after the roller-coaster bridge. We’ve driven out there a couple of times.
-There is a lot of public art along the roads in Punta del Este. ---Amanda---
Greetings from Punta Del Este,
Well the plan to go from the glaciers to the beach has failed. The weather here is cold for the beach like Cabo San Lucas, Mexico this time of year. It’s not that it sucks but we wanted to lay around on beach a couple of days after all the trekking in El Calafate. Oh well, we are here and it’s better than working. The vacation Dave is out in full force! Amanda mentioned that the people are extremely friendly but I wanted
to add that it’s incredible how accommodating they are. Unlike the States where most people are bitching about people not speaking the English. They could really use a lesson on how to be better people from the South Americans. Please enjoy our cloudy photos we will post again in Buenos Aires. Take care. ----Dave---
December 27, 2007
Today we had *some* sun. It was still very cloudy and the sun didn’t seem too bright, but we headed out to the beach anyway for our last day in Punta. We didn’t do the best job of sun-screening and needless to say my hands and feet only are burned and Dave is pretty burned on his face, chest, arms and feet. Our legs were spared for some unknown reason! We look pretty funny if you ask me. But hey, we got our day at the beach (even if I was in shorts and a fleece! - that wind again!). We hung out for several hours on the beach, then had lunch at
Medio Y Medio which was quite good again - it is a little beach-side restaurant and jazz club that was recommended to us our first night. I do have to say we’ve had
some great meals in Punta.
Lo de Terre last night was probably the best food we had - a great spot on the harbor where we shared a bottle of Uruguayan wine, a fresh make-your-own salad, and I had crab ravioli and Dave had “The Robert Redford” which was chicken and delicious vegetables.
Yesterday we went to
Casapueblo on Punta Ballena near our hotel. It is a house/hotel/café/museum designed by Carlos Paez Vilaro. It is a really unique, cool white place on the cliffs of a point overlooking the water. We liked the art and the style of the place a lot. And then we drove over to Punta for an outdoor “lunch” around 5p at the harbor where we actually had our first breaking moment of sun - it was very exciting and lasted about 20 minutes.
All in all I liked Punta, we thought it was a lot like Miami to us. Similar architecture, great meals, great shopping. Just too bad we didn’t have more sun! ---A---
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