Blogs from Punta del Este, East, Uruguay, South America

An "Australian Surf Instructor" in Uruguay. Something I never thought I would do/be/become... This is going to be a good conversation starter when I start going for job interviews in Australia again. So the summer in Punta del Este has come to an end and therefore so has my work as a surf instructor. I decided to keep a small diary of my experience over the time, giving you the following as a little summary and extract of some of the thoughts, feelings & struggles I faced whilst teaching surf over the past 6 weeks. Never-the-less, it was a fun experience and will be interesting to elaborate on in an interview some day! WEEK #1 Challenges faced: the constant feeling of jet-lag whilst trying to bring my body clock back into sync with daylight hours. Emotionally ... read more

Back in Asia we heard that South America is a great place for CouchSurfers. We did not participate much in CS in Asia but decided to give it a go in here. We already stayed with Leandro in Buenos and now came the time to try some of the Uruguayan hospitality. We took a bus from Montevideo to Maldonado (100UR$/10$ each) near Punta Del Este to meet our hosts – Lau and Max. We could not believe how high the standard of Uruguayan buses was. Not only they have brand new flotas but also all of them have Wi-Fi on board. Shame on you, bus companies in Europe!!! We got there around 8 pm and were a little bit skeptical about walking 8 blocks to the main plaza with all of our stuff. As we learnt ... read more

Hello from Punta del Este in Uruguay! Have just finished a day of beaches and walking around this resort town, although we were told we would see ferraris on the streets here the best we have seen is a porsch, and even that was a 4WD. This seems to be the richest place in Uruguay and very different from Montevideo. For lunch we went to the port here and ordered fresh seafood in the market and had it cooked up on the spot. Unfortunately did not do currency conversions well and failed to realise it was about $100 US for our lunch, not bad overall, but up there for south american prices. Also saw a sea lion fend off two street dogs and an intruiging battle - we were on the sea lions side. before montevideo ... read more

It’s raining and my bus doesn’t leave for another 3 hours so I figured I’d get to blogging.. Where to begin? I love Uruguay. Ever since I spent time in Uruguay in high school I’ve been dying to go back. There is just something so magical about this place. It’s very laid back and I love being on the ocean. I took the ferry from BsAs to Colonia, Uruguay early Friday morning and then bussed from Colonia to Punta del Este. In total it’s about a 6 hour trip. After getting checked in at the hotel in Punta del Este, my pals had not arrived yet, so I hit the beach to lay out in the sun. Just hearing the ocean was great. Soaking in the sun, I passed 3 hours starting & finishing the last ... read more

The resort town of Punta del Este is the Cancun/Cannes of Uruguay and Argentina. The rich and thin jet here for hot days on the beach and hotter nights in the discos during the summer holidays from Christmas to Carnival. Huge high rises litter the beach and mansions are tucked into more isolated cliff tops and parks away from the center of the madness. Gypsies in gaily-colored layers, roam the main street, offering, "Let me read your palm, my love." I arrived on the cusp of the chaos. All along the coast, workers were fervently painting and getting rentals and restaurants ready for the season. I generally avoid these types of places, opting for the funky backpacker Isla de Mujeres rather than Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula, and tiny Antibes and genteel Nice over the swanky ... read more