Well, by late August 2023, we had polished off our last frosty açai bowl in idyllically warm Brazil and traded it in for hand-warming matés in Uruguay. To find ourselves back in Spanish Land (yay!!), we woke up at a spritely time of 2:30 to arrive to the Belo Horizonte Airport by 4, which was followed by a flight with, not one but two flight changes, one which we narrowly missed and had to run at full speed through the São Paulo airport to make.
Our last açai bowl…and perhaps the reason we miss Brazil the most! We’ve been sharing one for dinner almost everyday for a month. 🤣
As we dropped well below the Tropic of Capricorn, the temperatures plummeted to around 10-15 Celsius as well. But alas, spring was right around the corner!!
When we flew from Brazil’s Belo Horizonte, we had two options to get to Uruguay…Montevideo or Punta del Este. Since Punta del Este was about $40 cheaper we chose to fly into the seaside city famous for beautiful beaches, glamorous nightlife, glinting high-rises and a giant man hand crawling out of the sand. The city has been referred to the Miami Beach, Monaco and Hamptons of South America and is the most expensive place in the country.
We flew with the Brazilian low-cost carrier Azul, which slapped our budget with $125/each. Still it was far cheaper than bussing all the way down to Uruguay which was our original plan. We chose not to use points for this flight because there were two layovers, and because it was a low cost carrier, which has been known to create issues when booked with a third party. We were pleasantly surprised with Azul, however, because they didn’t charge extra for any baggage and even gave us three snacks EACH (on three separate planes 🤣). Oh yes, we ate so healthy on that day! We also flew in a red and white polka dot plane with a mouse on the end. Fortunately, we weren’t bound for Orlando.
Instead, we touched down in a new country with green and water as far as the eye could see.
Exhausted from the early departure, we caught a shuttle bus 30 minutes from the airport to Punta del Este for $10/each. It was odd to back on the ocean, which felt far closer to the coast of “ home” in Washington or Oregon than the powdery beaches of Brazil. But the high rises sprinkled all around felt more like an empty and grey Panama City.
The good news is that even though Uruguay is quite expensive, because it’s winter, we got a great deal on our hostel room at RocaMar Boutique for $22. It was super cozy, clean and comfortable and even had electric HEAT. The first time we’ve had it since the States even though we definitely wanted it a couple times in Ecuador and Brazil. 🔥
When we arrived, we found a local market and bought some materials to make our next few meals in the shared kitchen. Despite this cost savings, with the flight we still finished the day with a whopping $329 hit, edging us very close to our monthly budget.
The exterior courtyard of the hostel looked inviting…if it were summer. 🤣 Inside our hostel, it was only us and four other guests in the facility. All delightfully Spanish-speaking!
So, those who know our $50 daily budget might be scratching their heads at why the hell we went to Punta del Este in the first place. Well, in the Uruguayan winter it’s cheaper, when the population is only 12k, as opposed to summer’s 400k and it felt more like a desolate modern ghost city. It’s also the home of a very famous…hand. In fact, the only thing that had people around it was the hand itself, which was braceleted in caution tape and accented with construction workers giving the statue a manicure, completely disregarding their obliviously placed toys. Grrr.
La Mano is a sculpture by Chilean artist. Mario Irarrázabal which was made in 1982 and has become a national landmark for the country of Uruguay. Evidently, Mario Irarrázabal was inspired to make a sculpture of a hand “drowning” as a warning to swimmers. This may be the first sign that Uruguay is not bursting with tourist attractions in quite the same way as its neighbors.
The sculpture depicts five human fingers emerging from sand and is located on Brava Beach.
The first thing we noticed…it is not nearly as big as Instagram wants you to believe, which you can see by the construction workers around it.
Mandy sat with our backpacks while Greg, who was NOT pleased with the carelessness of the workers, walked around muttering and trying to take a decent photo. While she was sitting there, it was funny to notice the few other tourists pissed off by this predicament as well. This lady got so mad she made them move their wheelbarrow.
We also don’t remember this weird platform in the Instagram photos. Ah, well. Visions aren’t always exactly what they seem.
Greg, a little bit pouty, tried to make his own rendition after we had our picnic in the sand, which was also requested by this guy whose owner didn’t seem to mind he was snorting and pawing at our sardine salad lunch.
Indeed, everyone seemed to think they were getting our lunch in Punta del Este!
And of course, when we walked back after lunch, most of the clutter had too. 🤣 Uh, for the record, really not worth a $30 detour to go here.
What we actually found more interesting about Punta del Este was the fact that it felt a lot like visiting the Oregon or Washington coast in the winter.
Complete with the whipping chilly breeze, and dune-y beach entrances.
But yet, still plenty of güeys (dudes) in their wet suits catching the sizeable waves.
Our hostel in Punta del Este was tucked back in a neighborhood, which also reminded us of the Pacific Northwest, complete with some unusual architectural abodes…
…and a strange blend of palms and pines…
And even more reasons it’s like the PNW…grow shops everywhere. Yes, little affluent Uruguay is the most socially progressive country in South America and weed has been legal here since 2013, as well as abortion and same sex marriage.
Cloudy and cold during the hour of sun set
Rows and rows of high rise apartments look practically skeletal. But none more so than this one.
Seriously? Evidently, 60% of the owners are Argentinian. The price of the units starts at $800,000. The development includes unique infrastructure in the region, ranging from heated swimming pools and private cinemas, to a regulated indoor tennis court with intelligent climate control, heliport and a hall.
All this said, Punta del Este, even though there are shades of “home,” it’s safe to say it’s not our favorite place we’ve ever been. From here, we hopped a two-hour $21 bus ride (two tickets) to Montevideo and never looked back.
