Day 15. Friday, December 5. The alarm goes off at 6:00 so that Todd can get in line for tender tickets. Only by getting there early can we insure getting off the boat by a decent time. When 7:00 comes and the person with the tickets shows up, all chaos ensues and some of the fellow passengers once again show a nasty side; one of our fellow cruise critic mates among them. People were coming in much later than most of us and they just pushed right up to the front. One man was so blatant and physical about it that a group of the early birds ganged up on him to tell him off. Welcome beautiful day! Today’s port is Punta del Este, Uruguay. This town is known as one of the most prestigious seaside resorts in the world. Every summer (December through March) the town is the destination for wealthy families, preeminent artists, super models and movie stars. In other words, it is the beach destination of choice for the rich and famous in South America. Over 60% of all tourist generated revenue enters Uruguay through Punta del Este. We have breakfast with Carlos and Aura and give them the tender tickets Todd picked up for them. We take tender #2 and set out on the 25 minute shuttle ride to the shore. Tender #1 (the one with all the pushy jerks this morning) gets lost and goes in the wrong direction. Our tender actually arrives at the pier first. Justice always makes us smile. Our plans in this port are actually to get on a bus and leave the city. Why, after the description given above, would we think of doing that? We will get to that in a bit. We find the bus station easily because Carlos is talking to everybody. It’s great to have a couple of friends along as well as a translator! We have over an hour until our bus leaves so we walk around the city and take in the sights. We see real estate ad boards with 2 and 3 bedroom beach houses in the area selling for $100,000 – $200,000. The prices here, other than the real estate, are outrageous. There is a famous sculpture on the beach called “Los Manos”, or The Hand. It is giant fingers, the color of sand, reaching out of the sand. We cannot get to the beach to see it because the entire section is blocked off for a formula one race there today. There are Harley Davidson groups riding all over the city. We bump into Al and Lori from San Francisco. They wish Todd luck at tonight’s Karaoke Superstars competition. We tell them about our plans to take the bus and they are very interested. We tell them to meet us at the station so they can take the bus with us. Well, a little later on we start back for the bus station because we’ve pretty much got a good feel for the city, the prices are higher than food is in Disneyland, and we don’t want to get too far away. When we get there Carlos talks to everyone about the different busses and suddenly yells at us from across the way to come with him. He has found a bus that is slightly more expensive (still only about $3) but goes straight to our destination. We jump on the bus and it takes off almost immediately. As we drive down the street we see Al and Lori walking towards the bus station. We feel terrible about leaving without them.
We travel north along the east coast and marvel at the beauty all along. 40 kilometers later we arrive in Jose Ignacio.
It’s a world famous sleepy little beach village. Stars like Shakira and Naomi Watts have their vacation homes here. It is also home to the world famous La Huella restaurant. This restaurant has been listed by Gourmet Magazine as the #1 oceanside restaurant in the world. When we get off the bus, Todd has to release his orange juice immediately. He has to go bad. We walk towards the beach and find a lighthouse and begin looking around for a restroom. Carlos goes in and talks with the guy running the lighthouse. He comes out and yells to Todd to Follow him and the man proceeds to unlock a door. As Todd approaches he is directed through another door which he enters.
He starts following the staircase and after about 8 steps he realizes that he’s not going to a bathroom, he’s climbing up the inside of the lighthouse – Carlos and Denise in tow. We can’t believe that he got us up here! The view is stunning. What a great treat. After we climb back down we are allowed into the adjoining apartment to use the facilities.
This is Aura and Denise at the base of the lighthouse: This is Carlos and Aura talking with the lighthouse keeper:
We walk down the beach:
We go past the topless sunbathers, and see this curious object in the surf. It resembles a very big engine block carved from stone. As the surf hits it water shoots straight up in the air through holes near those pointed cones.
We make it to La Huella and are ready for our experience.We find out that the entire restaurant has been booked by a local Harley Davidson club for the entire afternoon. They are not serving anyone today except that club. This is seriously a downer. The number one reason we left Punta del Este was for this one restaurant. They must be expecting quite a crowd because they even have a giant grill set up out front.We walk down the quiet little streets.
We find most of the restaurants aren’t even open. Not even “Popeyes”.We find one little sandwich shop open and stop there for some beers before continuing our search.
While sitting back on the deck admiring the environment who should be walking by but Al and Lori! They sarcastically thank us for waiting for them at the bus station and we apologize profusely. We are very glad that they made the journey without us, based purely on faith that the city was even worth the trek. This is really a beautiful corner of the world. And something about the electricity in the air – or maybe lack of it – gives an exceptionally peaceful and calm vibe.
After finishing a few rounds of beer, we continue our search for an open restaurant and find one.
We take a seat at Tipico, right next to Al and Lori’s table. They soon finish their lunch and head out to take an earlier bus. They have enjoyed their day here and are appreciative for our giving them this suggestion. Along with a great seafood lunch, we have two pitchers of this drink called clerico.
It has Grand Marnier and sugar mixed at the bottom of a pitcher of fruit. You add a bottle of chardonnay and that’s all there is to it. Simple. Simple and VERY tasty. The sun is out, there is beauty everywhere, good friends nearby; this is one of the most perfect days ever. This is the day that Todd and Denise fell in love with Uruguay. Our day is much too short, and before we know it we are making our way back to the ship.
The nearby beach is now packed with people and the sailboats are everywhere.
We settle back into the ship and meet up for dinner where we reflect upon our day and laugh some more. Back in our cabin we find this little creature looking like the child of JarJar Binks.
As we distance ourselves from Punta del Este the sun is beginning to set behind it.This evening’s headliner is… Karaoke Superstars. Not many people in the audience. The Radiance of the Seas band is there. Also, upstairs are seated the backup singers and dancers – the cast of the murder mystery dinner theater. They are introduced to us as tonight’s judges. Todd’s mind ->”I’m screwed now”. Todd goes last in the rotation of the 7 finalists. When he exits the stage the cruise director gives him a high five and a big smile and tells him, “Nice buddy. You nailed that. You’ve got this thing won.” Well, he wasn’t a judge now was he? A very nice man, Andre won.
But Todd got a Royal Caribbean blue ribbon anyway just for giving everybody a laugh at his expense. We wind down the evening on the balcony until we get tired.