finding a place to sleep in punta del este
cam and preston, in their efforts to plan for a trip the day before departure, did not spend a great amount of time researching hostels. we noticed that La Barra was punta del este’s premier party district, so we decided to reserve a $15/ night hostel in that area.
our decision was first put into doubt when cam later noticed that La Barra was 10km outside of punta, but we figured that we would stay nearer to the the nightlife and have to deal with transportation during daylight hours rather than vice versa.
our decision was next put into question when we disembarked from the bus, and were informed that the taxi ride would be a large fraction of our room costs. but we continued on.
our decision was then put into question when our driver informed us that La Barra’s nightlife is only open during high season- which would occur about two weeks later. The driver then took a sharp left and took off down a dirt, tree-lined, vacant looking road.
our decision was confirmed as wrong as we alighted from the taxi and were greeted by a chorus of what sounded like wailing cats- which turned out to be a large population of frogs. we decided to pay the cancellation fee and relocated to a hostel in downtown punta del este.
Strangely enough, cam had stayed at the hostel when she had visited punta del este before. it is in an excellent location, about 2 blocks from the beach, and our room had an ocean view. Luckily, our first night, we four were the only guest in our six-person bedroom, and all but preston spread out their things and used the other beds as storage. Our extra closet space was stolen from us the next day when we had two Basques inhabit the area (“mmm… basques…” was what zach forcefully referred to them as). Even given our new roommates, the hostel was a vast improvement over the former and we were happy to stay there. even though zach’s pillow had mold on it.
montevideo
we left Buenos Aires last sunday to cross into uruguay. Cam and Em, used to the porteno lifestyle, were not able to fall asleep until well after three, making their 6:00am wakeup particularly difficult. we met up with Zach and Preston, and boarded to buquebus (again, ferry) to montevideo.
The ride was uneventful, and once we pulled into port, we headed directly to the bus station to purchase tickets to Punta del Este, the beach town that would be our final destination. We then returned to montevideo center, and after being slightly ripped off by the taxi driver (it appeared to be a situation where he received money from restaurant owners to bring tourists to a certain area of town. While we were pissed– and later aware– that he took us about a mile past our intended drop-off point, we refused to dine at any of the establishments). However, we failed to find our restaurant of choice, and wandered around looking for an open restaurant on a sunday. We finally found a rather unremarkable locale, ate, and spent the rest of our time in montevideo walking along the water.
We returned to the bus terminal, and decided to start our 2 hour trip off right– with vodka, sippy cups, and uruguay’s famous “agua helado” brand alfajores (cam and zach’s newest obsession). Nothing was a disappointment.
