Mystified by Punta del Este
Either the party was too late for us or we were too late for it?
26/01/2011 - 28/01/2011
30 °C
We arrived in Punta del Este towards the end of the day without the address of where we were booked. There is downtown Punta, a small city of mainly high rises some of which have fortunately benefited from good architects, and then there is the wider area of Punta, which is basically a number of smaller villages that stretch along about 50 km of white sandy beach.
As my mum was sponsoring a stay in a luxury hotel, we were lodging in the part of Punta area where everything was supposed to be happening. The question was how to get there without a map of the area and not much of an idea of where we were going. It caused a little stress but after asking around a bit and some help from a friendly bus driver, we made it just in time for the sunset. Once the receptionist found our reservation she stopped eyeing the rucksacks with suspicion, though the porter wasn't too sure about them.
Just checked in at the hotel
10 meters from our room
The last of the sun
Punta del Este in the distance
A nice lady offered to take a photo
Punta has a reputation of an all night party place and the best DJs are supposed to play there on raucous beach clubs set up just for the summer. La Barra, where we were staying, was supposed to be the mecca of such parties. Eager to get into the swing, we headed out to check out town and get some apéritif before dinner at 22:00, a perfectly respectable time for local standards. Perhaps we did not look hard enough, or we felt like going to bed before it all kicked off, but we could not find much more than families and couples having dinner in nice restaurants and post-pranial drink prices that even beat those of Copenhagen or Stockholm ($12 for a glass of non fancy red).
After a long sleep in, a lovely walk along the beach and some chilling out by the pool, we tried again the next day... Where were those parties? We had managed to find a DJ in Bikini Beach Club playing some nice electronic music for lunch in the afternoon and we had the benefit of the good night of sleep combined with our siesta by the pool so we were a bit more confident. Again however, the most exciting we could find was a bunch of young things (I mean below 18) gathering on the plaza around 2am. It wasn't very clear though on whether they were going anywhere and in the end we just headed for bed.
The next morning we decided to go check out downtown Punta del Este before continuing our journey to Punta del Diablo. We did not miss the opportunity to take some snaps by Punta's most famous landmark.
Dave got a hand up!
Barbla overwhelmed by the sight
Downtown Punta seemed just as quiet and family oriented as La Barra and apart from some sea lions by the fish market, there wasn't much excitement.
Sea lions at the fish market
Food fight
...and success!
Old town of Punta del Este
On the bus journey to Punta del Diablo, we agreed that we will remain mystified by Punta del Este's rating as a top notch party place. That said, the hotel was a very comfy and clean step up from hostels, and we do thank the sponsor - Merci Mama!
Posted by barbla 05/02/2011 08:21 Archived in Uruguay
