Punta del Este

I'm playing catchup---don't give me a hard time haha...

So I was in Montevideo, Uruguay for two weeks taking more spanish classes, which I'll talk about later. My friend Matthew his two friends from Chicago, came over the river to check out Uruguay as well. They rented a car and drove to Montevideo to pick me up on the weekend and we drove two hours to Punta del Este.
Punta del Este has been described as the South Beach or Saint Tropez...of South America. It definitely met all glamorous expectations. Its a peninsula on the north east coast of Uruguay on the way to Brazil and it is surrounded by el Rio del Plata on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other. The white sand beaches are plentiful, as are the fancy cars, high rise condos, tanned bottoms and boob jobs in thong bikinis.
Upon entering the area and while driving through, our faces were plastered to the glass windows of the car...which we rolled down to hang our heads and tongues out of the car like dogs drooling at the gorgeous scenery. Hmm...that def. says something if I relate gorgeous scenery to modernized glass condos and hot people on the beach and not some sort of natural landscape, whatevs I'm a city girl!
We stayed at a hostel in Manantiales which is like ten minutes outside of Punta and on Bikini Beach. Which was a good choice as we were out of the way of boardwalks crammed with tourists with way too much disposable cash. Our hostel, though not as nice as the one in B.A., was quaint, had a pool and a bar and a lot of guests from all over including a bunch of recently laid-off NYC investment bankers taking a loooong vacation.
First thing we did was find the perfect beach...which we didn't. The one we chose ended up being for ages 12 and under. Where were all the hot people?? We decided to stay anyway..tired from driving and tried to nap to the sounds of the ocean and screaming children. Later after a quick change at the hostel we headed to a night on the town. After choosing one of like a hundred restaurants all along the harbor, we came across one with amazing seafood, which I haven't had since I've been in SoAm. Unfortunately, a resort town resembling Saint Tropez also comes with the same price tags, well maybe more like South Beach prices but still...this is South America....everything should be cheap. Oh well, it was just for one weekend.
After eating we tried to go to the number one spot to drink at on the peninsula, Moby Dick, and Irish pub?! Which we didn't get into, because apparently we were in the US and needed to show ID to get in, which none of us had on because again, we are in SOUTH AMERICA and its usually safer not to walk around with your passport, duh....so we settled on the colorful club/bar/restaurant next door, Soho. After three expensive Caipirhinas later we hit the packed dancefloor until around 4 or 5 am when we decided to cut out "early." I forgot to mention, we sat down for dinner at around 1:30 am, when in Rome!

The next day, went to bikini beach, i think?, and took in the much needed rays and blackened my skin as much as possible while taking a quick break to brave the crazy waves breaking right on the beach. Of course, it was funny to sit back and watch all the other people get pummeled by the waves but once I stepped in and was knocked off my feet and ass dragged on the sharp shell covered ocean floor, it wasn't so funny....it was pretty funny though when we decided to get out before drowning, and tried to find a way to avoid exposing my bikini bottom that was filled with two pounds of sand, making me look like i pooped myself....hmmm...

*sorry I've run out of time, I'm late to be somewhere that I'll write about another time, as for this story....to be continued....