Friday, February 3, 2012

25Jan Montevideo, Uruguay

First FIFA World cup soccer was held in this country which is the second smallest in South America.
Yes, they won the very first cup beating Argentina.
Remarkable achievement for a small country with 3.3 million populations!
Surely much less population, then 1930!
Majority of its people are descendants of Spanish and Italian migrants.
It is the only country in South America without any indigenous population.
The widest river in the world is found here!
River Plata in between Uruguay and Argentina.

We have been to this city 2 years ago so we took 8 hour tour ‘A day in Punta del Este’ provided by the ship.
We have met a couple from Argentina in Sydney last year and they did strongly recommend us to check this place out when they learnt that we were going to visit Uruguay.
Punta del Este translated in English as the East Point.
River Plata meets the Atlantic ocean at this point.
It takes about 2 hours drive to the east from country’s capital Montevideo.
According to our tour guide, this up-scale resort seaside is the place to be seen if you are rich and famous in Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.




View of Montevideo from the cruise deck





Town center

A beach in Montevideo


Art museum in Punta del Este



Inside the museum



Twin bridges resemble two humps of camel






Casino Conrad Punta del Este at the marina



This must be South American version of French Riviera with thousands of yachts and waterfront cafes and restaurants



Lunch stop at one of nice waterfront restaurants



Our table with couples from Florida and Holland all enjoyed beautiful 3 course meal.


Spinach and goat cheese quiche, the catch of the day fish with casserole baked with parmesan cheese and leek followed by almond and vanilla ice cream bar with raspberry and chocolate sauce. Yum!


One light house for murky river side channel and the other light house on island for the ocean side for ships sailing into the river



A local artist’s work ‘The three mermaids’ demonstrate mermaids emerging to escape from water because of international battle took place here long times ago



Famous art on the beach ‘buried hand’ became a landmark of Punta del Este



Thatched house can be seen a lot around here and it is made of Pompanos grass



Famous local artist Carlos Paez Vilaro found this spot and built unique house on this hillside with great ocean view









A view of ocean side of Punta del Este




No comments:

Post a Comment