Another stunning sunrise greets us on our sail in to Punta del Este.  We have a really early tour today, so we are moving quickly again this morning.  We gather in the cabaret to wait to be called – a tender port today, so we can’t just wander out to the bus – and grab decent seats on the tender then the bus.  Our guide today is Marcelo, who is totally funny – always making jokes and just saying funny things.  Along with all great history and knowledge about the area he imparts. 

We start our drive through the city, passing the Cuatro Mares (4 seas) corner, where you can see all 4 bodies of water that surround Punta del Este (if you were out of the bus, you could, we can only see the marker on the corner!). 

Marcelo tells us how from the early 1500s until the 18th century there were very few Europeans here.  The Portuguese first settled the area, calling it Candeleria; then the Spanish came and found silver and gold on the mainland. But this peninsula was viewed as useless land with no gold or silver and developed didn’t happen until later. Now it is a tourist hub with 40% coming from Argentina and 20% form Brazil. The population here is 20,000; but in high season that number swells to 100,000.  Eek! 

Stopping by the lighthouse of Punta del Este – which is still military controlled, and an important feature of the island as the area here is called Hell of the seas because there are no natural ports and storms are terrible for ships in the area – we visit the Nuestra Senora de las Candelaria church across the square which is a lovely, peaceful church, painted a beautiful shade of blue, with a simple interior and really artistic wooden carved panels depicting the stations of the cross.

We still have some time (since we were first off and first in the church), so we wander around the lighthouse snapping pictures of the vibrant yellow painted tower – which can e see for up to 6 miles – against beautiful azure skies. 

Driving out to the coastline, we pass Playa Gran Bretana, the first beach in a string that surround the peninsula.  We will be driving all the way up the coast, past beach after beach, until we finally stop at Playa Brava for Los Dedos de Punta del Este, a huge concrete hand sculpture built in 1982 by Mario Irarrazabal, a Chilean artist during the First International Meeting of Modern Outdoor Sculpture, which has become the symbol of Punta del Este.  An interesting note – there were 9 sculptors invited to the meeting, and they fought over the assigned location of their sculptures.  Irarrazabal decided to make his sculpture on the beach – and it became the most prominent of all of them.

Across the street from the statue is this high rise building that we notice have people figures on the roof. There is a bar or something up there, and these are Marvel type characters attached to the roof as an attraction.  The bar itself turns and has 360 degree views.

Then we’re off on more sightseeing, stopping at the Leonel Viera Bridge, locally known as La Barra Bridge.  The original bridge was built in 1965, connecting the cities of El Tesoro and Punta del Este that were separated by the Maldonado river. It was built in an undulating style to reduce pylons in the river, but also to slow traffic.  The 2^nd bridge was built in 2000, and as everything goes these days, the newer bridge has a ton of problems. The original bridge?  Perfectly fine.

And then we get to drive over it!  It is like a roller coaster – especially because our bus driver goes all race car driver and speeds up on the humps!

Half an hour later, we reach the main attraction for this tour, the Atchugarry Musuem of Contemporary Art, otherwise known as MACA.  We have free time here to wander through the 90 some odd acres of parkland with 76 sculptures strategically placed among the landscape.  We first enter the temporary exhibition with odd statues entitled Charred, with a staircase that is a metaphor for the relentless human pursuit of advancement.  Uh huh.  It’s contemporary all right! There is one called Great Filter, which is essentially little sand mounds on a huge square platform, exemplifying the transient nature of existence.  Ok – time to go outside!

This is a wonderland of interestingly bizarre statuary.  It’s amazing and even though really toasty, a great way to spend an hour wandering about in the fresh air.  We don’t have any particular route, so we just circle around looking at all the different installations. “Let’s play in the forest” is one of my favorites!  Little red fox like animals that look like they are wrapped around trees in a little copse by the water. 

We continue across a bridge across the narrow part of the lake and head out to the far reaches of the park, making it all the way to the Capilla del Sol – chapel of the sun – and then the last statue, Intencion Superior – Higher intention – before turning back for the return trip to the main museum area. 

On our return, we pass by 9 Bloques de Cemento (no translation needed!) which is actually pretty interesting, then head into the chapel looking structure, called Puertas del Paraiso, and into the interior where Pablo Atchugarry’s take on La Pieta is located.  Definitely different, and apparently the center of some controversy when he initially created it in 1983.  It is a bit provocative, so you can see why people might be upset.  But in this setting it is a gorgeous example of some of his best work.

Passing the main museum, in the shape of a boat, which is not open today (let the whining commence), we find the permanent Atchugarry exhibit which has many of his marble works, something for which he was famous, as well as an entire video on the construction and placement of a massive artwork somewhere in the middle of a field.  It was all in Portuguese, so….we got the gist, not the details. 

Onto lunch!  We are going to the Narbona wine estate for a Parrillada, a typical Uruguayan barbeque meal.  The winery is lovely, and everything is served family style (except the salad, which is serve yourself) and quite a feast!  We’re served a chorizo and cheese dip with tons of beautiful bread, an empanada and then meat.  More meat than you could ever eat!  Chorizo sausages, ribs, chicken, lamb.  Totally yummy and filling!  And of course the wine.  As, much as you wanted. Dessert was once again caramel flan with dulce de leche and ice cream.  Perfect!  Yuri, one of the sweet ShoreEx guys was on the tour to do a review, he sat with us another couple and we spent a lovely hour or so eating and chatting.

Sadly the whole ambiance was ruined when we found out that Narbona isn’t simply Uruguayan. They may have started here, but they have more locations in Florida than here.  Really?  You bring us to a Florida chain?  Ugh. 

Anyhow, now we have free time, so we go wander about the property, walking down the vineyard road for a bit, then to a little lagoon and back to the gift shop which is way too expensive to even bother buying anything.  So, to the bus we go!

And back to the ship we go!

Tonight, we are invited to the officers’ dinner and were hosted by Alered, the truly delightful guest relations manager (who was on the COVID cruise with us but we didn’t know him then!!). We had a blessedly small table, and our dining partners?  7055 from the Pursuit, the couple who always had to have the front seat of the bus!!!!  Now we think we know why, because Mr. 7055 (I’ve forgotten their names already) broke his back on a cruise and maybe had to have that seat to have space for him or avoid too many bumps?  I’ll go with that. They were actually pretty good company, although Mrs. 7055 and I could barely hear each other over the din.

But otherwise, it was a delightful dinner with great company.  We stayed so long, we once again missed the show, so we just wandered around the ship, finding Adie, another bartender we knew from the COVID cruise!  And of course he remembered us. Then the balcony coz we’ve seen the show and we’re not into the captain’s toast coz, we’ll, you know!  Next up – sea days!