And may I tell you; that it was one of the most wonderful weekends I have had. Ever. I cannot possibly type it all out in every excruciating detail, and I know how much everyone would love to read my descriptions of dead sea lion and sunburns, but I will spare those details for the most important things. And so I shall begin at number 1.
1. We were up, of course, at the crack of dawn to hit the Uruguayan road. We peaced out of the city early in the morning and headed east to Casapueblo.
This is the home of a very famous Uruguayan artist named Carlos Páez Vilaró. He is a big deal in Chivitoland, painting abstract paintings of women and typical life in Buenos Aires. To be honest, I like the story of his life better than his actual paintings. We had to watch a video of him before we went through the museum, and that man has been everywhere. He has been all over Africa, which made me so jealous, he visited all sorts of islands and painted and made friends and all sorts of things, but he said in the video that he was very lonely a lot of the time. And I could see that. I could feel it in his house as we walked around the patios and balconies facing the Atlantic. He lives a very lonely life. Still. After all he experienced. Traveling the world. Meeting Picasso. Painting, painting, painting. And yet, he is still a lonely man. Which made me sad, but also was one of the reasons that I find his story so appealing. He has everything, yet he doesn't. Very interesting, in my book.
His house was beautiful. It's a funky, white, large thing seated on a cliff. It was rather terrifying to park our charter bus on its cliffs, because our driver made sure we parked most excellently in our designated spot in the dirt parking lot (meaning we didn't actually have a spot). So I was fearing for my life the majority of the time. Anyway. It was a lovely house. I have to write about it for a paper in my art class, so I am just getting warmed up. But I really liked the house.
2. Punta del Este. It's like the Beverly Hills of Uruguay. It has the most expensive real estate in South America. And for good reason, because it is absolutely beautiful. It was peaceful and spaced out, not cramped all together like Montevideo. It's just a beautiful spot of beach. Not my favorite, but a very lovely part. We stopped at La Mano, a famous sculpture of a hand, mainly the fingers, coming out of the sand. So,of course, being Americans, we had to climb up it and jump off and take pictures and all sorts of activities that draw attention to ourselves. La mano was cool, and I wish that I could have spent more time there, because it was hot and the middle of the day, so it was perfect beach weather, but we didn't; we had to get hustled back to the bus to go on to our next adventure. Which was undoubtedly amazing.
3. Two words: La Paloma.
It is an itty bitty beach down a few hours from Punta del Este and it was fantastic. I don't think I have ever felt so relaxed. Our hotel was outside of the actual town, but the town itself probably had about 200 houses and 11 restaurants. It was very, very small, but the people were SO friendly. It was just a lovely place. We had a rather funny incident, though, when we went swimming late in the afternoon. I don't even really know what happened, but it freaked a lot of us out. Since we all apparently have never seen the ocean, we all went in and were swimming and acting all giddy and joyous and ridiculous. The water was warm and we were out of the city and having a good time, so about 8 of us were out in the water swimming and making a human chain against the waves. Little did we realize, however, that we were getting sucked out into the open ocean, the hand of the Posiedon, or Iemanja, depending on where you come from, pulled us out to where our feed could not touch the soft, squishy sand. We decided at this point it would be better to swim in so that we would be safer. Then, out of nowhere, and I mean seriously nowhere, there were about 9 latin american lifeguards with their bouys swimming around us. They kept asking if I was ok, which I was, and they swam past me to help the rest of the group, who unbeknowst to us, was all in trouble. I was terribly confused and curious as if we were actually in danger, because while I was getting tired swimming in, I was quite alright, being raised at the beach and all. I mean, I'm basically a mermaid. I don't know why the lifeguards were so concerned. They pulled some of the group back in on bouys when they didn't really need bouys. Some even took people in on surfboards. I was so confused. Was this really a big deal? Apparently so, because as we all walked onto the sand everyone withing about 100 feet were staring at the group of young Americans. They even started clapping as we walked onto shore. I was very confused. Apparently we were in some sort of epic danger. Which was kind of cool. Yet terribly confusing. But everyone lived, we were all ok, no need to worry about us here in the dirty south.
I sort of feel like as I blog it does not truly convey the awesomeness that exists. I am trying, really I am, and I know my descriptions will not do justice to anything I experience. But I am trying. So just give me credit.
4. Cabo Polonia is basically a hippie commune. And I saw that with all seriousness. First of all, you can't just take a bus there. That would be entirely too easy. We had to take these epic trucks out over the sand dunes to get out to the beach, and we went to the tiny itty bitty hotel, where we stuffed our faces with lamb and then headed to the beach. This was the most remote, beautiful beach ever. I loved it. We walked to the hippie commune and back and it was just lovely. I know I say that for everything. But seriously. It.was.so.awesome. There were probably about 30 houses upon the hill that we walked to, and they all had hammocks and open windows and breezy curtains. I was so, so relaxed. It really made me want to buy a hammock. And just sit at it at the beach for forever. But alas, we had to return to La Paloma. I rode on top of the truck back to the bus stop at dusk, and it was absolutely beautiful. The sun was setting and it was all metallic looking everywhere, with a cool breeze blowing over the Lackey and I as we discussed life and were battered about in the truck. It was glorious. I probably wouldn't trade it for anything.
K. there. Finally. an update. Enjoy.
Paz.
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