Two weeks back after my trip to South America, I can now start to sort things out as to what was a highlight, what wasn’t too cool and where I would like to return if given the opportunity to do so. Buenos Aires, Argentina was very nice and I could see myself making a return visit there in the future. However, Uruguay featured two places that were very beautiful – Montevideo and Punta del Este. If I had to choose one it would be Punta del Este because it was more of seasonal, beach towny kind of place while Montevideo was bigger and more populated.
Punta del Este has a population of approximately 9,000 people but during their summer months swells up to several hundred thousands. Fortunately, we were there just before the vacation season starts so it wasn’t as crowded and hectic as it gets during their “season.”
In addition to being a resort town with beautiful beaches, Punta del Este also has a very vibrant art scene going on. While we were there, we visited two excellent museums – the Ralli and the Pablo Athcugarry Museum/Sculture Park.
When we visited Atchugarry’s museum, the artist himself was there working on a sculpture. However I did not know this until after he had stopped working. I joked with our tour guide that the park was a very peaceful place except for that guy making all that noise cutting up marble. She laughed and informed me that that was Atchugarry himself at work before he took a break. I found this video showing him doing his thing.