Punta Del Este, Uruguay

I took the Puenta Del Este and Casa Pueblo tour while Bruce took a scenic bike ride.

Our guide was “William” and he provided information on the bus between stops. At the various stops we were on our own.

There are 19 states in Uruguay.

Punta Del Este means east point.

Foreigners get the best apartments
Trump Tower is here
Cipriano is building a hotel
Venetian hotel in Las Vegas built condos

The average price of home is $250-300k. Brand new homes start at 300k, but can go up to 2 million. Rents are 2-5k for 15 days, winter is much less.

There is a ton of new construction and the area resembles South Beach in Miami.

It’s a very safe area and as such there is no crime and and no fences.

One of the most interesting facts is that homes have names NOT numbers to identity them. Makes pizza delivery a challenge!

They have a neighborhood called Beverly Hills (beautiful mansions - one is owned by Antonio Bandares).

We made 4 stops. The first was a brief stop at the bridge which has an unusual design with two humps on each of the one-way bridges which were built 50 years apart.

We then went to the Ralli Museum which had some amazing artwork and spent 45 minutes exploring.

You can see more at their website:
http://www.museoralli.com.uy/web/ing/index.html

Then onto Casa Pueblo - wowza, a unique and gorgeous home, museum and hotel. After another 45 minutes here we did a little city highlights tour and ended up at the beach for another 45 minutes.

Every afternoon since 1994 the "Sun Ceremony" has been held on the museum's terraces. Minutes before sunset, the artist's voice from a recording, dedicates a poem to the sun to bid farewell to it.

I took almost 300 photos but tried to select my favorite 20 to share.Lue lisää