Day 20 - 26/Jan/24 - Punta del Este, Uruguay

 After a missed attempt to visit this port on the Grand South America cruise, we were successful in stopping here today.  It's a tender port and the ship used shoreside tenders.  There's a large group on board (200) and they got the first tenders and we were in no hurry as we were independently walking the town.  So we got up a little bit late and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with Ann & Paul from Canada who are doing something similar.

We got in the 4-5 star tender line in the atrium and we were there for about 20 minutes before we were released to board our tender.  It's about a 15-20 minute tender ride into the marina dock which is on a peninsula.  We left the dock area and walked to the right from the terminal.  The walkway is paved in black and white tiles and is in excellent condition.  It traces a path along the rugged volcanic coastline.  While it was nearly 80ºf, the water was cold and we didn't go swimming.  But that didn't stop the locals.  

After reaching the other side of the point we took a little detour up to the lighthouse and discovered  a very pretty church (Senora de la Candelaria).  While we admiring it, a fellow came up to us in a black t shirt and engaged us in conversation.  It turned out that he was a young Catholic priest who had served at this parish, but had come back for a visit.  We had a very pleasant conversation with him before trying to visit the church (a mass was in progress).  We walked across the street and photographed the beautiful lighthouse before returning to the church to tour the inside after the mass had completed.  It was very pretty and not overly ornate.

Leaving the church we retraced our steps back down to Las Ramblas and continued our walk along the shoreline to the main attraction, The Hand statute.  There we took pictures and admired the art.  We found a nearby little restaurant and enjoyed some Peruvian ceviche, dessert ice cream, 2 Coke Zeros and a small local beer (exceptional). The shocker was the price: $43.  We're in a very expensive part of Uruguay and it is often referred to as the Monaco of South America.  It's quite prosperous, clean and neat.

We continued our walk in search of a barber and passed through a sculpture park and by a monument to Winston Churchill who is admired for his leadership qualities.  I did find a barber, but he had no time to cut my hair.  In fact he was a bit gruff about it.  Oh well, I'll try again in Montevideo tomorrow.

We continued our stroll to the other side of the peninsula and along their portion of the walkway which was also very nice.  We ran into Ann & Paul but they wanted to return by a city street route and we wanted to walk along the water.  So we parted ways once again.

Back at the port we had a couple more hours until the last tender at 6:30pm, so we headed back to the other side of the peninsula that we had walked in the morning.  There we met a Belgian couple from the ship and chatted with them a bit while sitting on the sea wall.  Shortly afterwards a local fellow came by and asked us about the ship and our itinerary.  It turned out that he's a retired doctor and we enjoyed a very pleasant conversation about cruising.  I gave him one of our stickers to help him remember where we are from.  We then resumed our walk back to the dock, but stopped for churros and chocolate which was really good.  

There was a tender waiting when we arrived at the dock so we boarded it and got front facing bow seats which were pretty cool.  When we re-boarded the Oosterdam around 6pm, there were still 149 people yet to board or about 1 tender load.

We ate a quick Lido dinner, and then enjoyed the Step One Dance Company performance of Musicology.  Afterwards we listened to a couple of Adam's All Request sets in Billboard Onboard before retiring to our staterooom for the evening.  The ship is going out to sea tonight to make fresh water from the ocean water and Montevideo is very close by and could be reached in a couple of hours if needed.  

Tomorrow is Montevideo and we'll walk around some more and Angela has one thing she specifically wants to visit.  And I'm in search of the elusive barber.