Mar 6 Punta del Este, Uruguay

After the rousing event in Montevideo, Punta del Este was a nice, quiet beach town to cleanse the palate.  We took a ship's excursion to see the highlights of the area.

This was a tender port so we took a short, and thankfully calm, ride into the harbor.

 This is the center of town, more or less, the church

 And across the street is the lighthouse.  Punta del Este has a large peninsula which forms one side of the harbor.

 PdE is known for its beaches, and the most famous icon of the beaches are "The Hand".  There's a hand worth of digits sticking up from the sand.  Note the obligatory sleeping dog in our picture.

 There are miles of beaches both on the River Plate side and the Atlantic Ocean side.  This is Playa Brava, for the brave souls who surf.  Not very rough today.  The scuttling of the Graf Spee took place several miles off this beach.  It was a picnic holiday for the townspeople who were hoping for a naval battle back in December 1939.

 Lots of modern architecture in the expensive and seaside neighborhoods.  The town has a winter population of about 20K and grows to 400K during the tourist season.  I don't know if the architectural feature here is a sail or a dorsal fin.

 Trump Tower under construction, held up by lack of funds.  Don Jr. visits annually to track construction, but nothing has happened since 2016.  This building generated a chorus of boos from our tour group.  Perhaps they didn't like the exclusion of a 13th floor.

 I don't know what it is, but it's pretty.

 

 The Ralli museum is a town favorite, a repository of modern art.

 Salvador Dali exhibition

 A garden of sculptures

 A violin cut apart as if by a deli meat slicer, set on thick.

 There is no doubt abundant symbolism in the woman riding a bike with a turtle on her head.

 Chagall

 Next, something more whimsical.  A novice bridge builder designed this bridge (and its companion for traffic in the other direction).  Driving over it is a roller coaster experience.

 A shopping stop downtown -- my kind of eating place, mmmm.

 Back out to the ship and a view of the beachside condos that fill with people in the season.