2026 Jan 9-14: Punte del Este

We’re trying something unusual: an old bus, parked and plumbed and converted into a studio apartment. Well a stationary camper with plumbing. It’s in Punte del Este, a beach resort town on the south Atlantic coast of Uruguay, at the mouth of the river Platt, that divides Uruguay and Argentina.

Here’s the bus (what3words ///terminal.chanted.vocab):

The hosts are a very nice German family who work helping people relocate here. We’re in their back yard:

Punte del Este, it turns out, is so popular among the Uruguayans, Argentinians and Brazilians that it has blossomed into a little Miami - coastline lined with skyscraper apartment buildings. It’s a small peninsula, with beaches stretching out both ways. Beaches on the east side are rougher, with surfing with & without wind, and on the west side calmer, with swimming SUPing & the like:

We are renting bikes from our hosts; most everything is a mile or more away:

There are at least two amazingly massive and well stocked grocery etc stores:

11th: there’s a yacht harbor, and on this day the Pink Shadow, a 200 ft private icebreaker, was in port:

Fresh fish available in small stands at the harbor:

14th - found a nice tea spot walking distance from home - The Tea House. English afrernoon tea - scones, finger sandwiches, cakes: