Day 8: En Punta

Bienvenidos a la playa!

 

In spite of PLUNA Airlines’ complete disregard for flight times, we landed in Punta Del Este, Uruguay in good spirits, ready to start the second leg of our December vacation.

I was so into this book, I didn’t even care that our flight was an hour behind schedule.  I also didn’t even notice Kyle take this picture with his iPad.  Now that’s a good book (Girl in Translation). 

So.  A bit about why we chose Uruguay. 

Everyone describes Punta Del Este as “the Saint-Tropez of South America” which basically means it’s an overpriced beach town that people escape to for the holidays. 

We figured we may as well go big, so we chose to stay at L’Auberge for the week.  It’s a fancy and quaint at the same time with an extremely friendly staff.

It’s basically a castle.

 

Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and overcast for most of the week, so we didn’t get to enjoy the pool or beach much.  But we made the most of it (lots of room service). ;) 

 

After we checked in, we hit up the restaurant for lunch.

 

It was outside under a huge canopy overlooking the grassy ground. 

 

There was a brick oven, which produced the most insanely wonderful bread.  I’m really not sure what the deal is with the bucket of Smirnoff Ice, but they were there the entire week, so someone’s a fan.

Would you believe me if I told you it took me a few minutes to figure this tea situation out? 

I’m a tea fiend and I was still quite puzzled when it arrived…all nine pieces of it…with no explanation. 

Interesting.

 

Don’t worry, I sorted it out. 

 

And voila!  Tea for me. 🙂

We split a few things, starting with a salad.  It had herbed goat cheese that avoided, but was otherwise a pretty basic bowl of greens. 

    

We also shared a plate of roasted potatoes, tomato rice, and salmon.  It was all okay.  Nothing worth ooohing and aaaahing over. 

Hi Kyle!

 

The bread was actually my favorite part (no surprise there).  We had them refill the basket so many times I think they started to think we were crazy.  It was so hot and the top was black and crusty.  I remember it like it was yesterday (wow, December was a really long time ago).

 

They brought us brownies and strawberries for dessert, but by that time I had already stuffed myself silly with bread.

 

I tried to hide my embarrassment behind a napkin.

After lunch it was time to explore the castle!