Historical/Background Info:
I believe Uruguay to be the safest and most stable
country, politically, in all of South America. Uruguay has a total population
of only 3.5 millions people and 1.5 million of them live in the capital city,
Montevideo. There are 12 million head of cattle and 9 million sheep in
Uruguay. It is a flat country with rich farm land and two extremely HUGE
aquifers. The Guanani Aquifer lies beneath all of Uruguay and parts of
Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. This underground water could supply the
world with fresh water for 200 years!! Uruguay also raises and exports a
lot of soybeans, wheat, and some rice. Punta del Este lies on the
southeastern coast of Uruguay just 87 miles from Montevideo, the capital of
Uruguay. It has become a resort town due to its beautiful beaches and
moderate climate and is known as “The St Tropaz of South American“. The
19 sq mile municipality of Punta del Este has a population of 15,000 but this
number increases to over 150,000 during the summer months when Argentines,
Brazilians, and Europeans come here to enjoy the beaches. Many of them
now have permanent residences here. There is a contrast of old colonial
buildings with new developments of very expensive homes and condos for the rich
and famous. The downtown street along the beaches is lined with numerous
restaurants and night clubs. There is also a very nice casino. I
guess what I am trying to say is, Punta del Este is not your typical South
American city. It would be my first choice of places to live if I ever
wanted to move out of the United States.
We were here in 2012 & 2016.
LAST EVENING
This is Nemish, who was our bartender on our fall of last year cruise. He was great making my Manhattans.
Armi Jane was also on our last cruise.
Adi, was bar waiter also on our last cruise. Lots of crew we remember..
Georgina, the Food & Beverage Director, we have know for many years. She has been promoted up the ranks. She has invited us to dine with her tomorrow night.
This is Peter, maitre d in Prime 7. I was impressed immediately with him as he told a guest in front of us to go change clothes. The stupid man was wearing shorts. Obviously a Carnival cruise person!
Kim was our waiter in Prime & tonight. We have cruised with him also.
Very nice table so I could watch the sun set.
I had the onion soup to start with and Rebecca had a salad but did not like the dressing.
We both had a 6 ounce filet with was perfectly cooked medium rare. I had the filets brought to our table so I could coat them with Lawry's lemon pepper. Funny as Kim said the chef remembered us doing this. We are famous!
I enjoyed this red wine with my dinner. We started with the Rombauer chardonnay.
I had to have a popcorn Sundae for dessert. Too much popcorn however and not enough ice cream.
We finished dinner and went back to the suite to wait as show did not start for another 45 minutes. The welcome aboard show was great. Some very good singers and dancers. This cast was good on our cruise last Aug/Sept but are even better now. Looking forward to their seeing their 4 production shows during this cruise. Hit the hay at 10:45.
TODAY
I was up and in the shower at 6:45 this morning after a good night's sleep. Regent's bed are very comfy! I then ran down to the Coffee Connection to get us some Americano coffees, as I do every day.
Room service was scheduled for 7:30 and showed up at 7:45
Cheddar cheese omelets. Too much food! Not hot. .
As I mentioned I have a tour that is to meet at 8:30 up in the culinary arts kitchen (where cooking classes are held). My tour is titled "Chef Led Winery & Meat Lovers Extravag". Most tours are free but this one costs me $159. It is basically not costing me, as another Diamond bene is one free "pay extra" cruise per segment. Sunny skies and 70 degrees this morning as we anchored.
My tour met at 8:30 in the culinary kitchen with Chef Hugo.
There were just 16 of us on the tour which was very nice group. Only problem is there was an hour delay waiting to get on the tenders.
Our tour was the first one to board the first tender. This is where the tender dropped us off on the pier.
There were a LOT of pleasure boats tied up in this harbor area.
We had a very nice big bus for the 16 of us on the tour.
Our tour guide was Alba. She was excellent. We started with a driving tour of Punta del Este. This is the lighthouse built in 1860 and is 150 feet high.
Parrish Church
We drove by many beach areas. This is a very big tourist destination during the summer months. We are here how at the end of their summer.
This is a famous sculptor called "fingers". Fingers coming our of the sand on the beach.
Next we drove out of the city for this photo stop near a sculptor museum, hotel, and restaurant.
Our parking area was a ways for the above and I did not want to walk there as the stop was only for 15 minutes.
View in other direction is of the La Plata river between Argentina and Uruguay. Alba said whales come up to river and have their babies.
Another beach
Hugo, the culinary chef with Alba, our tour guide.
Our nice bus.
Next we had a panoramic drive out in the countryside to a vineyard.
There is a mud bird nest on this post.
We arrived here at noon for our vineyard tour and lunch.
We walked down to this restaurant where we were to have our lunch. It is just for tours and people with special occasions,
Before lunch we were led into the vineyard by the wine maker where she talked about the vineyard and growing grapes. It takes 3 to 5 years after planting before they produce grapes. Harvest is going on now, the end of summer. They harvest by hand and only during night time. This is so the grapes will not start to ferment before they are hauled to the winery for processing. The winery is near the port.
There are only 20 people doing the harvesting by hand. Birds are a problem so there are nets to protect the vines.
Here you can see (if you click on the photo to enlarge) a tree in the middle of this vineyard. It is a protected by the country so they have to plant around them.
These are some of the wines we will be served at lunch. We were served 3 whites and 3 reds.
The "asada", meats, were cooked here. They started cooking at 9:30 over low heat with a special wood.
Had to have a photo of grapes on the vine.
This is the winemaker explaining the vineyard.
I left her tour early as I did not want too much sun. Back to see the meats.
Small kitchen as food is cooked outside.
After we were all seated, they showed us what we would be having for lunch
Some breads with sauces.
Wines were not bad.
To start some slaw, a chorizo (sausage and very good), and pork belly.
Sorry, this was not good. The two meats were so tough I could not cut them with my steak knife. The baked sweet potato was very good. The baked potatoes were so-so. I was ok with all that as I did not want to eat much at lunch. I did only had a few bites.
Dessert was very good. dolce leche. Very sweet traditional Uruguay dessert.
We departed the vineyard at 2:35 for our drive back to the tender port. We passed their airport on the way.
More beaches with the MSC and our ship in the distance.
We arrived back at the tender at 3:30 and was back onboard at 3:45. I took this photo of the Punta del Este skyline from our balcony. I then got busy working on this post as I wanted to get it published prior to dinner.
It is now 5:30 and I need to take a shower. Planning on cocktail time at 6pm. We will be meeting the Food & Beverage Director, Georgiana, for dinner in Compass Rose at 7pm.
Here is tonight's menu.
After dinner at 9pm there is the Captain's Welcome Reception in the theater. He will be introducing on stage the ship's senior officers. This will be followed at 9:30 by the show. The guest entertainer tonight is featuring Emilio Valle, a guitarist.
OK, I made it. Hope there are not too many grammatical errors as I had no time to proof read. Tomorrow we will be in Rio Grande, Brazil.
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