Arrived in Punta del Este ... finally

Well, we had quite an ordeal boarding the plane from Buenos Aires. We arrived early enough. The problem was the good people of Pluna (the Uruguayian airlines) didn't have their act together with the tickets. I had 2 copies of e-ticket printouts and I showed them to the agent, but he said we had to go to the ticket purchase window. "But I already purchased our tickets," said I. "It's not in our system. Go over there," replied he. When we spoke to the gentleman at the ticket window, he checked our reservation on the computer. We had a reservation, but he said we hadn't made payment yet. "What?!" exclaimed I. ... Well, you get the point. Even though I made a reservation from their website, and gave my credit card number, and the e-ticket confirmation states the dollar and peso amount, apparently they didn't bill me for it. Go figure. Sometimes life is a little difficult to figure out, but it's multiplied ever-more-so when you're in a foreign country.

Anyway, we made the payment. Then with about 1-2 hour before our flight, we received our boarding passes. But needless to say, we didn't get our reserved seats or specially ordered meals. We rushed upstairs where we paid our airport tax, then through the metal detector (Diana got a hand search because she's pregnant and doesn't want to pass through those detectors). Finally got our passports stamped and on to the plane. But every step of the way was an ordeal!

Fortunately it was a very short flight, only 35-40 minutes. We got a remise (reliable cab service) and he took us to the hotel. It was a very scenic drive. The water looks great here. The driver took us through a very posh neighborhood which is called "The Beverly Hills".

We're staying at the La Capilla which is a couple blocks from the beach. It's in the San Rafael area and is near a residential area. We went to check out the nearby pool which now is co-located with a brand new restaurant. It has a very posh look with white couches and seats in semi-enclosed sun protected areas.

We took a nice walk and the neighborhood and found it to be very nice. I would say most of the houses were middle to upper-middle class. Some houses have a South Pacific motif with rooftops made of straw (or some type of related material) making it look like Fijian huts!

Later in the afternoon, we went across the street and laid on the beach for a couple hours. The sun was nice, but the water was cold. Probably need to get there earlier in the day to get more of the warmth. Believe me, we'll try again!

We're talking about a taking a day trip to Montevideo (Uraguay's capital). Maybe a boat trip to see the sea lions. We'll see.