As the advertisement for Punta Del Este goes: "Reconocida internacional y mundialmente como el más importante y exclusivo balneario de Sudamérica, además de ser una las ciudades más famosas del mundo por ser uno de los puntos de encuentro del jet set internacional". Which basicallly means that Punta Del Este is a place for beautiful people with more money than sense to come and hang out, and is apparently the most exclusive and famous resort in all of South America for jet set internationals such as myself! Not my usual choice of a hangout I have to admit, but I was feeling the need for some beach time ahead of my trip to Antarctica and it's always good to throw in a bit of world class people-watching, something I was confident that Punta Del Este could provide abundantly.

There are two beaches here that are the most famous: Playa Brava, which has a big sculpture of a hand along with powdery white sand; and Playa Bikini, which is where all the 'beautiful people' go to parade around. I spent my first day relaxing with a book on Brava Beach whilst soaking up the sun and taking an occasional dip in the fairly cold sea. Then I chose to spend my second day on Bikini Beach, and no matter how hard I tried I could not concentrate on my book at all as there was far too much entertainment from the perfect-bodied posers. Although the entertainment value of Bikini Beach will win every time, it has much grittier less pleasant sand, and many more flies than Brava Beach. That said, these were the slowest, laziest and stupidest flies I have ever seen. One guy had taken a fly swatter with him to the beach, but there was really no need for this as every single fly that I went for with my bare hands did not escape alive. Some of them were so slow/blind that you could just pick them up between your fingers and move them off your body! I really enjoyed being back on the beach, and although they were both very nice, I have to say that they cannot compare to the beaches of North East Brazil which are far superior and a hell of a lot cheaper. Yet despite this, there are absolutely loads of Brazilians holidaying down here.

Punta Del Este is also known for its nightlife, and like Argentina things do not get going here until the early hours of the morning. The hostel I was staying in had organised and asado (BBQ) which I had heard could rival an Argentinean asado, and that Uruguayan steak is even more amazing than Argentinean steak. I did not believe that this could be true, but I have to admit this was the best meat ever to pass these lips. I hardly spoke a word to anyone as I was so preoccupied with the food; it was the steak that dreams are made of! Once the food was finished I moved onto the wine and the vodka and ice cream in preparation for the long night ahead of me, this soon put a stop to the mute act I had been pulling over dinner.

The eight young, glamorous Brazilian girls with whom I was sharing a room were heading out that night to a 'White Party', ie dress in white and you get in free. So together with two Brazilian guys, an Isreali guy and an American guy we headed there around 3am. However, there was only one problem – I had nothing white to wear... if only I had packed my white catsuit! As I am travelling with just one small bag of stuff whilst the rest of it has been left for safe-keeping in Buenos Aires, I did not have much choice in clothes at all, and absolutely zero white. The Brazilian girls were all out of white clothes once they had managed to share them out amongst their group, but luckily the American guy (who was the size of a house) had for some reason brough a tuxedo shirt with him, which did very nicely as a dress when accompanied by a belt – perfect. I managed to scub up ok with the use of hair straightners for the first time in god knows how long and a bit of extra makeup kindly donated by the Brazilian godesses I was going out with.

As my camera memory card was full, I swapped it for a new one ready to take lots of snaps from this inevitably eventful night. However, unfortunately a few days later when I got to Montevideo some rascals stole my camera and all my picture from this point forward :@ ... more on that in the relevant blog so stay tuned!

A good night was had by all and I think I managed to pass myself off as a 21 year old Brazilian girl fairly well to the untrained ear/eye. Many of the local guys who spoke to me were apologising for not being able to speak Portuguese... if only they knew mine was worse than the bad Spanish we ended up talking in! In the end we did not go to the white party as it was not very busy and things were much more lively down at the port, so I could have gone out dressed normally afterall. As much fun as it was to masquerade with the glamorous folk in a fancy town, after a couple of days I was longing for some reality and felt it was probably best that I moved to a more subdued and relaxed destination.