The destination of my Easter weekend and the reason why I left one day earlier from Mendoza was a trip to Piriápolis
which is a city on the Altantic coast of Uruguay. Though I think technically it
is still on the shore of the Rio de la Plata. But you can’t really tell the
difference at that point and it’s very close to Punta del Este, where the
Atlantic coast officially starts. But we didn’t spend any time at the beach
anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.
But first things first. I went there with Pablo, his sister
Lucía, a friend named Rusty and his cousin Lore. And once we got to Piriápolis
we also met up with one of their friends, Maxi, who lives there.
Before we got to Piriápolis though we visited a place named
Atlantida, where there is a house in the shape of an eagle. That’s right. El
Aguila. It looked pretty cool and the view from above the beacon was pretty
sweet.
El Aguila - The Eagle
The view of Atlantida
Once we got to Piriápolis we left our things at the house
that we rented and went to get some food.
We decided on hamburgers. Which were really slices of toast with burger
meat and condiments. But before having a little lunch break we went to see the
castle of Francisco Píria, the founder of Piriápolis. Which to me I guess wasn’t
all that impressive, since I’m more used to castles like Neuschwanstein. Though
I really liked the trees around the castle. They were perfect for climbing in
them like a monkey. Unfortunately that was not allowed so I was really only up
in one for a minute or so. Stupid rules.
Spot the monkey! Isn't that the coolest tree for climbing?!
Busted...
Píria's Castle
After that we went on to a park at the foot of Cerro Pan de
Azúcar, where we finally had our lunch break. The plan was to go climb the
hill/mountain Pan de Azúcar which is one of Uruguays highest points. Though
coming from the alpine upland I gotta say it isn’t really all that high.
However, before our hiking adventure we all decided to take
a nap. So we got out a blanket and a matress that Rusty had had in his car and
slept for a bit. Why rush, when you can have a little siesta instead?
Nap time!
After that we went on our way. Where we passed a zoo kinda
area where you could go through little mazes with wild animals in them. Caged
of course. There was also a bat cave but unfortunately there were no bats. My
favorites were the Pumas though because one of them was all cute and then the
other went all “ignore him and focus your attention on meeee!!”
After that we started our way up to the top. And let me tell
ya, it wasn’t all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
Firstly, because it wasn’t May and secondly because we lost two of our
fellows on the way. Lore wasn’t feeling too well so Rusty took her back and the
remaining four of us went on to climb the hill/mountain thingy. I’m still not
sure what it is. My intuition tells me hill, but there was no real way leading
up to it. The main part was climbing what seemed like the course of a mountain
stream. But it wasn’t. It was the official way up to the top. Plus there was a
giant stone cross on top which kind of reminded me of the crosses they put up
on the tops of mountains. So really it was kind of a geographical hybrid.
Neither hill, nor mountain. Maybe a “moull”? …. Or a “hintain”?
Up!
And back down with a great evening view
Either way it was a lot of fun, because monkey-me likes
climbing things. Trees, rocks, moulls. Always have, always will.
Once we reached the top we had a little break and took some
pictures. And enjoyed some trumpet tunes. Wait, what? Trumpet tunes? That’s
right. Apparently a guy had brought his trumpet and stood on the edge of the
moull, trumpeting into the wide open space in front of him. I really liked the scenery
of that.
I can't get that trumpet out of my head...
So then of course we had to climb up the giant stone cross and from there the view was even incredibler. More incredible. Whatever. I was speechless and not able to compare adjectives. We could see the Atlantic, Piriápolis and all the way to Punta del Este on one side and a lot of countryside on the other. So pretty!
Having a little break after we made it to the top
View towards Punta del Este
Pablo and I
All four of us Climbers
The Cross
The Flatlands of Uruguay
And then we also had some picture taking fun up there… the location
was just so much fun! But at some point it was getting close to sundown so we
decided to go back down. Where we came upon a lady of 71 years who had climbed
the Pan de Azúcar and on her way down injured her leg. So someone had to call
the hintain-police so they could rescue her. No fun business. I hope it’s
nothing permanent and she’s okay by now.
But on we went because when there’s barely any road to
travel by, you really don’t need a lot of bystanders to stand in the way of an
accident. It had held us up for a while though so our way down was a lot of
guessing and walking/climbing in the dark. Probably not the safest way to go
down a moull but it was the only option. And don’t worry, we got down safe and
sound.
And because such an adventure makes you very hungry we went
back home took showers and got some food.
Real burgers this time. And pretty darn good ones, too. After that we
went out for some ice cream as a reward for being awesome. Well actually it
wasn’t a reward but a treat. Because it’s the best ice cream in Piriápolis and,
as a foreigner and ice-cream aficionada, I of course had to try.
Though apparently it is no secret that it is the best ice-cream
in town. Because believe it or not, there were a whopping 70 people in front of
us and when we went to draw a number the lady at the counter warned us that we
would probably have to wait about an hour for our ice-cream. We bought some
anyway and went off to pass an hour at the house. At this point I should
probably tell you the name of this incredibly popular place, but guess what.
I’m not. Because the place is already very crowded and I guess it’s not fair to
the employees. Especially when they meet annoying customers like me who don’t
know half of the flavors and therefore have to try some of them in advance.
Though I bet anyone who would want to have the best ice-cream in Piriápolis
only needs to walk along the Rambla to spot that place. Such an amount of
people in an ice-cream place really isn’t that hard to miss.
So anyhow, after an hour we went back and as mentioned above
I had to try a few flavors before making an informed decision about which
ice-cream to eat. You could probably already guess that this decision involved
Dulce de Leche flavor. And Flan. Because what is better than dessert in
ice-cream form?
So I actually thought I would split that ice-cream with
Pablo but he only had a spoon or two and then left all of the drippy goodness
to me. I did have some troubles with keeping it from dripping all over the
place but of course I didn’t mind eating a lot of ice-cream. Not that I
wouldn’t share. But apparently Pablo didn’t appreciate it as much as I did, so
fatty-me ate it all. And I enjoyed it. Every single bit of it.
That was pretty much our first day in Piriápolis and with that I am taking a break. Following up, our second
day in Piriápolis.
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