The Day We Rode the Wavey Bridge 8 Times

Or Fingers in the Sand

Or The Eagle House

I really debated with myself about the title. But the wavey bridge was most of the students' favorite part.

On Saturday we left CasaACU bright and early to head to Punta del Este, a tourist resort an hour - 2 hours away. (I'm not sure how far it was, b/c we made a lot of stops.) We piled in the bus with Carolina (Car-o-leen-ah) as our tour guide and off we went. She let us try mate (maw-tay) the Uruguayans favorite drink. I'll write more about it later, but to me it tastes like green bean juice with a bitter after taste. Mmmmmm

Our first stop was a house on the beach that had been shaped like an eagle's head, yes, an eagle's head. It was cool looking, but not a particularly good use of space. There was an upstairs room where you could look out its eyes and its beak and a downstairs room that also had windows. They showed a lot of local art.

Our next stop was in Piriapolis, named for Francisco Piria, who built the town. There we went to an overlook of the city. On top of this hill there was a chapel to San Antonio. Supposedly you should pray to him for a boyfriend or girlfriend there. (No, I didn't pray for a boyfriend... but I did convince some of the girls to do it so I could take a picture. Yes I'm an instigator not a doer... that's why I teach.)

We also stopped at Piria's castle, which was Piria's residence, and you guessed it, it looks like a castle. They had a display there were an artist had found rocks shaped like hearts or with heart shapes in it. There were 777 of them. We were also allowed to go upstairs where they have more of Piria's furniture and such. This was significant, because apparently they don't let people go upstairs very often.

After this we stopped at a grocery store for a potty and snack break. This was mainly significant because we were surprised to hear Johnny Cash being played over the radio.

We stopped at a scenic Punta Ballena. We got to climb down some rocks and look at the river. One thing to note about Rio de la Plata... we can't see across it, so it sure feels like being at the ocean. It was really beautiful, although Matt did find a dead seal. Yuck!

Finally, 4 or so hours after leaving CasaACU, we arrived at Punta del Este. There was a weird fog hanging at the tops of the buildings. We stopped to watch fishermen clean fish and bait their hooks. It was quite fascinating. I had to drag some of the students away. One of the men offered Anne a present of a fish eye. For some reason, she declined.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant. It definitely moved at Uruguayan speed. (That means that it took awhile.) But we all eventually were fed and ready to continue our adventure.

After we finished at the restaurant, we headed to the beach. There were two significant things here. The first was the famous fingers in the sand sculpture. As you can see to the left it looks like a giant hand is reaching out of the sand. Second was that we finally saw the Atlantic Ocean. Until we rounded the Point of Punta del Este, we were on the Rio de la Plata. Kelsey got to touch the Atlantic for the first time. It was a bit cold for such things, so only Jonathan Simms joined her in that activity.


We were then ready to head back. We took several detours getting out of town, mainly to go over the wavey bridge. This was a bridge with two, as my family calls it "whoopy" hills built in. The students begged to go on it over and over, and thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see in the picture. They thought it was super fun. I called a stop to it after 8 times since after about the 6th time I was getting queasy. :)

We finally headed home, I slept most of the way. Once we got back we stopped at the Afro-Uruguayan center in the Harlem of Montevideo. The we headed back to the house where Rhonda had pizza waiting.

Now you may be thinking what a long day... but mine wasn't over yet. Some of Rhonda's friends were having a house warming party and I went with her. This was a party of English speakers, so for once I knew what was going on. It was great fun. There were two couples for South Africa, one couple from Britain, a couple from Israel, and another lady. Most were teachers, so these were my people. We finally headed home and I was wiped out. But it was a great day!