What s rocky ride we had last night. It is very hard to walk on the ship. Apparently it was questionable if we would even stop here because of the seas and the fact we had to tender in. Getting on the tender was a bit thrilling.

On the peninsula there are only about 5000 residents in January and February when the temperatures range is 29-30C. Their summers are December to March. At other times of the year it is cold and windy …..ranging between 6-7C. It is a very secure area so much that our guide says his 16year old son might go out on a Saturday night and not come home til 3-4 in the morning and he is not worried. He says even thought it’s expensive to live here, the sense of “security is priceless”.

The peninsula is only 2 kms long

Blue church “Virgin”… 3 services per day cuz it’s the only church in town.

$2.5-3 million for house on peninsula. You can see the water in any direction.

The Rio de la Plata is 220 km wide at this point.

Graf Spee German battleship scuttled in 1939. The anchor of it is displayed along the waterfront

There are no street numbers. The address is only the “Point”, the street name and the name of house…. which every one has. Our guide says “that’s why so many postmen committed suicide”.

“Torres Imperial” is the newest condo….(3)buildings.

In some of the “good” buildings in the first 15 days of January charge you $1000/day or $15,000. Ouch!

The wind usually blows 30 kms/hr all the time but can be up to 100 kms/hr.

Trump tower has been sitting unfinished for 2 years now…… “all the workers have been sent to Mexico to build the wall”…..lol!

If you want to build a home here and you have take down trees, you are taxed to take them down. For each tree taken down, 5 must be re-planted.

Ralli museum.. no charge to enter. No art pieces can be sold till after contract to display is over. There are 5 in the world. We spent maybe 40 minutes in here taking pictures. Quite fabulous. I like some of the Dali sculptures, bronze sculptures by John Robinson and paintings by Beryl Cook.

It’s in the Hollywood area where properties are one acre in size… huge beautiful homes with beautiful gardens.

The Onassis home was left empty for 30 years but was sold 3 yrs ago with everything in it..

SAN Rafael very nice neighbourhood…$650,000. Then we passed by a condo building where each unit is worth $7million all with infinity pools…”Acqua”… just as we came back to beaches.

Apparently Kennedy bought large piece property here in Punta Del Este…. which was used for poor people.

Medical is free but there is a wait period much like Canada.

1/2 million people here, 2 million in Montevideo out of 4 million in the country.

$110/ metre a day to moor at the dock. Our guide says its second only to Miami in price.

There is a very famous sculpture called “La Mano” or the hand coming out of the sand. The sand by the way, is like powder. What a wonderful place but way out of our price range …. home of the rich and famous!

The return trip to the ship was really quite thrilling. So much so that we couldn’t seem to connect and stay connected to the landing ramp. Jeanette and several others made it of the tender. As I was standing waiting for the okay to go, one of the bumpers seemed to explode and a rope broke. We ended up leaving the ships landing ramp, circling around then making another attempt. The crew insisted that we all sit back down but before I got taken off (I had been first), one woman took a flying leap jumping. Shocked the crew! She could have fallen, crushed or any number of things. I think she was very panicked.