Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

The morning of our third full day at the resort: eat breakfast, do some schoolwork that got dropped earlier in the week, gear up for outing. The good news is that we have a rental car and, now that the episode is over, I will admit that we put four kids in the back of a compact (maybe midsize) tin can sedan and drove around Punta del Este with incomplete seat belts. The roundabouts made this especially maddening for the kids. With enough internet searching, I found a restaurant that had promise but without being so refined that it would be stressful to dine with kids. L'marangatu is on the beach (the calm, estuary side, if you're reading every post in order), has beachside seating under thatch umbrellas, has excellent service and outstanding food. And, for some lucky reason, our kids decided that this would be the moment to eat with courage and gusto. In several senses, it was the best meal of the trip so far. First, we ordered a bunch of appetizers. We had "fish ...

Except for dinner, which was an epic failure, we had an awesome day. Basically the morning at the pool and a good chunk of the afternoon at the beach. I want to explain that Punta del Este is considered to be the dividing line between the estuary (River Plate) and the ocean. To the west, on the estuary side, the water at the beach is calm. To the east, where we stayed, the surf pounds the sand. In both places the beaches are wide, gently sloping and very soft. It's an endless sandbox. Cate and her private pool(s) Serenity (noun, a fleeting state when your kids forget it's their job to torment you) Cannonball Cate I could get used to this Diggin' Goodbye, Atlantic! Lily and Henry mostly enjoy having each other

We had originally booked a week in the Terrible Apartment. Even before we got there, on the advice of friends we met in Buenos Aires, we decided to divide our time and spent half the week in the resort town of Punta del Este. To hear the Portenos describe it, Montevideo is as appealing as Portland is to somebody from Seattle. Why bother going to the smaller, lesser version? I defy the premise but whole heartedly concur with the conclusion (in this instance). As usual, it wasn't easy to find somewhere to stay. The travel world is not designed for families of six. Also, we didn't know anything about the town, its resorts and the activities. It's off season and we're not interested in going clubbing late at night. Luckily for us, we found a resort that turned out to be a bit on the outskirts and it had "bungalows" with beds for six. Perfect! Thus, when Wednesday rolled around, it was time to transfer from Montevideo to the beach. I want to say that I could ha...

Let's begin with the end: here's a picture of Montevideo's famous letterhead, set against sunset. This is across the street from our hotel. Okay, we're starting to get our feet on the ground here. We eat breakfast in the hotel. Henry is keen on earning "protein points." We do school. The goal right now is to reach certain milestones so that we can ditch some big books before the flight to Australia (in about two weeks). We get taxis and head to the Old City of Montevideo to do some sightseeing. Stop one is Plaza Indepencia. I learned from a podcast that Uruguay was invaded during the colonial era by just about every power, sometimes more than once. I learned that Colonia and Montevideo, about two hours apart by bus, are competing attractions because they were the intended capitals according to separate invading/colonizing powers. The plaza celebrates General Artigas; his mausoleum is directly beneath his memorial statue. The plaza is surroun...