Day 13: Piriápolis, Uruguay

I went with Paola, Tomas, & Eduardo to Piriápolis for a day. It is a beautiful seaside town with houses on the hillside overlooking the ocean. The look was reminiscent of Cannes or other Mediterranean locations, but of course not as glamorous. Piriápolis is famous for being the location of the Hotel Argentino, a massive structure built in (I think) the early 20th century. It looks like a government building more than a hotel, but it is very opulent inside and houses a casino as well. Inside they have advertisements and articles about the hotel from throughout the 20th century, it is very interesting, and really gives you a sense that for decades it must have been the grandest of destinations.
Upon our arrival, the first thing we did was get a grilled fish lunch, the kind of fish was unknown but it was light and delicious:

The hostel we stayed in was giant. It had room for something like 200 people and only 26 were staying there. Because of this, they shut down electricity on one side of the hostel and it was extremely spooky. I was definitely expecting to see a ghost or two. Even on the side with electricity, the lights only turned on when you passed a motion detector, so as you walked down the hallway each light would flicker on as you passed it. There was a sketchy looking guy with a one-gloved hand fashion skittering about in the hostel and I was a little concerned about who he was. Turned out he was the night watchman, and very talkative and helpful. He gave us a tour of the spooky side of the hostel to reveal a gym, an outdoor patio, a couple 4x4s, and an awesome motorcycle for sale. We cooked some burgers for dinner, this is a picture of bread slices being prepared for bunnage:

At night we wandered around town, which oddly enough was filled with couples in their 70's apparently staying at the Hotel Argentino. There was a live band playing in one bar filled with old ladies, and one guy who looked like he was 23 years old charming all of them with his impressive dance moves, it was kind of silly.

Pictures of Piriápolis:

Hotel Argentino: