Viña del Mar, Chile

I took a quick commuter train from Valparaiso to Vina del Mar:

Vina del Mar, sister city to Valparaiso, is its complete opposite. Clean, orderly, corporate, tourist friendly, this place is a beach resort. I happened to be there during Semana Santa, which is a week-long Easter celebration in Latin America. Somehow I was able to find a cheap and nice place to stay. The beach is very nice, and you don't feel the tourist vibe so much there. For some reason, the majority of bars seem to be devoted to karaoke. 

Punta del Este, Uruguay

Punta del Este has the reputation for being a Cancun-type location, but with the summer season over it is actually a laid-back, very nice city, although comparatively expensive. The main part of the city is on a narrow peninsula surrounded by ocean, so pretty much anywhere you go you are at the beach, which is very nice. I used Punta del Este twice as a stopping point between other destinations. One of my rooms almost had an ocean view. Well, it did have an ocean view. It was a real hotel room which I considered to be somewhat of a luxury, and for $50 I thought it was a good deal. The hotel's elevator, like many other elevators I have used during this trip, had an old fashioned metal gate which you have to open and close yourself before the elevator will move. Feels a little rickety, but its kind of fun to do it for yourself instead of having one of those elevator operators there.

The night before returning to Buenos Aires, I happened to run into Rocio, Naty, & Gaby, and we would travel back to Argentina together.

Hotel view:

The infamous "Fingers":

More photos from Punta del Este:

I've never seen so many people sunbathing facing away from the ocean:

Santa Teresa National Park

I took a side trip to Santa Teresa National Park, there is a fort there which was begun by the Portuguese but captured and finished by the Spanish. There are some amazing beaches here.

This is Jorek from Belgium:

This is me with a gaggle of girls:

(Awaiting some more cool photos which I will add later.)

Happily trapped in Punta del Diablo

From Montevideo I headed to Punta del Diablo, a fishing city with a very small, low key beachside center area (not pictured.) I stayed in Hostel de la Viuda, a couple of blocks (read: dirt roads) from the center, with the plan of taking it easy for a few days. A very nice place to stay, although I don't think the staff smiled once; they brought the good vibe down a little. I did relax a little, but what ended up happening was far more fun. The place was filled with vacationing Argentinians, Chileans, Brazilians, and Spanish-speaking Germans. We talked, cooked, partied, and just had a great time. When cooking, it was interesting to see the different regionalisms and cooking styles they had. One time we made an anchovy sauce pasta which was quite good, and different from food I am used to. I played chess against a guy who five years ago was ranked #14 in all of Chile, of course I was easily defeated. There was one night in particular when everyone was in a good mood and went down to the beach together, there was little bit of phosphorescence, these little microscopic creatures in the sand that glow neon green when you touch them. We had with us candles in 2-liter soda bottle lanterns, and carried on for hours. They all wanted to play a drinking game, and had a hard time coming up with one, so I suggested one which was a big hit. The rest of the stay there people kept on talking about the game and how much fun it was. I had a poignant moment of diplomacy when I was told by Argentinians that when their friends are saying bad things about Americans they would use me as an example of one they met who was genuinely a good person and that Americans can be good people too (I'm kind of used to hearing this kind of talk, but this time they were especially enthusiastic about it.) This next picture is me in front of the hostel with a Chile-Argentino group who I would visit Piriapolis with:

These are some pictures of the hostel and area:

That structure to the left there houses a pool table:

This happy fellow joined me for a walk to the beach. Instead of being an annoyance like most stray dogs, I  was actually glad to have this one around.

Unfortunately, there was very little bus service to and from Punta del Diablo. Buses would pass through at 5am, 4:30pm, or 6pm, not very convenient times for me to make a trip. I prefer to travel around the noon time. I kept on making plans to leave, and then kept on getting sidetracked for various reasons and ended up staying. One more night.. One more night.. I was glad to have been there though. Next I would make a quick stop in Punta del Este and stay in Piriapolis for a night.