Punta del Este, Uruguay

We had on the list for Montevideo a visit to the Palacio Legislativo and figured out that catching the 10.30 tour this morning was the best way of fitting it in. Check out took a while so we then resolved to find breakfast on route, which was actually trickier than we expected but stumbled into a run down restaurant that served great coffee and a croissant much to my surprise. We ended up just making the tour as we rushed into the building. There were four of us on the tour, one Estonian lady much to the amusement of our guide, who had never heard of the country, thought a smaller country population made her feel big and loved the fact that this was the first Estonian who had toured the building and they would need to setup a new country in the database to record her visit! The building was constructed in 1925 using only materials from Uruguay, 17 different types of granite and 52 types of marble. It is a very grand and ornate building, fantastic to have been allowed to move freely into both house chambers and to see the constitution in the old library. It really was a worthwhile tour, great fun. We then retraced our steps to the hotel so we could collect our bags and catch a taxi to the bus station. Our planned bus was full but they are fairly frequent to Punta del Este so by 3pm we were on our way meaning we arrived around 5pm. It was great watching the huge waves on the long beach as we came into town. Justin had managed to use hotel points to secure tonight’s accommodation at the Conrad hotel, I was very excited to be in such plush surroundings. On arrival we were upgraded to a suite on the 16th floor. Magic to be so high overlooking the ocean whilst enjoying the 2 rooms and 1.5 bathrooms! I didn’t really want to leave for dinner but managed it for sushi on the seafront, it is really blowing a gale tonight.