They call it the Miami Beach of South America – Punta del Este, Uruguay

Money.  There must be lots of it in Punta del Este.  Yachts, beach houses, mansions, art museums, fine restaurants, and designer stores are everywhere in this city where the Rio de la Plata meets the Atlantic Ocean. 

This is a tender port, and we kind of had a scare that we might not be able to go ashore.  The seas were rough and this made the transfer to the tender boats difficult.  Things were delayed, but the boats soon started ferrying people to the marina area. 

I went to two museums and saw an interesting work of art that is popular in the city.  Here are a few of the photos of what I saw today.

A photo of some of the beach resorts in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The area is where the Rio de la Plata enters the Atlantic Ocean.

There are several islands in this area.  This one is in the harbor.  Another one nearby is home to 200,000 seals.

The beach resorts are full this weekend because of a four day weekend (Carnival).

There are lots of sailboats, boats and very large yachts in the marina.

A hand is rising up from the sand in this popular beach sculture.

This was designed by an artist from Chile and installed on the beach in 1981.

There are five Ralli Museums in the world.  This one is devoted to South American Artists.

The art is all contemporary.  They also have many sculptures from Salvador Dali on permanent display.

One of the pieces by Carlos Paez VIlaro.  His home will be the next stop on the excursion.

There's an interior courtyard with a garden of sculptures.

The boy/girl with his/her dog.

One of the Dali sculptures on display.

Another Dail sculpture inside the museum.

Another courtyard of sculptures at the Ralli Museum. 

Here's the "ribbon bridge" that we crossed two times.

The bridge goes up and down and up and down.  I know it's fun to travel over this bridge.

Next stop was the Casapueblo Museum.

This artist/builder created this unusual home (now a hotel, museum, and restaurant.  His son was one of the rugby players in the plane crash chronicled in the movie "Alive."

See the folks standing the rocky cliff?  That's where I climbed to get the next picture of Casapueblo.

I can't believe I made the trek to get this shot.

It was hard getting back up to the top to return to the bus.

Here's a view of the hotel with its strange shapes.  The inside is even weirder.

This is a copy of the print I purchased in the museum shop. 

One final shot of the grounds.  You can see other folks determined to get a good view of the Casapueblo.