Bikini Beach - Aptly Named

We slept in until a few minutes before 10am, and then raced downstairs to try out the Hotel Ajax complimentary breakfast buffet.  We were pretty excited, but we soon understood why it's free.  Quite a bit of food - eggs, fruit, cereal, meat, cheese, pastries, juices - but it was all mediocre. 

After breakfast, we decided to take the bus to La Barra - a neighboring town that was famous for it's Bikini Beach, jammed bars, and exclusive nightclubs.  (Last year I tried to get into a club but despite my position in line, the bouncer just looked right past me, hand picking people to enter the club.)

We took the bus to Bikini Beach, arriving about 3pm.  But the beach was pretty empty.  Was the peak summer season over already?  (Didn't think so.

)  Did the "happening" location move from Bikini Beach, and if so, where to?  (No way to know.)  Were people just late-comers to the beach?  (Yes, as it turned out.)  We sat down at the Bikini Beach bar for a Corona and the worst (and smallest) tuna fish sandwich in the world.  After an hour, still no crowd yet, so we decided to hit the town for a while, and then return to the beach later.

So we took a quick bus ride back to La Barra center and walked through the one-street town, stopping to have "the best chivito in town", and then a coffee to wash it down.  Then we walked all the way back to Bikini Beach on the beach.  When we returned to Bikini Beach, it was a bit more crowded - with music playing, and yes, another fashion show.

We meandered up to a local market to pick up some beers, water, and ice and went back down to the beach to hang out for a few hours on the sand, shall we say, people watching.  :-)

By about 8pm, the sun was setting and we decided it was time to bus back to Punta del Este.

Back at the hotel, we cleaned up and did some "work" for a while.  That meant Adam did work in the hotel lobby taking advantage of the wi fi.  And I went to a nearby internet cafe to do some blogging, emailing checking, and facebook. 

We met again down at Mia Sushi at 11:30pm for a sushi snack and a cocktail.  No Rocio (or Felipe).  But I did recognize one of the waitresses there from last year's trip here.  This waitress was cute, but STILL grumpy - which is how I remembered her from last year.

  There was another waitress there who looked awfully familiar, but I couldn't place her.  When I asked Ms. Grumpy if she ever talked to Rocio, she replied saying "No, but that other waitress is Rocio's sister".  Ahhh, no wonder that second waitress looked familiar!  I asked the sister where Rocio was, and she replied that Rocio was working at a casino up the highway.  Damn, I debated about going to see Rocio that night; but decided against it.  I had sent her a few emails with no reply.  Maybe she didn't want to see me.  So I just told the sister to tell Rocio I said hello.  And then Adam and I left.

Where to?

Moby Dick, of course.  But I first took Adam on a quick walking tour of some other locales around Moby Dick - or at least we tried.

  One of the bars I frequented last year had since closed (Pony Pisador).  And I couldn't find another one that I remembered (Can't remember the name).  So Moby Dick it was.

At Moby Dick, we hung out for a bit, trying to look cool.  :)  By 3am, we bumped into two pleasant young ladies Belen and Cecilia. They were here on vacation from northern Argentina, and spoke English. So we chatted with them a bit. They were also nice enough to give us a ride home at 4am when we all kind of hit the wall. 

That's it for Punta del Este.  We leave on a bus tomorrow morning back to Buenos Aires.  It was too quick a visit to Punta del Este for me.  I would have liked to spend more time - I have so many fond memories from last year.  However, this year (and definitely next time I come here) I would have liked to stay in La Barra for a change, and not "downtown" Punta.  La Barra has a much mellower, younger, lower key vibe.  Cool beaches and bars.  And cool clubs, or so I hear.