Time for the Seaside – Punta del Este and Ilhabela

1st – 4th March, 2023

The day after Buenos Aires, we stopped at Punta del Este, which is in Uruguay though the Argentinians rather cheekily consider it as almost a suburb of BA. A lot of them and Brazilians go there for the beach. We arrived with the rain coming down so we packed raincoats and sunblock, though by the time we had landed from the tender it was starting to brighten up and in the end it was very warm indeed. We hade considered swimming, but it looked so dismal when we were setting out that we decided against it.

We had not planned anything and it was just as well as, to be honest, other than nice beaches, there is not much else to do in Punta del Este. We did go and see El Mano, a sculpture of a large hand, but that was about it for attractions. We walked around the shops for a bit and then headed back. It was certainly hot by then!!

We had 2 days at sea after Punta del Este, with warm weather and a feel of the tropics about the ship. It is interesting to note the increase in chat and laughter aboard the ship, a result of how much we have all got to know each other from our various activities. It is hard to get from one end to the other in a hurry as you are greeted by various other guests. There are so many activities to do on board, should you wish, from bridge at various levels to jigsaws, drama, the choir, the ukulele group, quoits, shuffleboard, table tennis, darts, arts and crafts, afternoon concerts, talks, cooking demonstrations by the chefs, book clubs, church groups, fitness groups, the gym, indoor curling, yoga, dance classes, quizzes, watercolour painting and bingo – to name a few. No wonder this blog is taking so long to write! And don’t forget the laundry!!

Our next port of call was the Brazilian holiday island of Ilhabela, which actually means ‘beautiful island’ in Portuguese. It is quite a large island in an archipelago not far from São Paulo. Val and I had signed up for a beach and waterfall tour and under rather lowering skies set off with 6 fellow passengers in our 4X4 heading north along the coast road of the island to our beach stop. We did manage to have a swim on what was a fairly crowded beach (it was Saturday) and then the heavens opened and we all dashed for cover.

We did then head off for the waterfall, but it was still raining a bit and we decided against going for a swim there. It was ok, though much like many other ones. We were not downhearted and our jeep sang songs about the weather to keep our spirits up.