DAYS 92-95
PUNTA DEL ESTE, URUGUAY
Another two hour bus ride up the coast brought us to Punta Del Este..a.k.a The Bevery Hills of South America.

To be honest.....I don't think there is this much money in Beverly Hills and Bel Air combined! The streets might as well be lined with gold....and we might have to mine them if we stay much longer.
The broadways here are lined with palm trees, and high end shops. The women go by on scooters wearing hand woven straw hats and white Gucci crepe dresses. The restaurants all have sections for regular customers and seperate rooms for VIPs, as well as outdoor lounges with comfy sofas and candelights which are filled with pretty people until five am..... on a Monday. Even the taxis here are Mercedes....S class.
We quickly discovered that $100 per night (our high end) buys you the roach motel in Punta....but drawn in by the glitz and glamour, I turned to my old friend, Expedia.com and got a decent deal in the residential section. (Where you can not distinguish which monolith is the 50 room hotel and which as simply the neighboring private homes). WHICH COUNTY ARE WE IN AGAIN??? Who knew.....Uruguay!
Anyhow....Expedia served me well and the hotel is lovely. L'Auberge....its...5 stars (and actually deserves them), excellent sevice and a mellow atmosphere that could keep you in a lounge chair for days.
Side Note: Heather mentioned in the comments section that she had never seen me so much in sunglasses. True...I dont normally wear them. But, if there is one thing to remember in South America....its is Al Gore's cry "No O-Zone."

Back on topic......Of course...please note, we are the black sheeps of the resort. While other guests sit around the lounge discussing their "private islands", yachts, and art shopping sprees.....we have laundry hanging all over our room, because we cant afford the hotel rate for laundry service. Ooops.
The only real downside was Bryce woke up yesterday morning with a terrible cough and shortness of breath. We immediately went to the front desk to ask where we could find a pharmacy. But after hearing his syptoms.....the receptionist replied "I think Bryce should see a doctor."
"We dont want to get him out of bed and put him through hours of waiting a clinic or hospital" I told her.
With a scewed expression on her face she said "Of course not! Who would ever do that to a sick child?"
The entire American Medical System is what I thought.....but instead of saying it I quiried "Then what do we do?"
She told me she would call the local pediatrician and he would arrive at our hotel room within the hour. Who knew!
20 minutes later the doctor...and his nurse arrived. They put Bryce on vapor oxygen and gave him some medication (most likely never approved by the FDA) and he was better in 20 minutes.
I do suppose there are some major disadvantages to "the modern medical system" of the good old USA.

Anyhow...with Bryce feeling better....we decided not to waste the 85 and sunny day (of course, they all are/but none should be wasted) and we headed for Playa 12. What we had been told was the"fun beach". Fun it was! Cocktails, food that makes you feel bad to be wearing a bikini, rides, beach massages, slides, bungi jumping.....The works!
Bryce promptly found a group of fans (little Uruguan hotties) and all of us had a blast.
At the end, Bryce announced "You are the best parents ever!" I'll take it while I can get it.

Yes...that is me on the slide to the right. I am always happy to humiliate myself to keep things interesting on the blog!