Happy Halloween & Punta del Este

On Halloween, we had a pretty mellow day planned, but ended up doing and seeing a lot and having a blast. In the morning, we went to the park and spent forever twisting the kids up on the swings and sending them spinning. They thought this was super fun and they each did it a million times. After the park, when we were on our way to lunch, some super nice people that we met at church the day before pulled up and asked if we wanted to go to Punta del Este that afternoon. We didn't have anything planned, so we went.

Punta del Este is a major resort town and many people in South America travel here for vacation. It's only about 30 miles from where we're staying in Piriapolis.

Jugo and Teresa were fabulous tour guides and took us so many places it would have taken us forever to see by bus and foot. Davis and Blair enjoyed riding in the car with no car seats. (I've seen a few car seats here, but for the most part kids aren't even sitting down in cars. They're sticking half of their body out the window or just messing around and climbing on the seats.) We stopped a number of places along the way and saw a couple of neighboring towns too. Davis and Blair happily gobbled the treats Teresa had brought along for the trip. It was a little crazy letting my kids eat so much junk, but Teresa and Jugo were trying to be so nice, so we let them have at it. (In Uruguay, lots of people eat one big meal each day at lunch and then just snack the rest of the day. The snacks they eat aren't healthy either.) The kids had candy, wafers, and tons of other junk on the way to Punta del Este and while we looked around, and on the way home Teresa insisted on stopping by the panaderia for some bakery treats. Daivs and Blair have perfected their "Gracias". They loved it.

Jugo and Teresa were so nice and so much fun and they were so patient with the craziness of Daivs and Blair for almost five hours.

On the way home from Punta del Este, the kids noticed some other kids walking the streets in Halloween costumes going Trick-or-Treating. We've been telling them that people in Uruguay don't celebrate Halloween and we were just going to skip over it this year, and they were a little disappointed when they saw the other kids dressed up and we didn't bring costumes. Things have changed in the ten years since Spence has been here. They do a little for Halloween now, but nothing like home. The kids got over it pretty quickly though.

We, of course, brought Halloween shirts to celebrate a little.
Blair learned how to "pump" herself on the swing in the morning. She is still so proud.

Twisting madness

One place we pulled off on the way to Punta del Este

Our family with Jugo and Teresa and Punta del Este far off in the background

We stopped at the Plaza in Punta del Este and the kids had a blast on this Merry-Go-Round type thing

Over by the port, this giant Sea Lion was hanging out on the sidewalk

Feeding the wafers to the Pigeons

"Los Dedos" One of the landmarks in Punta del Este

The kids playing at the park in Maldonado- Maldonado is a city next to Punta del Este that we drove though on the way home.