We could see the numerous wide sandy beaches even as our ship slowly approached the shore. We stopped a distance from land to drop anchor since we were tendering to the pier. The ocean water was more turquoise than we have seen lately and looked fairly clear. The oceanfront was filled with huge, glitzy hotels and upscale shops, although the pier itself was lined with tiny restaurants and shops selling and/or renting beach gear. We hadn't signed up for a tour today so we set out to explore the community on our own. It was quite warm but not hot - probably about 84-87 degrees. We walked down the major shopping street and purchased our magnet for the port. We really didn't find anything else that we wanted to add to our travel collection so we kept walking to see the "hand monument (La Mano)."
We arrived at the beach where we saw the enormous sculpture of five human fingers partially emerging from the sand. It's quite a unique site and a little bit creepy. It was created in 1982 by a Chilean artist and has become one of the most recognizable landmarks in Uruguay. Tourists flock to this beach to see this unusual sculpture. Evidently, the artist was inspired to create the hand due to the roughness of the water at this particular beach. It's more suitable for wind surfing or sailing than swimming. His sculpture depicts a drowning victim and meant as a warning for people who would potentially swim at this location - again, a bit creepy! We took pictures and decided to start walking back along the beach to the ship.
I was getting warm and a bit tired so Bob dropped me off at the pier to return to the ship while he walked to the nearby lighthouse and other sites to snap some additional pictures. I was glad to return to our lovely, air-conditioned ship and ice cold water. I want to make sure I have plenty of energy for our next stop - Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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