It's incredible how a year ago we knew nothing about Uruguay and now we are here! This country, when compared with other South American countries, has only 3 mln people from which almost half lives in Montevideo. And what suprised us the most: the people of Uruguay. They are really genuinly kind, well educated, proud of their country and curious about others. Everywhere where we go and look lost even for a split of second someone always comes and asks if we want some help or advice. We have even met an older man who stopped just to find out something about us and recommend us places to go, wine to drink and offered help if we needed it. And they all seem to have time to talk, to explain, to laugh, to enjoy life.
Speaking about places, we were not impressed by Montevideo even though it's safe, clean and not that busy. Also Punta del Este was not our favourite, actually we really did not like it. The beauty of coast was absolutely ruined by huge apartment blocks, hotels, resorts all with fancy names (Trump Tower, Gold Tower), all different but all equally ugly. But then everything changed as soon as we saw small coast villages. Truely charming with the views of the sea, mostly wooden architecture and peace which is disturbed only in the summer for two months. Art is a great part of the Uruguayan coast, many of the houses here are pieces of art: colorful, full of imagination and smart usage of materials that we Europeans would throw away. Talking about art we couldn't skip Casapueblo. This massive white building was created without previous plans and against straight lines by Carlos Paez Vilaro, famous Uruguayan artist, taking almost 40 years of his life since 1960. Now a big part of it is a fancy hotel, mostly by its price, 200 euro for a double room because the inside of the rooms are not really impressive (investigated via booking.com:)). In the remaining part there is a museum and the house of the family, where the wife and children of the artist live even after his death in 2014. Vilaro was very passioned about the sun which he expressed not only in his paintings but also in Casapueblo where everyday at sunset a ceremony in honour of the sun takes place. It's accompanied by music and a poem written and read by the artist himself and most importantly stunning views of the house changing colors as the sun goes down.