"Punta del Este is an upscale resort on the southern tip of Uruguay. Although the town has a year-round population of about 7,300, the summer tourist boom often boosts the population by an extra 500,000", claimes Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Summertime is between December and March, so at our arrival on May 8, the shutters were drawn all over a seemingly deserted ghost town.
We came here from Buenos Aires on an overnighter for the 181 nautical miles. On my watch during the night, we passed the flashing light marking the scuttled remains of the "Graf Spee", the sister ship of the pocket battleship "Bismark", but there was nothing left to view and I had woken Benno for nothing.
However empty the streets were, the contrary could be said for the assigned moorning area of the harbor. It was packed with boats. There was no anchoring permitted and ALL mooring balls were taken. Defeted, we picked a mooring not protected by the breakwater, exposed to the ocean and swell. Check-in procedures on a Friday afternoon were swift with the officials glancing at their watches and their bags ready to grab on their way out for the weekend. But everybody was friendly and courteous.