January 20, 2023
Punta Del Este is the southernmost point of Uruguay. In this beautiful town of 20,000 things get so quiet in the low season of tourism that they turn off the traffic lights. When the tourist season is in full swing, however, the population increase more than ten-fold and those traffic lights come in handy!
The Leonel Viera Bridge has become an icon of Punta Del Este. Its architect had no architectural or engineering experience when he designed it. We were told kids try to fly their cars from one hill to the next when no one is looking. Can you imagine any teenage thinking of that? (My brothers would). Amazingly, the construction sequence used to build the bridge has since become typical for bridges of this type.
Our final stop of the day was Casapueblo. Casapueblo began in 1958 as a small wooden box built from planks its creator, artist Paez Vilaro, found along the nearby coast. Originally intended to be used as a summer art studio, it eventually became his full-time home. Over time he began to cover the wood with cement, molding it with his hands like a huge sculpture. Vilaro added turrets, corridors, tunnels and terraces as the mood struck him, in the form of a maze with zero right angles, never developing any formal plans for the structure. As the years went by, Casapueblo continued to grow, always in tune with the landscape around it. It took 36 years to complete the 13 floors and multiple terraces that offer amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and its beautiful sunsets. Today, it serves as both a hotel and a museum that pays tribute to the artist that created it.
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