My bus arrives at two fifteen in the afternoon in Punta Del Este and one of the bus cleaners finds my hat and brings it out to me at a taxi stand which is unbelievably kind. 

A taxi driver pulls up quickly, loads me and my stuff, and whisks us all to the Hotel Playa Brava which is only a short cab ride from the bus terminal. 

Unpacked and checked in at my new home, I take a short stair climb to the observation deck on the hotel roof.

The surf is just blocks away.The sky is blue, lighter than the blue water, diffused with light, clear, endless. Water stretches to the horizon where it meets sky and the line there is like a wall meeting a floor.

The owner of the Hotel Playa Brava, Juan Carlos, told me, in English, about a tourist bus I can take to see Punta Del Este sights as well as the famous sunset at Casa Vilaro.

This city is another room in the Uruguay mansion and it is light, airy, and contemporary.

From this rooftop I can see what pirate’s saw from their crows nest, scanning the horizon for land, hoping for ships flying Spanish flags filled with gold and silver.

While I’m not likely to find gold and silver here, except dangling on tourists necks, I am pleased to be in a place for real that used to be just an internet vacation dream.

Being from the desert, water always gets my full attention.