On the lot next to our neighbors, meticulously leveled with a backhoe which built an access ramp over the roadside ditch and then removed it when it left, construction starts. The entire side facing the road is a stockade fence of poles (there might be a more expensive way to make a fence, but I can’t think of one). No opening whatsoever. The far side is obviously being fenced in a way that precludes vehicles as well. The workers have been going into the neighbors’ yard to plug in an extension cord for their power tools, so there’s obviously a connection — but what exactly is in the works here?
A friend’s inherited Rube Goldberg plumbing setup for in-floor heating. Just screams of careful, well thought-out planning and exquisite craftsmanship! (Yes, two supplemental electric pumps.)
Piedra Lisa, once a night club. Incredible noise all night in the summer. After hours of ear-splitting sound, people would walk drunkenly through the streets at 6 AM, singing loudly and badly or simply shouting conversations because they could barely hear. Trash containers overturned, plastic cups everywhere, people passed out in the dunes.
It then became a cooperative restaurant that did not last long.
It’s a shame the local government should simply let it go to waste (though someone did remove glass).
This is the lovely and scenic Solís Chico in Parque del Plata. My snapshots don’t do it justice. There are plenty of birds, and boats when it’s a little warmer. We were there recently for the 87th birthday of a friend with Alzheimer’s in a care home opposite. What a great location!
As we left, though, I couldn’t help but notice the distinctly different feel of the courtyard behind.
There a very few buildings here between the beach front road (Rambla) and the water, which, as we saw yesterday, is hard to call a river but the locals do anyway. From the left, there’s the Atlántida Yacht Club (you will see no pictures of yachts, for a reason), a couple of small buildings which may or may not be occupied, the fish place, another house, then Indigo restaurant, a thoroughly inconsistent and generally mediocre “resto-bar” that is nonetheless popular. On hot days, its shaded back deck overlooking the water is quite lovely. Further to the right in the overhead view is Pîedra Lisa (flat rock). I’ll get back to that.
First, zoom out more.
The Yacht Club and Indigo are circled on the left. Far to the right is a building nestled in the dunes. I don’t know what it was, since it’s been abandoned since we arrived in 2009. You can take a tour of it here.
From there on east, until the Rambla ends, no other beach-side structures exist that I’m aware of.
Let’s go back to Piedra Lisa.
When we first arrived, for several summers it was a bane: a disco/nightclub, whose drunken and deafened clients awakened us in the wee summer hours as they staggered past our house, shouting and singing loudly. They also left a trail of plastic cups, and tipped over trash containers or set them on fire. On early morning beach walks, it was not unusual to find some of them passed out in the dunes.
Well, the lease ran out and the noise factory moved across the Ruta Interbalnearia to the Atlántida Country Club (the “Country;” don’t get your hopes up), where it has since tormented a new collection of neighborhoods. Piedra Lisa became a cooperative restaurant-pizzeria for a while, and I understood it was leased from the local government. We ate there once: ordered the “Breakfast Pizza” out of curiosity. It was quite good, with fried eggs and bacon, but also ironic because bacon and eggs is not something Uruguayans eat for breakfast.
Recently I noticed it’s become a target of graffiti. But first, this from Google Maps.
Notice anything unusual? As in, “Open 24 hours?”
Well, it literally is, now.
That’s the outside area where we had our Breakfast Pizza.
The walls facing the beach have become a street art gallery over the years.
But the brazen graffiti visible from the road suggests that it’s over for this building. A shame. Perhaps.
A few days ago, returning from the dog walk, I spotted the base for a cell tower installed a couple hundred meters from my friends’ house. I took a picture to make a before-and-after.
Alas, I didn’t have the correct angle. But from one day to next, they’re now staring at this thing from their patio (much clearer than here, with the tree blocking it. They’re perhaps the only people I know who don’t own a cell phone, a thought no doubt horrifying to many.
As is my reply to people who ask why I didn’t answer their call. Because my cell phone was turned off. And the VOIP land line is frequently unplugged.
