Fascinating to watch progress on the neighbors’ project. The roof is metal-clad plastic-foam panels with enough structural strength to stand on, as you can see. The contractor told me the roof would be done in an hour, which was pretty much true for the full-length panels. They are gently sloping toward the background. But now they have to intersect the existing roof.
So roof work grinds to a halt for a few hours as they cut away part of that. How will they proceed now? I have no idea. It’s almost as if they’re making it up as they go along.
The beach was quite filthy today, with a mix of organic stuff—shells and some kind of eggs—and the ubiquitous plastic.
For some reason (it not being tourist season), beach cleanup crews had been at work, as evidenced by the bags everywhere waiting for the tractor that will carry them away. So of all of that expanse of beach, where do you suppose my dog decides to take a shit?
You’re right if you said on top of one of those bags, and not only that, exactly where someone will reach to pick it up.
You may recall a few weeks ago when I unraveled the mystery of the amphitheater. I was puzzled that I only noticed the obvious drain when looking at it in a satellite photo.
I’m even more puzzled now, after returning to inspect it.
It’s huge! Probably five meters across and three high.
So of course I had to go through it. This is the view from the other end. I didn’t even notice the painting on the walls until I loked at the photo. Obstacles and debris had my full attention.
And here’s that pedestrian bridge and its highest. I couldn’t really determine if there was anything to prevent a person from falling off the side. There might have been some wires.
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.
My wife found it amusing when I walked into the kitchen and took a picture of the sink. But hey, here it is for your visual delight. I know, I know: you’re going to say “my kindergartner could have done that!”
