Happy Harbor Days

"Ah, sweet Content, where doth thine harbour hold." 

Barnabe Barnes

Punta del Este Harbor is an eclectic mix of fantastic motor yachts and wooden fishing boats.   The casinos and fancy hotels give rise to a jetset style international vibe when the season is in full swing.  Luckily for me the pressure was off as it was well past season and the only people wandering the waterfront were families and fishermen.  The harbor was given its name Our Lady of Candelaria by Juan Diaz de Solis who was a Spanish sailor cruising around in 1512.  

Personally I didn't really resemble this Patron saint with baby in one hand and candle in the other.  I had abandoned my homeschool victims back at the house with Kit and had persuaded Greg and Steve to swop out the candle for a nice bottle of wine.  Of course we had to try the local drink Clerico.  Its kind of a South American Sangria with Sauvignon Blanc, mixed up with banana, apple, orange, strawberry, grapes and sugar.  

"Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it." Anonymous

A couple of glasses later and I was scooping out the fruit, sucking back, enjoying the Rivera feel to my sophisticated luncheon with the boys.

"A wise woman will always let her husband have her way."

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Of course Greg wanted a nice shady spot at the back of the wrap around balcony.  That wasn't gonna cut it for homeschool harpie mama.  This was my first time cutting loose all week and I needed to be upfront and people watching.  I think an absolutely fabulous lunch every so often keeps the sanity in check and the homicidal tendencies at bay.  Besides which, the kids would never have the patience to sit and wait for a paella to arrive.

"Never eat more than you can lift"

Miss Piggy

Of course, not including the kids gave me pangs of conscience the next day.  So I decided to do the wander along the esplanade and do the same tour with them only we swopped out the paella for ice cream.  Needless to say they didn't appreciate the scenery in quite the way I had, less then 24 hours previously but it lessened my guilt load.  I've decided to call it guilthood instead of motherhood because I'm always self recriminating myself on some poor parenting technique I just employed.  Oh well, I'll pay for their therapy during the teenage years. 

“Insanity is hereditary. You can catch it from your kids.” 

Erma Bombeck

So now it seemed only fair we should pick up Cary for lunch one day and head over to "The Hand". The Monumento al Ahogado - the "Monument to the Drowned" is a site completely unique to Punta del Este.  A Chilean artist, Mario Irarrazabel, went to Punta in 1982 as one of nine modern open air sculptors.  There was such competition for the best slot in the town square that Mario decided to head to the beach.  He was inspired to create a drowning hand as a warning to the swimmers.  With the whole summer allowed to construct his creation Mario finished in just 6 days, other artists also created structures on the sand, but his is the only one that remains.  He went on to create other similar structures in Chile, Madrid and Venice. 

"Relationships of all kinds are like sand held in your hand. 

Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. 

The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, 

the sand trickles through your fingers. 

You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled. 

A relationship is like that. 

Held loosely, with respect and freedom for the other person, i

t is likely to remain intact. But hold too tightly, too possessively, 

and the relationship slips away and is lost." 

Kaleel Jamison

"A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere." 

Frank Stella

Naturally, the kids just saw the whole sculptor thing as a particularly difficult climbing park and they developed an amazing way of getting in everyone else's photographs!  No matter, we didn't stay long.  It was soon time to drive Cary back to school after his 1 hour 20 minute midday break - love that Latino lunch thing.