"In Punta del Este you open a closet and a party falls. It's all DJ's, raves, parties, and lots of dollars to belong to. Did you try walking down the street after twelve? Look, there's a lot of spontaneity on the part of people, not everyone wantsor can afford to pay a fortune to eat and dance." Alvaro, a Uruguayan receptionist from the city of Salto, who works at the centrally located Alhambra Hotel, left the suggestion itching when it was still December 31.
For days, the peninsula has been talking about what the last night of 2023 would be like and the first hours of the new year. Almost like an obsession, a karma. At first he was worried about the weather, whether it would be good; Second, if the last great tourist malón would arrive on December 28, 29 and 30 to make the sands of the top resort in the Southern Cone vibrate.
The weather responded without rain and with a pleasant temperature of 18 degrees when the clock struck midnight, and in the last 72 hours, the city went from being loose, with room to move, to being corseted, suddenly dwarfed: since Friday you can't even walk. Thousands of Argentines disembarked by land, sea and above all by air.
Clarín started the night early and at the Enjoy --which along with the Solanas, the Vik Retreats, the Fasano and The Grand Hotel make up the select group of five-star hotels--, the four gastronomic venues were full: in Ovo Beach by Osaka and in Saint Tropez, the cover cost 550 dollars, in Brisas 400 and in Provence 280. The four "sold out" with almost 600 people, plus another thousand "gambler" diners who were in Salón Punta del Este and who were invited by the Casino.
Dinners in restaurants in La Barra, Manantiales, La Mansa and José Ignacio offered a variety of proposals ranging from elaborate menus to typical, less sophisticated dishes, with a wide gap ranging from $100 to $500 per capita. Here in Punta you quote and pay directly, you don't speculate with people's pockets, nor do people ask too much," describes the philosophy of the vacationer, Rafael, a griller who doesn't stop dispensing goats.
This chronicler dined at the aforementioned Provence, an exquisite menu by steps that included a crispy mushroom sphere with jam, octopus with olive herbs with truffled potatoes and a grilled beef loin. (Now you understand how Palermo charts are made.) Dessert was a soft raspberry milk chocolate sphere, mango heart, and crisp dip. Belly satisfied and close to midnight, the Casino del Enjoy was the first stop on the journey on foot.
Roxana and Roberto raised their glasses next to a slot machine. "We don't move from here, we're having a wonderful time," said the Sanananinos.
"I've been working as a croupier here for twenty years and I can't believe how many people are playing roulette, blackjack and slot machines right now. Don't you want to see the fireworks, walk outside? They are in another dimension," diagnoses Rufina, who has a lot of experience as a salon authority and does not remember such a crowded environment minutes before the turn of the year. It's true, it's a microclimate in here: a lot of lonely people mesmerized in front of the coin machines, but also couples who decide to celebrate by gambling.
At midnight, 77 people were counted in the Enjoy Casino.
For Roxana and Roberto, there is no better plan than toasting in front of the screens. "We have dinner here, we listen to music and for an hour we have been looking for a way to have a little luck," she says, relaxed and happy. "We didn't know this casino and we love it... And apparently we're not the only ones enjoying themselves." After two laps around the large room, there were 77 people who, when twelve o'clock struck, were at different games.
As they left the casino, the fireworks gala in front of Punta del Este's flagship hotel began its show, which they say, "every year is surpassed." The wide range of lights and pops are on par with what you see in the world's big cities. The Clarín walk begins and in front of each block the sky lights up in a different color. Thousands poured into the streets and the pyrotechnic event lasted for more than half an hour.
The Rambla Claudio Williman, which overlooks the Mansa, becomes the busiest artery, so walking is the best option to soak up the mood of the streets of this area of Punta del Este. There are parties in restaurants, inns and spas, but what catches you the most are the "ranchadas" in the middle of the avenue, with toasts and bottles of champagne on the roofs of cars.
The Bellomos, Argentines, parked their car wherever they could and bottles in hand raised their glasses and toasted Clarín.
The cool, spectacular and windless night invites you to be out in the open. Around one o'clock in the morning, cars parked on top of a cordon and with the doors open are spontaneous meeting points. As is the case with the multitudinous Bellomo family, who are about fourteen and overflow with joy. "We are here enjoying this moment and dreaming that Argentina will improve with Milei. Let's go Clarín," they shout in tune and with bottles raised.
The cars are improvised meeting points to celebrate the new year in the streets of Punta del Este.
As you walk westwards, always parallel to La Mansa, restaurants, bars and hotels offer some kind of street show. There is no shortage of tables and lounge chairs to turn the sidewalks into stalls and contemplate the landscape in motion. Ice cream dishes loaded with beer, champagne and cider abound and are the protagonists. Argento is the predominant language that is fished on the go, but Portuguese and French are also abundant. On the wide threshold of the Millennium Tower, a celebration is held with Jewish music: "Hava Nagila" is played, people are invited to take a few steps, but they flee.
At Stop 8, the restaurant I''Marangatú "grabs this reporter by the lapels." There are no controls at the entrance, but there is a party with more than three hundred people dancing the Rio de Janeiro carnival and one of its owners, Analía Suárez, says that during dinner in the hall "not a pin entered." $450 a cutlery," he throws as if nothing had happened. "40 percent of Argentines, 30 percent Brazilians, and 30 percent Uruguayans and Europeans."
The Argentinian bar. At the restaurant I'Marangatú, those who prepared the New Year's Eve drinks were Argentinian bartenders.
Due to its infrastructure, its own beach and its eclectic menu, I'Marangatú is one of the top places in Punta del Este. Also for its drinks bar managed by the Argentinian bartender Facundo Ogueta, considered one of the best in these lands. "We have a group of ten Argentines who work together, preparing drinks and without stopping for a moment, but I think that, beyond the stress, there is the satisfaction of the task accomplished," shares the specialist, who says that the drinks that came out the most were Aperol Spritz, Fernet and Negroni.
Half past two in the morning on Monday the 1st and Punta del Este is still a hive of activity with a majority of Argentines. On the walk, now in the direction of the port, they review what they talked about on Sunday afternoon with Alejandro Rivero, the leading voice of the Laguna del Sauce airport. "Between Monday and Saturday, about 300 air taxis arrived and we had 21 frequencies from Aerolíneas Argentinas." On the other hand, Colonia Express spokesperson Sebastián Plana had said, "35,<> more Argentines traveled there and back."
Alberto and Gustavo took their chairs and toasted until the early hours of the morning, in the Port area.
The walk along the Rambla Willimen, on the beach side, is slow, there are more and more people. "Punta del Este is almost like last year, overflowing... I would tell you that those middle-class Argentines who, due to the exchange rate, could not accompany us this time, are missing," Jorge Piriz, director of Environmental Management, had told this newspaper, who says that "an intense week ended in which we had to inspect a lot to enable permits for parties. There were about 65 requests for permits for December and January, and 14 for this week alone."
Each block is a rhythm, a musical style that filters through and remains a handful of steps until another one breaks in. From electronics, to cumbia, through María Becerra, Duki, Vicentico and Los Auténticos Decadentes, all without anesthesia. You pass by the Muelle de Mailhos and access the Rambla Artigas, which leads to the Port, another nerve centre of the street celebrations.
At the intersection of 28th Street and Artigas, a few meters from the Port, the crowd lived up to expectations.
"The city of noise and pleasure. Luxury, lights and good taste. Nothing to envy to Las Vegas. Much less to Ibiza or Saint Tropez. They say that Punta del Este is the electronic parties, the DJ's, leave me with the street and the starry sky," raises the voice of veteran Alberto, an Argentinian who is sitting surrounded by a pogo, in front of the bars Guapa and El Secreto, organizers of a party suitable for young people, children and veterans.
There are no shocks or situations that warrant any danger. There are no excesses, respect prevails. Tranquility and demeanor allow the versatility of the public and that the night lasts until the candles stop burning. "The municipal ordinance says that events can be extended until six o'clock, but being a special date it may be extended. Of course, the municipality of Maldonado will carry out a cleaning operation with 150 people so that from mid-morning on Monday the city looks impeccable," Piriz had told Clarín.
After three o'clock in the morning, the legs give out and, apparently, there are no signs of the area being exhausted, quite the opposite. Paradoxes of fate and as if it were an open-air karaoke on the Atlantic coast, in the most tufted seaside resort you can hear hits by Damas Gratis and Mona Jiménez that make the crowd explode with joy. "They've drunk all the wine, oh, oh," celebrates the jet set shouting and dancing with the glasses that never empty.
Punta del Este. Special Envoy
PS