Punta del Este & the East Coast

Before colonisation the coastal lagoons and hills were used by Charrúa, Guenoa and other hunting peoples, and the region later became the front line between Spanish and Portuguese America. Portugal pushed south from Brazil in the 18th century, starting the fortress of Santa Teresa in 1762 and holding the smaller Fuerte de San Miguel near today's Chuy; the Spanish governor Pedro de Cevallos captured Santa Teresa in 1763. Spain secured the coast by settling Maldonado and, in 1763, San Carlos, whose first settlers included Azorean families.

The hills of Lavalleja are named after Juan Antonio Lavalleja, born near Minas, who led the Thirty-Three Orientals in the 1825 campaign against Brazilian rule. For most of the 19th century the region was cattle country, with Maldonado a small port and garrison and the Atlantic coast almost empty.

Tourism changed that. Punta del Este grew from the early 20th century as a summer retreat for Montevideo and Buenos Aires families, pines were planted to fix its dunes, and Francisco Piria built the spa town of Piriápolis on the bay to the west. The peninsula briefly entered world history in 1961, when the Alliance for Progress charter was signed there, and in 1962, when an inter-American conference in the resort suspended Cuba from the Organization of American States. Artisans and summer visitors came to join the fishing families of the Rocha coast. Since the 1990s building has spread steadily east, and the fight over how much of the Rocha coast should stay wild led to the Cabo Polonio National Park and other protected areas.

The east has two cultures that meet each summer. Punta del Este in January is Uruguay's most international place: Argentine and Brazilian visitors, art auctions, polo, beach clubs and dinners that start near midnight. The Rocha coast cultivates the opposite image — fishing families, surfers, artisans and summer-long campers who value the lack of paved roads and electricity lines as much as the beaches.

The painter Carlos Páez Vilaró built Casapueblo, his whitewashed house and studio at Punta Ballena, by hand over several decades, and sunset there has become a local ritual, marked by the museum's daily Ceremonia del Sol. Rocha has its own carnival, and craft stalls sell leather, wool and products made from the butiá palm.

Inland, Lavalleja is quieter and more Catholic in custom than the coast. Pilgrims climb the Cerro del Verdún near Minas to a statue of the Virgin on its summit. Near the Brazilian border the Spanish of Chuy is mixed with Portuguese, and shoppers cross freely between the two halves of the town.

Maldonado department has about 210,000 people and is among the fastest-growing in Uruguay, its population concentrated in the joined towns of Maldonado, Punta del Este and San Carlos. Rocha has well under 100,000, spread among Rocha city, Castillos, Lascano, La Paloma and Chuy; Lavalleja has about 60,000, most in Minas.

The coastal economy runs on tourism and building. Punta del Este's towers are largely second homes, many owned by Argentines, and their construction, maintenance and cleaning employ much of Maldonado. In winter streets empty and workers fall back on fishing, farming or short contracts. Rocha adds rice farming in the lowland wetlands, cattle and eucalyptus plantations, while Minas, in Lavalleja, makes cement and bottled water.

The rhythm is seasonal above all: a frantic six to eight weeks from Christmas, then a long quiet stretch. Current issues include housing costs for local workers, coastal erosion, and debate over high-rise development spreading along the shore.

Seafood matters more here than in the rest of Uruguay. Menus feature corvina and brótola (a white fish) grilled or fried, rabas (battered squid rings), mussels steamed in white wine, and fish stews in the fishing villages. On the Rocha coast the speciality is buñuelos de algas, fritters made with seaweed, sold from stalls and kitchens in Punta del Diablo and Cabo Polonio, and shrimp are caught in the coastal lagoons in season.

The chivito, Uruguay's steak sandwich, is said to have been invented in a Punta del Este restaurant in the 1940s, and the resort's grills compete to serve large ones. Rocha's butiá palm yields small orange fruit that becomes jam, sweets and a liqueur.

Around Pueblo Garzón in Maldonado, vineyards and olive groves now produce wine and olive oil, and the chef Francis Mallmann's restaurant helped make the village a food destination. Lavalleja's farms supply lamb, cheese and honey to Minas.

Punta del Este fills a peninsula between the calm Playa Mansa and the surf of Playa Brava, with La Mano sculpture, the harbour and the Gorriti and Lobos islands offshore. West along the bay are Punta Ballena with Casapueblo, the Cerro Pan de Azúcar and Piriápolis with its 1930 Argentino Hotel. East, a circular bridge crosses the Laguna Garzón, José Ignacio sits around its lighthouse, and inland lie Pueblo Garzón and Cerro Catedral, Uruguay's highest point.

Rocha's coast is wilder. La Paloma and La Pedrera are surf resorts, while Cabo Polonio National Park protects the dunes, lighthouse and sea lions of Cabo Polonio, reached by truck across the sand, and nearby Valizas. Punta del Diablo's beaches run north into Santa Teresa National Park, where the restored Fortaleza de Santa Teresa stands in a forested park with campsites; beyond are the Fuerte de San Miguel and the border town of Chuy. Inland, the Laguna de Castillos has a rare forest of ombú trees, and palm groves stand near Castillos.

The Minas hills in Lavalleja offer granite ridges and cattle valleys: Cerro Arequita with its cave, the Salto del Penitente waterfall, the hillside village of Villa Serrana, and the Cerro del Verdún pilgrimage hill outside Minas.