I'm back after spending the weekend in La Floresta, a small seaside town about 55 km east of Montevideo (I looked for a link to add, showing some photos of La Floresta, but incredibly, there's not one to be found on-line). My whole family is in Punta del Este, and will be for the rest of the month, but I refuse to go there (I had to go spend New Year's eve there, but that was it). I'm weird, but I'm not a big fan of the place. Too much jet-set and stuff like that. I much prefer the tranquillity of La Floresta.

I've created the perfect routine there. I wake up relatively early, have a light breakfast and go for a walk on the beach. Then I spend the rest of the early afternoon lounging under a tree in the garden, reading. By 4 P.M., when it's again safe(er) to be exposed to the sun, I go down to the beach again and stay there until it gets either too cold or too dark to stay there. I'm sure most people will find this boring, but it's heaven after the stress of Montevideo.

On the evenings I sat on the porch with my uncle, aunt and her parents. Sometimes we'd play card or board games. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to play Trivial Pursuit with me, probably because they've already seen me play before, LOL! Oh, and the meals were great. Unlike at my house, where we usually eat on the run, they actually spend a couple of hours at the table, eating appetizers and drinking martinis and whiskeys before the main course. The gourmet in me loved it, but I'm afraid if I do that too often, I won't need to drive on my way back. They will just put me on the road and I'll roll all the way to Montevideo.