International Mankini Challenge

The last stop on my epic 13 month adventure around Latin and North America was Uruguay. Famous for… Well it was going to be hard to find somewhere in Uruguay to Mankini that the world would know by sight. So I decided to do it in a place that Uruguayans would know well – the beach and surf mecca of Punta del Diablo.

Uruguay is often forgotten by travellers to South America and without meaning to be nasty, I can see why. Don’t get me wrong, the quaintness of Colonia del Sacramento is appealing but wears thin after a day. Punta del Este is good if you want a St Tropez kind of feel (and can afford it). Montevideo… well, if you’re going to Uruguay, skip the capital as it’s as dull as it is grey! And let’s just say that Uruguay is far from being cheap, especially on a backpacker’s budget. In summary, neighbours Brazil and Argentina really put Uruguay in the shade.

However the small surf and beach town Punta del Diablo (Devil’s Point) is a little gem and so with a little over a week to spend in all of Uruguay I caught the ferry from Buenos Aires (Argentina) ticking off Colonia and Montevideo quickly on the way to some beach time. While in Montevideo I’d run into national hero Jose Gervasio Artigas, or should I say his monument in the main plaza. And so upon coming across another statue in honour of “the father of Uruguayan independence” in Punta del Diablo (and actually on the point itself), my decision was made for me as to where to take the mankini picture.

Punta del Diablo is a sprawling and unplanned sleepy town of sandy roads, cabins with sea views and no street lights or signs. It’s a chilled place where crime isn’t a problem and where all the local fisherman worry about is having enough money for a beer at the end of the day – so an ideal place to relax.

So it struck me as strange that with all this surfing and relaxing going on that people mustered the energy to wander out to the point to see, put plainly, what is a very average monument. Having myself fallen into the Latin American trait of “mañana” I kept putting off the mankini picture choosing to sunbathe and read instead (after a personal tally of 18 countries you can start to get a bit blasé about throwing on the lycra). So you can imagine how pleased I was when on my last day it was overcast and everyone in town decided to go see the monument (for some reason) and sit around drinking their mate (tea popular in Argentina and Uruguay – not a friend!).

Reunited with Abbey, veteran mankini photographer of 6 countries, we waited for the worst of the human traffic to pass before I shrugged off the boardies and climbed up on the plinth to join Jose. We tried to make the pics a little more interesting, whilst not wanting to offend any of Jose’s countrymen in the process, so I hope you like them.

See the Uruguay Mankini pictures here.

Until the next time …