Punta del Este is a long finger of rock and sand that juts into the South Atlantic, where the broad brown waters of the Río de la Plata meet the open ocean. For much of the year it is a quiet fishing and yachting town of about seven thousand permanent residents, and from late December to February it fills with Argentines, Brazilians and Uruguayans in search of sun, parties and sand. The peninsula divides two coasts: on one side is the Mansa, the calm, sheltered beach facing the river estuary, and on the other the Brava, where Atlantic swells roll in with real force.
The town has some unusual landmarks. On the Brava side, a huge sculpture of a hand rising from the sand, known as La Mano, was made by a Chilean artist in 1982 and has become the symbol of the resort. Farther west, along the coast road, stands Casapueblo, a white, sculpted building that looks half Greek island, half sandcastle, built over decades by the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró. Offshore lies Isla de Lobos, home to one of the biggest colonies of sea lions in the region, and boats make the trip from the harbour.
The riding starts after you leave. Ruta 10 runs east along the coast, past La Barra, José Ignacio and a series of beach towns, then continues through Rocha, a quiet province of lagoons, dunes and cattle ranches. The road is flat and mostly straight, with a good surface, and the wind blows steady off the ocean. Traffic is heavy in high summer and thin in other months. Cabo Polonio, the final destination, is a tiny village on a rocky point that has no electricity grid and can be reached only by a sandy track, usually by truck, and a seal colony sits on the rocks nearby.
Fuel is easy to find in Punta del Este and in Maldonado, a city of over fifty thousand a few kilometres inland, which also has supermarkets, banks and repair shops. Smaller towns along the coast have stations, but they can run short in peak season, so fill up when you can. Spanish helps, though many people here speak some English. Autumn and spring offer the best conditions, with mild weather and quiet roads, while winter brings cold, grey days and empty beaches.