Costs pp: bus from Montevideo 142p, Hostel del Patio dorm bed 230p (more in the high season).
We are having trouble getting cash out of the ATMs, after having no problem in any other country we find we can only withdraw 2000 pesos at a time. This is about NZ$130, it means we have to pay a withdrawal fee each time which is really annoying.
Maldonado and Punta del Este have become one big city now with Pto del Este being out on the point and filled with tall buildings and Maldonado being a regular city. We stayed a night in a hotel and then a night in a studio of a lady we met on couchsurfing.
We caught a bus to Casadepueblo and saw a huge white house built by some random guy there. It is now a museum and hotel but looks like he built a sandcastle and painted it white. We hitched back to town and got a ride with the son of the builder, he said his dad started off building a few extra rooms for friends that visited then more and more and finally a hotel chain bought it off him and got him to build more rooms. They still live in part of the house and have the museum. We didn´t go in because it was chocka block with tourists off the huge cruise ship which is the first of its kind to come to PdE.