Boho Beaches Put on the Ritz

28 February-1 March 2020 L11 AFR www.afr.com | The Australian Financial Review Life&Leisure TRAVEL URUGUAY Boho beaches put on the ritz The coastal towns and golden sands stretching east from Montevideo draw celebrities, investors and holidaymakers, writes Mark Johanson. The former home of artist Carlos Paez Vilaro, now a museum and hotel called Casapueblo, has a way of confusing visitors. Perhaps it’s the Gaudi-esque architecture and Santorini colour palette that make you believe you may be on some Mediterranean shore when you’re really in Uruguay. We’re perceived as The Uruguayan coast from Punta Ballena to Jose Ignacio often confounds those who India-lite, but we are expect South America to be undeveloped, much more underprivileged or troubled. Here, it’s none of those things. complicated. I’ve lived in South America for half a Ashok Ferrey, author decade and long heard of the ritzy beaches curving along the Atlantic east of the capital of Montevideo. Why, I wondered, had so many South Americans made the some symbols for tourism,’’ says Shangri- continent’s second-smallest nation their La’s director of communications Niranga summer playground? And why were an Gunaratna, when we see it from the hotel’s increasing number of American celebrities penthouse. So it is for our benefit, then, that following suit? I finally booked a flight to this tower of flower subjugates the skyline? see for myself. ‘‘I like it,’’ one of our party declares. I don’t The road east of Casapueblo skirts an argue. Which isn’t very Sri Lankan of me. endless gold-sand beach all the way to the ‘‘With us, no two people will agree,’’ says largest coastal resort, Punta del Este. author Ashok Ferrey. We are at his colonial With pulsing beach bars and glassed mansion in central Colombo – so iconic it’s apartment blocks fronting the emerald sea, used regularly as a Bollywood set. ‘‘Wives it’s easy to see why Punta del Este has built a Above: Bahia Vik in the town of Jose Ignacio. Below: Chef Francis Mallmann. PHOTO: ALAMY and husbands are in passionate reputation as the Miami of South America. disagreeance; Sri Lankans are a very Its star power is so strong that Brazilian dollars. Shabby chic is the overarching individualistic race,’’ he says. supermodels and Argentine movie stars flock aesthetic. There are no shopping malls, Ferrey lived in Africa, was schooled at a here as much to relax in their seafront condos nightclubs or condos. The roads are largely monastery in rural England and studied at as to be captured by paparazzi doing so. unpaved, the cottages unassuming, and it’s Oxford. Despite his social mobility, he There are a handful of chic galleries set perfectly fine to walk barefoot into the stayed here during the war, so when he back from the sea that come alive each year town’s most popular eatery, La Huella – that describes Sri Lanka as ‘‘easily the most in January during Este Arte, one of South is, assuming you’ve made your reservation complex country in the world’’ his America’s top international art fairs. weeks in advance. cultural perspective makes the bold Yet the most popular attraction is a piece Shakira has a home here, while visitors statement ring true. of public art from Chilean sculptor Mario such as Mark Zuckerberg, Leonardo ‘‘We’re perceived as India-lite but we’re Irarra´zabal, which depicts a hand partially DiCaprio and Katy Perry can stroll the wind- much more complicated,’’ he says. rising out of the sands of Brava Beach. whipped beach in relative obscurity. Religious pluralism certainly has a long I stop for a quick lunch not far from its If there’s one person responsible for history here and Sri Lankans are rightfully jumbo-sized fingers at I’marangatu, one of placing Jose Ignacio on the tourist map it’s proud of the degree of harmony that has the see-and-be-seen restaurants, where Norwegian-Uruguayan businessman existed between Buddhists (70 per cent), I dine on grilled octopus and fresh mussels Alexander Vik and his American wife, Hindus (12.6 per cent), Islam (9.7 per cent) from Isla de Lobos, an island visible on the Carrie. The pair has opened three design and Roman Catholics (6.2 per cent). After horizon. La Barra, with its white-washed hotels in and around Jose Ignacio. Estancia Punta del Este has the Easter attacks, however, the Muslim homes draped in bougainvilleas, is the next Vik, the oldest, caters to polo players and minority suffered a violent backlash. resort as I continue eastward. gaucho wannabes. Sleek Playa Vik, the built a reputation ‘‘I was a bit frightened when I stepped out Thirty years ago, this coastline had little second property lies on a knoll at the edge of as the Miami of onto the street,’’ says Shiham Saliheen, more than a few humble fishing villages. town, while the bungalows of Bahia Vik take Shangri-La’s communication manager and Below: The hotel Now, thanks to new bridges that leapfrog advantage of their prime setting along Jose South America. a Muslim. ‘‘But people started remembering and museum its myriad lagoons, development has crept Ignacio’s calmest stretch of sand. the fear they had during the civil war.’’ Casapueblo, ever farther from the city with Argentine All Vik properties share a common No one wanted history to repeat. Strong created by artist and Brazilian investors capitalising on theme: contemporary Uruguayan art. tannat (Uruguay’s signature wine export) statements on unity from leaders such as Carlos Paez Vilaro; Uruguay’s perennial stability in a rocky ‘‘I like for people to live with art as and albarino (its secret weapon). There are Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop shabby chic is region. Nowhere is this development more opposed to collect or invest in art,’’ four cows for every human in Uruguay, of Colombo, helped. Celebrity chef and the the aesthetic in apparent than in Jose Ignacio, where Vik explains of the statement pieces that which is a good thing because the head of Shangri-La’s Kaema Sutra Kitchen, Jose Ignacio. beachfront properties sell in the millions of line the lobbies of his hotels. Many rooms, population eats more beef per capita than Dharshan Munidasa, took an unambiguous particularly at Bahia Vik, were made in anywhere else on earth. stance too. collaboration with local artists to ‘‘add a Perhaps that’s why one of the world’s ‘‘I told staff: ‘If there’s any racial hatred dimension that is both stimulative and most famous grill masters, Francis you don’t have a job any more,’ ’’ he says. engaging’’. Mallmann, has built a home, hotel and Colombo Fashion Week founder Ajai Vir From the patios of the Vik properties to restaurant minutes from the winery in the Singh, organised an event called Celebrate the open-air cafes such as Solera in town, five-block cow town of Pueblo Garzon. Colombo to ‘‘get the buzz back’’ on the everyone in Jose Ignacio seems to be The Argentine chef has made a name for streets. Singh phoned art collectors, dressed in flowing white linen and tossing himself for his primal style of slow-roasting Bollywood stars and international cricket back glasses of rose´ as if to coax the setting foods with fire, air, stones, smoke, salt, oil icon Sachin Tendulkar – all came to help. sun into lingering a few minutes longer. and little else. Ever since he graced the first Meanwhile, in record time, an exhibition Turns out, all that wine comes from just season of the Netflix show Chef’s Table,he called One Won showcased 40 artists, with 17 kilometres away at Bodega Garzon. has garnered a legion of fanboys around the curator Chamika De Alwis saying: ‘‘Let it be This winery, I learn the next morning, is world, myself included. To find him cooking Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sinhalese, Tamil nothing if not ambitious. Owner Alejandro in an old general store in this dirt road [the artists] are all ... working as one.’’ Bulgheroni essentially created his own gaucho town is like watching a Western Some 200 kilometres south in 212-hectare wine region in a part of Uruguay movie set come to life. Hambantota province, an enormous rock where few would’ve dared to grow grapes. I devour salt-baked corvina fish, then fire- pillar rises from jungle. Stone steps, sagging ‘‘It was a big risk as there was no wine roasted tenderloin tournedos draped in with antiquity, lead to caves carved into the being produced in this terroir,’’ Bulgheroni chimichurri – all the while musing about rock with statues of the reclining Buddha recalls. ‘‘But when the first bottles came out how the meal is the perfect encapsulation of inside. Frescoes crowd the moist rock walls. in 2010, and they were good, we began my trip. The plates are sumptuous, yet While this 3rd-century monastery and constructing the winery,’’ opened in 2016. unpretentious, while the setting is elegant, temple, Mulkirigala, is Buddhist, there are Now, some 20,000 tourists each year in part thanks to its rustic charm. some Hindu statues here too. flock to Garzon to tour the striking facility Sure, Punta del Este may be a bit flashy, Communication manager Saliheen has and taste bottles that are changing but on the whole, this moneyed Uruguayan accompanied us. Driving back to our hotel, perceptions of Uruguayan wine. coast has managed to temper its good he tells me his son’s name is Eesa, which Garzon has, in its short life, become the fortune in such a way that even a humble means Jesus in Islam.

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