Zuckerberg gets away from it all, with staff aplenty

Mark Zuckerberg enjoys a stroll with his girlfriend Priscilla Chan in Vietnam at the start of their extended holiday (Getty Images)

They call him El Genio de Facebook, and they are overjoyed at the news that a man as rich, famous and influential as Mark Zuckerberg has foregone more fashionable destinations to enjoy the golden sands of their country's Atlantic coast.

The journalists of Uruguay spent yesterday beating a path to a mansion near the coastal town of Punta del Este, where Zuckerberg is spending eight days with friends. And early signs suggest that their investigative travails are yielding fruit.

Local newspapers were full of anecdotes about the 27-year-old billionaire's stay at the residence, which is being rented from a wealthy American. Among other things, it was claimed, Zuckerberg insisted the property was fitted out with new furniture.

The national title El Pais added that Zuckerberg's party, which contains nine people, is employing a similar number of staff, including two cooks, two maids, two bodyguards and a pair of security guards to man the gates.

In keeping with his reputation for attention to detail, Zuckerberg apparently demanded that the house was scrubbed with "special products" before his visit. And he also required the various pets which live there be shipped to a local vet for the duration of his stay because some of his companions are: "very allergic".

This invasion of Zuckerberg's privacy comes despite a Facebook spokesman's insistence that his holiday, which began with a week in Asia before his current eight days in Uruguay, is a "private" affair.

Last week, in a development that may be familiar to users of Zuckerberg's social networking website, photos of him holidaying in Vietnam emerged online. Ironically, the country is one of the few places in the world where Facebook is frequently blocked, at the behest of its communist government.