By Monday Matt had decided that he hated the camera bag we bought before we left and had also finished his heaviest book so we set out to find a Correo to post some things home. Much to my delight, an artist’s market had popped up in the pedestrian street between the hostel and the post office and I quickly accumulated some lithograph prints by local artists to be sent home also.
That afternoon we headed for the bus station to try and get the next bus out of the big smoke and onto Piriapolis (east of Motevideo on the coast). We got pretty lost just getting to the station (missed by about 15 blocks) but we made it to Piriapolis for some pizza and beer before bed.
Day 14 - The Hand and the Highrises
Feeling pretty guilty about the lack of exercise in our schedule to date, the next day in Piriapolis we went for a big walk along the waterfront and up the nearest mountain we could find (Cerro San Antonio) for some views back over the town. That being done and with nothing else to do, we were on the bus to Punta del Este shortly after.
The Promenade at Piriapolis
Piriapolis landmark, the huge Hotel Argentina
Piriapolis Marina
View from Cerro San Antonio
And another
F&F Guesthouse, run by two young blokes (Franco and Federico), was opening for the first night of the season that day. The boys were completely disorganised when we arrived (they had just lacquered the floor in our room and it stank!). We tried to get out of their hair and head down the beach, but it was freezing and the scenery boring! So we headed back and helped them run errands instead. That night we all we out for dinner at a local restaurante where the boys’ ‘surrogate mother’ for the Summer season cooked us up a giant parma to go with our beers and topped the meal off with a brownie. We mostly chatted about the boys owning the hostel and what a sweet life they have at the moment renting a house and running this hostel over the Summer months in Uruguay and then doing the same thing in Summer in Spain and travelling in between.
F&F Guesthouse
Day 15 - Run to Paradise
Up early-ish whilst an external cleaner came in to help the boys clean up the hostel (necessary!), we did a whirlwind tour of Punta del Este down the Rio de la Plata side of town and back up the ocean side, past the hand and the highrises and home.
Punta's marina
Erin the mermaid
The hand and some of the many, many highrise appartment buildings
The Hand in the Sand
As we thought, we didn’t really click with Punta, so we were off again after lunch and decided to try a little beachside town called La Paloma further east along the coast. The guidebook said there was nothing to do there except surf, but it didn’t matter as we were pretty over the big cities so if anything a day lying on the beach was necessary to recharge (life is tough!)
Off the internet that morning we booked into La Balconada Beach Hostel for one night because it sounded close to the beach. When we arrived we were promptly told by some other guests that the owner, Santiago, had gone surfing and that there was only one room left so we should put our stuff in there. A few hours later, after we had set ourselves up, had showers, been driven to the supermarket by Ricardo (the next door neighbour whose permanent hangout was at the hostel), and once the fire had been started for that night’s “asado” (BBQ) we finally met Santiago!
Day 16 - Oops, we're in Brazil
The next morning after making a few mates over beers and BBQ the night before, and with it being too windy to surf, we were bought in on one of the other Aussie’s plan to go on a road trip with Santiago up the east coast. So Chris (Sydney), his girlfriend Penella (Sweden) and a Belgian couple, Glenn and Aline with us and everybody’s surfboards piled into Santi’s ute (with Matt and Glenn in the tray).
Smiling now, but rather windswept after 300km.
The plan was to go to the National Park “Parque Nacional Santa Teresa” to check it out and also see if the surf off the park was any better. However Santi had other plans and being the extremely eager tour guide we stopped at every possible place of interest, including Cabo Polonia, Barre de Valizas, Punta del Diablo and finally Santa Teresa as well as any places that may have had any chance of surfing along the way! By about 4pm and no surf found, we were all starving and so Santi took us too his favourite place in the next town called Chuy. It wasn’t until we were driving through an unmanned border security post that Santi told us we were in Brazil! So we had lunch in Brazil and were promptly back over the border, having been waved through the now manned border post (phew!) and on the road back to La Paloma. Although it wasn’t direct!! We stopped in on a mate of Santi’s who rented a 1500ha farm near Laguna Negra for a spot of ‘mate’ (tea) and to collect ‘good asado wood’ for that night’s BBQ.
A stop near Cabo Polonia to search for surf...
Waves crashing on the headland at Punta del Diablo
Fishing boats on the shore at Punta del Diablo... but no surf here...
Parque Nacional Santa Teresa... no surf here either
Lunch in Brazil (L to R: Aline, Penella, Chris, Santi, Matt, Glenn)
Although Matt and Glenn weren’t too impressed with spending more than 300kms in a tray with surfboards and asado wood we had a fantastic day and booked in for another night at La Balconada.
Santi manning the asado (BBQ)
Day 17...18...19 - Puppies and getting dumped
The next few days were spent surfing [not so much surfing as being repeatedly dumped by waves I didn't have the skill or stamina to catch - Matt], sunbaking, learning new card games, drinking and eating all kinds of yummy delights cooked and shared with everyone in the hostel. Matt learned how to make some yummy empanadas from Ricardo and I baked up some fresh fish for a deluxe lunch on our last day. Santi did a fantastic job of making sure everyone who wanted to surf had all the right gear and drove everyone around to find appropriate surf (and surf with us when it was good - how selfless!), as well as playing travel agent, supermarket taxi, bbq king, drinking buddy and all round top bloke.
Santi and son Teo
A few days before we had arrived, Santi (although I am not sure it was his choice!) had adopted a brown Jack Russell puppy that the next door neighbour's son Juan had run over and so there were many hours spent playing with the puppy (“Fiona” after one of the girls staying), helping her get over her injuries and fattening her up with asado! On our second day, Santi and Glenn returned from their morning surf checking trip, with a skinny black Jack Russell pup! They had found her on the road by herself near where the other pup was run over. The plan was to feed her and then put her back (but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen). Anyways, the pup was fed, rough-housed with what we think was her sister and then put back in the ute to go back to the street...
Santi returned from his errands a few hours later and so did the black pup! We wanted to call her “Glenda” given it was Glenn adopting these puppies, buying food for them and tucking them in at night, but her name was later changed to “Lucy” - much cuter. I also went and bought some flea bath for them both one sunny afternoon which was fun with just a hose and a bucket! I think Santi’s wife Laticia and baby son Teo were a little surprised to find their family had extended when they returned from a few days out of town the next day!
Glenda / Lucy (tired from chewing surfboards)
Best friends
Fiona asleep behind the couch
So, we booked this place for a day and stayed almost a week! Lucky we have no plans hey! Even though there was nothing to do but surf, we found plenty to do, met some great people and really felt like we were on a beach holiday with mates, which made up (a little) for not being able to do the same at home this time of year.
Lighthouse in La Paloma (we did one tourist attraction at least!)
Paz and Liz at a concert on the beach opposite the hostel
Erin and Lucy back from their walk on the beach
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