Leaving Uruguay

Day 20 – Deciding we can’t spend our whole trip in La Paloma

After a few failed attempts to leave we finally made tracks. We’d decided to head to the other side of Uruguay, as it’s quite a trek we opted for the night bus. This gave Ricardo, Juan and Santi all day to try and convince us to stay by continually pointing out how nice the weather was and how the surf was due to improve. But as the sun went down we rolled out of town back toward Montevideo, and after a late night change we were headed west toward Salto.

Day 21 – Hot springs and the Venice of Uruguay

Just after 7am the bus conductor kindly came and told us we had arrived at our stop Termas de Daymán, a hot springs resort some 10km shy of Salto. The town was dead quiet but we found a bakery and sat around waiting for the baths to open. We were about the second people through the gates and we spent a lazy morning cooking ourselves though and watching the place fill up.

Two of the many hot pools at Termas de Dayman

At lunchtime we headed into Salto and toward to port, where we hoped to be able to catch a launch across the river and back into Argentina. The bus stopped a few blocks shy of the port (despite saying “Puerto” on the front) and we soon discovered why. Recent rains in the north of the country had resulted in very high river levels downstream. Sever blocks close to the port had been inadvertently turned into a mini Venice, with boats parked on street corners and many homes and businesses partially submerged.

Flooded street in Salto

Satlo's flooded port

As a result of this turn of events the launches were not able to run (because the port facilities were submerged) and we were forced back to the bus terminal to seek an alternate route into Argentina. We made it just in time the catch the last of two buses for the day (which was delayed anyway due to problems with their ticketing system), and proceeded toward the Argentinean town of Concordia via the Represa Salto Grande, a massive hydroelectric dam that supplies an astounding 65% of Uruguay’s electricity. It was quite a sight, so the unexpected detour turned out to be a bonus.

Our next destination was Posadas, 8 hours to the north, so we bided our time for the afternoon, had a nice dinner (in lieu of a bed for the night) and once again boarded the night bus.

Uruguay's East Coast

Day 13 - On our way out of the big smoke

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

We both agreed that we probably weren’t going to like Punta (the Gold Coast of Uruguay), but that it had to be done, if nothing else to see the giant hand coming out of the sand on the main beach. We saw the giant hand “La Mano en la Arena” within about 2 minutes of stepping off the bus, but resisted the urge to get back on and toddled the 1km or so past 50 or more highrise apartment blocks hugging the coastline to the guesthouse we had booked.

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

Montevideo

Day 12 – Day of the Gnocchi and rowdy street parties

On Sunday morning (well almost afternoon given we don’t get up til 11 most days) we walked the half an hour or so across town to Feria de Tristan Narvaja, an outdoor market run by Italian immigrants. It turned out to be a bit more of a locals market with lots of fresh produce for sale as well as electrical goods, antiques and books, loads of different Mate cups and animals such as puppies, rabbits, owls, peacocks, tarantulas, snakes and lizards. Matt cracked it at me for almost being sucked into a betting ring of ‘which cup is the ball under’ (the second oldest trick in the book but I was only watching!!). Rain set in just as we got near the end of the four or five street stretch, so we hurried back to the very first stall we saw selling big heaps of gnocchi and fresh vegies to get us some dinner for gnocchi day. Uruguayans celebrate ‘Day of the Gnocchi’ on the 29^th of each month, pay day being the end of the month and this being the only thing affordable by this time of the month! I very much like this tradition and have decided to celebrate it once a week so far! On the way back to the hostel we dropped into Mercado del Puerto for some shelter hoping the rain would ease off. Mercado del Puerto is the old port market building and famous for its impressive wrought iron superstructure, although we weren’t so impressed when a lightning bolt struck the door frame we were standing under whilst contemplating our dash back to the hostel...! It was quite a fright and extremely loud! The whole frame lit up with electricity. The rain only got heavier and with nothing else of interest nearby we got soaked getting back to the hostel.

Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay and had been pretty quiet in general over the weekend due to an election for El Presedente. After watching a number of crappy movies dubbed into Spanish and chatting to other travellers forced back to the hostel by the weather, we switched on the news to see if the election had been called and ‘the Uruguayan Obama’ had won as predicted. The election had been called and “Pepe” Mujica had indeed won. We started to hear fireworks and people cheering in the streets outside the hostel and gradually over an hour or so people started pouring into the city centre. After such a boring day Matt and I and Julio (Spain) and Pontus (Sweden) decided to hit the streets and see what was happening. Not quite as rowdy as the soccer, but still with an impressive repertoire of songs with actions, thousands of people with red, blue and white flags had gathered at the waterfront. After only half an hour we were forced by the rain to retreat again to the hostel to watch Mujica’s speech on TV and cook up our gnocchi. Pretty much every foreigner watching agreed that the Uruguayans had better like the VP too, as Mujica is about 75 not out and could barely talk so we weren’t sure how he would run a country.


Hundreds of mate gourds and bombilla (straws) for sale at the market.


Drums - a vital part of any celebration.

Julio, Matt and Pontus at the waterfront (but not venturing too deep into the crowd!)

Fireworks - and probably not official ones.

Our hostel "Sarandi" in the upstairs part of a great old building.

Colonia del Sacramento

Day 11 - Strolling streets and fancy eats

Having arrived at almost midnight the night before Matt and I had no idea what a picturesque little town we had arrived to and quickly understood the next morning while strolling around the cobble stone streets of Barrio Historico (the old part of town) why the area has been World Heritage listed by Unesco. There is nothing much to do here except soak in the charm, so we were on a bus to Montevideo that afternoon, but here are a few of the pics from around town:

Porton de Campo, the reconstructed 1745 city gate.

We arrived in Montevideo late afternoon and after a bit of extra hiking due to issues getting the right bus, we were set up in Hostel Sarandi on the pedestrian street in the centre.

Given it was a Saturday night, the weather was balmy and we hadn’t ‘treated’ ourselves so far, we went out for a nice dinner at Cafe Bacacay a few blocks from the hostel and opposite Teatro Solis (a huge old theatre). I ordered fish of the day with Limoncello and garlic sauce and Matt ordered the chicken Milanese (essentially chicken parma without the parma!) Once the food had arrived there was a serious case of food envy on Matt’s behalf and I lost half my (awesome) fish, but all up the experience cost about $30 including beer and wine!