Uruguay

Colonia, La Paloma, Cabo Palonia, Punto del Diablo


Colonia
We were originally planning on traveling down the Argentina coast to spend some time on the beach, but found out that the beaches in Uruguay are much nicer...and closer! The easiest and quickest way to get into Uruguay from BA is by fairy. We took a short, and expensive (60 dollar) fairy ride to Colonia, which is a small and pretty border town in Uruguay. We stayed just for one night, but I will always remember Colonia as the town where Ilie got bit by the feared to be rabid dog , and the random parade where the children painted their bodies, and the plump shirtless ladies shimmied their breasts.

La Paloma
Early the next day we took a bus ride to La Paloma, which was about three or four hours away (that seemed so short to me after spending four days on the bus the week before). We arrived not knowing where we were going to stay, but the town is small enough that we were able to explore the entirety of it in order to find the best deal on a hostel. We actually ended up staying at the most expensive option, only because it was so hard to resist! So we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hostel for the three nights that we were there. The hostel was directly on the beach, the rooms were nice, the owners were nice, and we were able to meet some other travelers. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, the evenings wondering around, and the nights cooking delicious meals at the hostel. We hapenned to arrive in La Paloma the day after the high season ended, so there were not that many people in the town. The town is set up for a lot of tourists, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed down while we were there. It made the visits to the beach really pleasant because it was easy to find a location with hardly anybody in sight. The beach was huge, white sand spreading out longer than the distance of the whole town. The swimming was awesome as well, the temperature of the water was perfect, and there were few waves, and no rocks, making for perfect swimming.
The second night that we were there we experienced the biggest lightning storm that I have ever seen. Other people at the hostel didn´t seem to be as phased by it as I was, but it was absolutely incredible! Thousands of lightning bolts were striking directly in view over the ocean at every second, so the entire sky was lit up constantly for over an hour. I went to the beach to watch it, the lightning just kept on getting bigger and closer, and the thunder kept on getting louder...I stayed out there on the sand watching until it started to pour down rain...the heaviest rain that I have ever seen or witnessed in my life! We happened to be cooking a big meal out on the BBQ at the time, but the whole thing got destroyed by the massive rain. Being outside for just one second would get you completely drenched wet. We ended up finishing preparing the food inside, then the rain stopped. The next morning it was beautiful, clear and sunny.
On our fourth day there we decided to start our trek to the next the town...

Cabo Palonia
Visiting Cabo Palonia is an experience that I will remember forever. Cabo Palonia is a small, remote town with no electricity. There is only a small, sandy raod that leads into the town--the only way to get into the town was to take a 4-wheel truck that hauled tourists and their luggage to the remote community of "hippies". It seemed that there was little authority in this town, or that everyone who lived or visited there had the same common interest--smoke weed and live in tranquility...even the great invention of electricity was nowhere on their needs list. There was a completely peaceful vibe to the town, however, our experiences and memories of Cabo Palonia are a bit bias due to teh extreme rain storm taht was passing by during the two nights that we stayed there. Supposedly unusual for this time of the eyar, we were lucky enough to witness what seemed to be the next "El Nino". Heavy and deafening rainfalls drenched and partially flooded teh small town, including the kitchen of our tiny yellow house. However, as drastic as the rain seemed, that lasted non-stop the entire time we were there, the town still seemed completely at ease--
We treated this experience as a great opportunity to huddle together in our small yellow house, while during the day we cooked delicious soup, melted chocolate in our coffee which we drank consistantly all day long (we needed something to boost our energy !) and read books when we needed a break from each others company, and during night where we would drink heated wine mixed with fruits, reminiscence over college experiences, and shared personal stories by candle light. Oh yeah, and I can´t forget to mention that we spent as many hours sleeping as we did awake :)
Cabo Palonia would have been a fabulous place to spend a couple days on the beach, if the weather permited it. The beach was massive, spreading out far beyond the town itself, pretty white sand, and a completely relaxed atmosphere.


Punto del Diablo
Leaving Cabo Palonia and coming to Punto del Diablo made us feel like we were entering into real society again. Punto del Diablo is further north on the coast, not far from the border of Brazil. We spent more time in this town than the others, falling in love with it right away. As soon as we got into the small, surfing town we had not a clue where we were going to stay. We didn´t come across any hostels while hunting for a place to stay, while it is common for tourists to rent a small house or cabana. We ended up renting a small house....with no electricity! It was in a fantastic location, tucked back behind the main part of town, close walk to the beach, and fantastic views of the beach from the balcony. Ruby, Ilie, and I stayed there for five days. The town was really small, and not much going on, but we were happy to finally have nice and hot weather, making our stay there amazing. We spent most of the days on the beach relaxing. The current was strong and the waves were big, so we had a great time getting knocked around by the waves...we we even had to get told by the lifeguard to come back to shore because we somehow ended up too far out...oops!
The long, soft sanded beach made for a perfect running condition, as I enjoyed doing early in the mornings. We took advantage of the kitchen in our house, and cooked almost every meal while we were there...something I had barely done since I left Oregon. Our stay there was for the most part uneventful, but extremely relaxing..

The culture in Uruguay seemed much more relaxed than Argentina---a lot of the people reminded me of Eugenians..(I better had enjoyed that atmosphere as I would be spending most of the remainder of my trip in Ecuador where the people are quite different!). The small beach towns seemed to be full of people looking to get away from teh chaos of the real world to a place where they can live simple and peaceful lives. It reminded me of how Hawaii used to be when my dad first moved there in the 70s....
I would definately go back to Uruguay....