Uruguay Sunshine
When we first got to Uruguay I asked Lucas how a Country could claim having the sun on their flag. I quickly figured out the answer. We had 6 days along the coast of Uruguay, and the sun was shining the whole time with barely a cloud in the sky. We witnessed some beautiful beachside sunsets while there, including this one on our last night in Punta del Diablo.
We took the 1.5hr ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento where we stayed the night. Colonia del Sacramento had beautiful cobblestone streets, blooming trees, and waterfront cafes and gelato stores.
The next day we took a 4hr bus from Colonia del Sacramento to the beach city of Punta del Este. Punta del Este reminded me of Gold Coast, Australia. Every second person here walks around drinking tea that they keep topping up with water, after some investigation we figured out it was called maté. Our hostel was about 4km from the main centre, including the bus terminal, so we clocked up some km’s while staying here.
From Punta del Este we did a day trip to Casapueblo, a sculpture hotel designed by artist Carlos Vilaró, once his home. The “house” alone was impressive, not to mention all of his artwork inside it. I accidentally bought a $6.5 Coca Cola due to some terrible money conversion from my end, oops. This was following Lucas accidentally buying an $8 bag of Doritos from the supermarket the day before.
We then took a 3hr bus up the coast to Punta del Diablo, mine and Lucas’s favourite spot. Punta del Diablo is a small fisherman town consisting of what looks like a lot of (humble) holiday homes all connected by dirt roads. This was a great place to go and chill for a few days off the beaten path. Good spot if you surf as well.
Our hostel was right near the beach, however, the bus terminal was about 2.5km from the hostel. It made for a hot and dusty walk between the two, especially with our heavy packs!
Some locals said Punta del Diablo is only really busy for about 5 weeks a year during the summer holiday period. For the rest of the time there are only about two restaurants to eat at. We were on the outskirts of it starting to get busy which I think was a perfect time to be there. People in Uruguay typically have dinner from 9pm onwards, and because there were so few places to eat, we had to adapt to having a slightly later dinner.
Before coming to South America I joked to a few people that all I wanted to see was a Capybara before I left, anything from then onwards would be a bonus. Well, it only took 10 days to achieve my one goal! We saw many Capybaras at the Santa Teresa National Park, 20mins from Punta del Diablo. To get to the park we decided we would try hitchhike there. Lucas and I were midway through putting our thumbs up when someone pulled over for us, how easy!
At the park we saw a BIG lizard, two young green parrots (who looked like they were about to leave the nest for the first time), a lot of other exotic birds, and… CAPYBARA’S. At first we only saw a few of them in the distance and assumed the rest were sleeping or hiding, but an hour later we found huge hoards of them.
Uruguay, what an amazing place you are!! A peaceful and quiet contrast to the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. We appreciated your sunshine and beautiful coastline.