Uruguay was a pleasant surprise and we did have such a great time discovering the beaches that either have one paragraph or not even mentioned in the Lonely Planet!!! It always feels special to discover some new places on your own… Cabo Palonio with its rustic accommodations without electricity and running water and beautiful breathtaking sand dunes, is super special and it truly the highlight of my experiences in Uruguay.
From Cabo Polonia, we tried to get on the bus to go to Punta del Diablo, but… the bus never showed up … we waited on the road for over 2 hours…when I would ask, the drivers of the buses that were going in a different direction, kept telling me: “Its coming, its coming… anytime now”… until I insisted and they called the dispatcher of the bus company…. who notified us that the bus will not come because its Sunday! We had no choice but to take the bus that was going in the different direction from where we wish to spend the night and took the bus back to La Paloma… Well, Not a bad thing! WE loved it there. When we got there, we got lots of exciting, “You are back!!!!!”… and had another great night in the hostel.
Still in the morning we, were stock to the plan and left La Paloma to go to Punta Del Diablo. It all depended on Marina, how long we would stay here, because I already spent some good time here before and was ready to keep moving. This time around, the village was empty, it felt like a ghost town… the many hotels, restaurants, stores, and even supermarkets were closed for the winter. There was some sort of charm to it… to see this place getting ready for the winter… It’s all good, but finding basic food things, like the bread, cheese and tomatoes became a huge issue… We had very basic salad for lunch and dinner… The next day we were able to snatch a huge avocado and bread, but no cheese … Pasta and shrimps were another choice… But when I asked the fisherman, when was the last day he went to the sea…. He said about 17 days ago!!! I was not going to buy those shrimps!!!! At least he was honest... he could have said …2 days… or so…. J I was a little upset about the food situation… 3 weeks ago; when I was here I ate really well and had fresh shrimps everyday from the fisherman…! Luckily for me, this time, the hostel was full of stupid ignorant annoying American girls (no judgment!!!J) and …. the weather was chilly…. so after 1 night there, Marina was ready to leave the hostel and Go TO Brazil!!! Yeah!
So, here we go … a BRAZIL!!!
The trip involved taking 5 buses, and lots of hours on the bus and lots of waiting for the buses as well!
From Punta del Diablo we took a bus to the border town that’s called Chuy. After 1 hour journey, we arrived there after the dark… I got my backpack first, and while Marina was still waiting for her backpack, I noticed a little commotion around… The next thing I see is 2 cops on the roof of the house and pointing guns in the dark, ready to shoot!!! I was a little slow to react, the only thing I did was, tell Marina, “Look, they are going to shoot somebody!” while still standing in the same spot. Fuck! Welcome to Brazil!!! Then, we realized what was happening and ran inside the bus office…, just in time… because the workers were locking the doors for safety! A little panic settled in, because we had to wait for 6 hours until midnight, in the darkness, until we could get on the next bus! We put our money belts on and locked our valuables with the lock… just in case…. Then we learned that a Brazilian criminal robbed the duty free store of 20 thousand dollars at the gunpoint and went back to Brazil… apparently… The Brazilian and Uruguayan police were involved, as well as … reporters from TV… were there as well! Apparently, Chuy is a safe place, but things like that happen from time to time! And we were so lucky to arrive at that particular moment! To be on the safe side, we decided to go to the restaurant to eat and wait till the bus there. Since the bus arrives so late, we were told to go to the immigration (2 km from the centre) by 11pm to get on the bus there. When we arrived to the immigration, the guys there were quite surprised that we just walked in; usually people arrive in an organized way… on the big bus… and refused to give us stamps… but allowed us to stay inside to wait for our bus… For 2 hours the guys at immigration would not look our way… then after 2 hours they warmed up and we had a little conversation with them and they were friendly. I noticed that a while back… Uruguayans seem to be unfriendly at first, but they need some time before they will smile or talk to you… While at the immigration, we saw several owls crossing the border back and forth… but we had to still wait for our bus! Not fair J…
So, we took the night bus from Chuy to Porto Allegre (8 hours), the big industrial town in Brazil. Then we took the bus at 9 am to go to Florianopolis (7 hours). Right away, I spotted 3 hot surfers boarding our bus and by their haircuts we could tell they were Uruguayans… or in the worst case scenario... Argentineans...J. They were quite a party crew! When we stopped for lunch, one of the guys said in his low, deep throat voice, “Hola, Locas!” and offered to share his cigarette..:) Then, when we got back to the bus, the party had begunJ. WE still had 4 hours of the bus ride. Marina and I had the best seats, front row in front of the huge window on the 2nd floor of the bus. The ride flew by soo quick, it was a lot more fun and the landscape was changing for the best, mountains and beaches! At times we heard some songs and laughs from the “deep throat” dude in the back of the bus. For some reason the guy took off his shirt while riding the bus, apparently he was sunbathing … already … while still on the bus?!?!? J Fun!!
After that, 2 more local buses to get to our beach destination!!!! After being 24 hours on the road, we learned that our hostel of choice was booked L and we had to walk to another one that the guys recommended. After quick showers, we went to eat our first proper Brazilian meal and beer! I have to wait till the morning to see what the all fuss is about and see Brazilian beaches!
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