If there is a little slice of small beach town heaven that has not been overtaken by large luxury resorts, it’s Cabo Polonio in Uruguay, my next stop after Montevideo.
My hostel (Narakan) was right on the beach. Every morning I sat by the window or outside with my coffee letting the serenity envelope me. Breakfasts were simple but filling, a reflection on the lifestyle here.
Life was very easy here, my first day I did a 12 mile hike through sand dunes to the southern edge of Vallisas (the next town over) with Germán a friendly guy on vacation from Cordoba. Ok, the hike wasn’t easy but coupled with the views and company it was relaxing.
After the hike we went to the top of the lighthouse for amazing views where I ran into Ori whom I met briefly at La Herradura Spanish School. He came over for dinner with his hostel friend Tamara.
The next day, as I was updating my blog, my Canadian friends showed up to my hostel and coincidentally were my roommates for the next three nights with Joanie (Scottish). We had a wine night (actually I had one almost every night with them) and caught up about our travels.
The next day I enjoyed my coffee in silence watching the waves crash methodically on the shore. Once all the girls were up and broke fast, we all did the hike to the highest dune around (another long hike in sand). On the way we made best friends with a stray dog. Bruno hiked with us all the way there and let us take some pictures with her (yes we realized Bruno was a female after we named her).
On the way back Bruno decided she need to roll around in a dead sea lion. We stopped giving her love so she ran off to the next group of people. She’s probably running around stealing pets from travelers to this day.
We said goodbye to Joanie and went back up to the top of the light house for some more awesome views.
Mary (the hostel host) started a bonfire for us. That night will always be in my mind due to the combination of the fire, super moon, ocean, wine, and good friends. I even danced by myself to some (of my) music under the moon/fire light.
The next day we explored town, bought some souvenirs, and had lunch (all with my money since the Canadians didn’t have any left). We left paradise on a dune buggy.
The girls offered a seat in their car with them. I hopped in Frank (I never found out why they named him that) and we were off for La Pedrera, another beach town down the coast. The beach season was over so most of the hostels were closed. We ended up in a 75 person party hostel all to ourselves.
We explored a little bit mostly took it easy here since most of the town was shut down.
The next day the Canadians dropped me off in Montevideo for one last night with my friends from there. The Canadians trekked on to Buenos Aires where I would see them the next night for an asado.
I met up with Marshall in Parque Rodó for some mate. An hour or so in, Frederico met up with us. Another hour after, Molly came to hang out as well. After a total of 4 hours and four thermoses of mate, then proceeded to drink till we closed down a brewery. Good way to hangout with friends for potentially the last time. No pictures from that night.
The next day I grabbed an early bus to Colonia, a world heritage site. Unfortunately I only spent a little bit of time there. It’s gorgeous and definitely deserved at least one night. I had to catch the ferry to Buenos Aires so I could hang with Kate and Emily one last time. Uruguay treated me well and I already miss it. On to Argentina!
Food porn sideshow.
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