03/01/2020 – Punta Negra to Punta del Diablo, Uruguay

We got up at around 06:30 and finished packing our things up. Bye bye nice little simple cabin! The bus stop was only a block away, so it wasn’t hard for us to be there ready and waiting for 07:30. Luckily this bus did turn up unlike the one of New Year! We got on the local bus and watched as it got more and more full of both people going to work, and people with deckchairs off to the beach. Uruguay is mate central (the herbal tea drink). The Uruguayans literally carry their thermos, special cup and straw around with them at all times. Lots of them have a carry case with a handle (a bit like a giant version of table trays that hold the olive oil salt and pepper in a restaurant) It is really funny! Josh and I always say it is like if we English people always carried around a china tea cup and saucer and a thermos of tea, which really tickles me at the thought! The mate tea is full of caffeine, but because it is herbal most South Americans will convince you it is healthy, because of the antioxidants. I do think it is heavily caffeinated though, and they drink it slowly but all day. Must be like drip feeding yourself coffee all day, imagine!

The bus took us to Punta del Este, the city we came to for a few drinks on NYE. We went into the bus terminal and bought a ticket for our onwards travel. We had a couple of hours to spare, so we wandered down the highstreet and found a café for breakfast. We had some eggs on toast and a coffee, and the price reflected the notion that this is a fancy place, the ‘Monaco of the South’. Josh ran down to an ATM as we had read that our next destination doesn’t have one. (I believe this, when we tried to book our accommodation for the next place, the host told us he doesn’t have a bank account, as he doesn’t believe in it – this is bohemia central!) We walked back to the bus station and were soon on our coach up to the North of the Uruguayan coast – to Punta del Diablo. The coach journey took about 3 hours, we napped, listened to music and podcasts on our phones. We got off at a small but busy bus terminal. We walked for about 15 minutes down a dirt track to our accommodation, called Patas Negras. It was a beautifully sunny day with a bit of a breeze. Our host Fabian showed us around our accommodation. There is an outdoor kitchen area, an outdoor shower, some compost toilets, and we have a small wooden hut with a double bed in it. It is beautiful and so simple. The host Fabian built it all which is amazing work really ! There is a ping pong table and some hammocks too. It was really peaceful and immediately felt very chilled out. I honestly think Uruguay is the most bohemian and laid back country I have ever been to! Marijuana is legal here and people have sectioned off part of their gardens to grow it, which is quite weird to see!

We got settled in and then put on suncream and did the 20 minute walk to the beach. All the homes here look homemade. There are little huts, cabins, lodges that all look unique. There are quite a lot of homes made from shipping containers too. They are really interesting to look at! It makes you think how big our homes and houses are at home, and how little we actually really need to get by. There is something quite interesting about stripping things back to basics and going simple. We got to the heavingly busy beach, and set our stuff down near to people that we considered safe – bit of a risk leaving our bags on the beach but they only had towels and hats in so there wasn’t much to be stolen! We ran in to the sea and played in the waves. There are lifeguard towers on the beach and also a few bars/cafes. This is definitely the beach for the South American holidayers! The locals were all facing the sun and seemingly trying to get as tanned as possible. There were definitely enough burnt people, I don’t think they have got the memo about suncream over here yet by the looks of things! We are right near the border with Brasil, and we definitely saw a fair few people with darker hair and skin that look very Brasilian! We definitely feel like we stick out – don’t think there are too many Europeans or other backpackers around. We walked back home and shared a bottle of wine that we had leftover from NYE. We used the outdoor shower and then walked back to the bus station in order to buy our bus tickets for in a few days time. It is such a small but busy place we wanted to make sure we would be able to get the bus we wanted! We walked a bit further down the road to a pizza place, a tiny little hut on the side of the road. Our host had recommended it, and we are glad he did because we never would have come here otherwise! We bought a meter of pizza (Josh’s dream) and sat on the little bench by the road sharing it. It was the best pizza in a long time! We got the leftovers boxed up and walked to the supermarket to buy some provisions for tomorrow. We stocked up, after tickling the beautiful friendly grey fluffy shop cat. It had its own huge bag of catfood open on top of the catfood being sold, and was happily helping itself to it! Everything here has so much character, it’s the little things that really make you smile!

We walked back home and got into our cabin. It was pretty cool now the sun had gone down so no need for the fam. We got into the mosquito net and fell asleep watching Netflix.