Back in Buenos Aires I went back to the American del Sur hostel; it's fairly soulless but it was close to El Banco Rojo which is my new favourite restaurant. I went a little crazy and ordered the burger and chicken wings—but I'm glad I did as I didn't have another opportunity to return. The chicken wings are some of the best I've ever had. The burger…meh.
The next day I hunted down some empanadas and went to bed for my early start the following day, although the city was coming alive and I wished I could get out and enjoy it. Rush hour here seems to last about 4 hours, so after walking down to the metro and seeing how crowded it was, I decided to take a taxi to the port.
To get to Uruguay you take the boat from the river, which looks more like the ocean, to Colonia del Sacramento and then the bus to Montevideo, which is another two hours. It's all done through Buquebus, but if you can handle the Spanish then book cheaper tickets via SeaCat. I was a little tired, anxious and grumpy during the first part as I'd been pretty much alone for a few days, but I was proud of myself when I arrived in Montevideo.
Punta del Diablo
There was a connecting bus to Punta del Diablo at 2:30; I arrived at 1:30 and within 15 minutes I had a ticket, had found the toilets and bought some apple juice—remember kids, always buy water. The bus journey was a further 5 hours and I arrived just after dark at around 7 PM.
The town is really small and was a little shock after being in big cities for the past few weeks. I followed Google Maps to the supposed location and must have taken a wrong turn as I couldn't find the hostel. I decided to follow a path around the houses and slipped in the dark, but I didn't fall over and realised I had a light on my phone. The path ended at the beach and after walking around for a few minutes, I found the hostel. It's weird that in the dark everything changes and although it was still early, it felt really different.
I was greeted by Federico who lived in the US for 20 years and I was told I was the only person in the hostel. I headed to the supermarket to buy some water and by this time I had a bad headache, so I decided to take a rest and woke up in the morning to a full hostel and a beautiful sunrise.
Over breakfast I met some guys from Brazil who offered for me to join them to Cabo Polonio that day but I had already paid for my three nights' accommodation so I declined, and I wanted to explore the beaches and fort. After some deliberating I decided to take the bus to the national park, hike for a while, visit the fort and then walk back along the beaches.
I hiked the 2 km to the bus station and in the process nearly trod on a snake. I was checking my progress on my phone and I tend to walk quite fast. I looked up and another two steps and I would have been on it. Luckily I reacted and jumped to the side around the snake which changed its stance and slithered into the bushes so fast, ensuring that both of us would not have a bad day.
The bus driver dropped me off at the first entrance to the national park and despite being told I should go to the second, I spotted a route and was happy to walk the extra distance. This is the path where I started my journey.
I passed some horses and despite the path's proximity to the main road, around 50 metres, as I could hear the traffic I became increasingly worried. I generally don't get scared here, but it didn't help that I saw a bunch of guys in army uniform who all came from nowhere pushing an old beat-up car. When the engine started they jumped in and drove past me. The path split and the direction I wanted to take was a locked gate. I backtracked and the other direction was also locked. I didn't think it was a good idea to jump the gates and follow the path, and I didn't want to backtrack the two kilometres, adding an additional four to my journey. As the main road was close, I decided to cut through the jungle hoping I didn't meet any snakes on the way. After jumping a fence and narrowly avoiding a small bog, I was on the main road with 1 km to go to the main entrance.
On the side of the road was a man chopping wood with an axe and a chainsaw on the floor near him. I pushed on past, but it's not really something you want to see. I found the entrance, spoke to the army officer on the gate who gave me a card—I have no idea why—and then headed to the fort. On the way were two dogs lying in the road. Now stray dogs are normally friendly here, but I didn't like the way these two were looking at me, so I was reluctant to pass them until they came running up and decided to guide me until an hour later they saw a guy riding past on a bike with a surfboard who was much more fun to chase.
The fort wasn't really up to much, so I had a look, ate my lunch and decided to hit the beaches.
On the way I passed all the holiday homes. Punta del Diablo is a fishing village and holiday town. In the summer the population increases from 1,500 to 20,000, so at this time of year there are lots of closed restaurants and empty houses.
I soon arrived at the beaches, took off my shoes and socks and walked back to the hostel. I was to learn that walking barefoot across 10 km of sand becomes painful after a while. Also at the end of each beach where you have to cross grass, there are lots of spiky things. But the beaches were largely empty, especially the first, and I got to see lots of wildlife.
The third beach was called Playa Grande, and for good reason as it was huge! It was really good to walk in the Atlantic along the shore, until I thought I saw jellyfish, and the beaches and dunes are beautiful.
Back in Buenos Aires I went back to the American del Sur hostel; it's fairly soulless but it was close to El Banco Rojo which is my new favourite restaurant.
At one point I even saw, what I think were condors feeding, although it was probably vultures. Some other people walking towards me on the beach disturbed them. I took some pictures and waited for them to land again. One started to follow me and after reading a story in Bruce Chatwin's book I decided I didn't want to be attacked by a bird of prey and walked on.
I returned to the hostel and watched the sunset when Julieta invited me to have dinner with her and her friends Daley and Tefy who all spoke good English, and Augustina who kept shouting "London" at me. Although I suspect her English is still better than my Spanish. We went to another hostel with Hanole from France. There was a lot of Argentinian music playing and Han and I went on a mission to find some beer. When we returned I contributed to the world's worst game of pool whereby the end no one knew who was playing for each team. I got the opportunity to dance to salsa badly after Tefy taught me the steps. When the music stopped we headed to the beach and met some Brazilians who had a campfire. I spoke to a girl who had just had a swim in the freezing ocean who had lived in the US and was given some good tips on Brazil should I go.
The next day I woke up in a storm which lasted all day. It was possibly a good thing as I was tired and needed a rest day. I was slightly annoyed as there were a few things I wanted to do, especially see the house shaped like a head. I sat down and played with my Spanish apps hoping that I learnt something. We played a little Perudo and the girls and I decided to just head out in the rain and it was a little further than we thought, but we managed to get some photos before it was too dark. And of course, completely soaked, except me who went in full Gore-Tex.
That night was Daley's birthday party. We ordered pizza and drank beer and wine and I had my first taste of dancing to reggaeton. It was really fun dancing outside to a nearly full moon with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. After a while we put on some English songs and I managed to kill the vibe and soon we were back to reggaeton. I am now hearing the songs everywhere and they sound like old friends which I really like. I just need to learn what the words mean!
I crashed out early around 2:30 and ended up waking at 6:30. I noticed the sunrise was beautiful so I grabbed my camera and headed down to the beach.
I can't decide which ones I like best, so that's all of them! On the way back up the path I ran into a not so friendly dog so had to walk the long way back to the hostel. I fell asleep again and woke up really groggy, desperately searching for my water.
It took me a long time to get ready and we all made it on the 2:30 bus to Montevideo.
Montevideo
We arrived at 7 PM and I marched off in the wrong direction to my hostel, which I seem to be doing more. I'm not sure if my phone's GPS is failing or if my inbuilt "satnav" is getting worse in my old age. I found Montevideo a little run down and didn't enjoy the area of town I was walking through, which is when I found I had gone the wrong direction. Still I made it to the hostel and decided to go to a restaurant in the guide book as I hadn't eaten out yet. It was a few kilometres away so I decided to walk. I made good progress and somewhere towards the end as the neighbourhood took a turn for the worse, I realised I was in the middle of a housing estate. It was easy to correct my course, but it didn't feel right and when I got to the restaurant it was closed. There was another I had passed on my way, so I retraced my steps for five blocks and ended up in La Cocina de Pedro.
I decided to have the steak recommended by the waiter, which was delicious. But as I was sat at the bar overlooking the kitchen, I was jealous of all the seafood with vegetables and salads being served. Still it was delicious and I decided to have dessert to treat myself.
The next day I got up early ready to hit the city. It was at this point when someone mentioned it was 1 May and a holiday. In the UK we take the first Monday in May as a holiday, but many countries have 1 May as Workers' Day. I was still hopeful that shops, restaurants and museums would be open, but as I walked the four kilometres to the Museo Andes my hopes were dashed the closer I got as everything was closed. Even McDonald's and Burger King were closed. I had a little walk around the town and then needed the toilet, but with nothing open to help me I headed back to the hostel.
In the afternoon I decided to go for another walk to see if anything the other side of town was open, but alas not. I did see some fun graffiti and for some reason I really like this McDonald's sign shot.
One thing I really wanted to try in Uruguay is the national dish that is a chivito. I've linked to the story as this is long enough, but it is basically a sandwich with all the meat—steak, ham, bacon, eggs, cheese, tomato and lettuce. I added some chips to mine so it was a little more balanced. I had wanted to go to the café where it was invented, but it was 11 km away and I expected it would be closed, so I went to a place that was open which the hostel recommended.
In the morning I spent the last of my Uruguayan dollars on food and headed to the bus back to Buenos Aires for the last time.
