 |
| The beautiful sand dunes and coastline of Cabo Polonio |
With a quick visit to the Alamo rental agency at the main bus station, we were off to explore the Uruguayan coastline. Neither of us have driven a car in over 3 months but thankfully, it's not easy to forget how and Montevideo was almost easier to drive in than Denver even. While it would be impossible to see all 660 km of Uruguayan coast in just 2 days, we did make it up to La Paloma before the sun started to set.
 |
| And we are off! |
 |
| We had to catch a little ferry across the river leading in the ocean! And it was free! |
 |
| Loved rolling in to town to see this beautiful lighthouse at sunset! |
All these beach towns are supposedly hopping with international beachgoers during the summer (Jan and February) but turn into sleepy towns the rest of the year. La Paloma was no exception and we were almost lucky to find a few hotels and restaurants open.
The next day we continued up to the turn-off for Cabo Polonio which was the real gem and highly recommended by Fio. It is a natural coastline, flanked but big sand dunes, and a protected nature area. We arrived to the turn-off, paid our 'shuttle' fee and soon were bouncing over the sand dunes toward the coast in a big dune-buggy.
We rode along the beach for a while too and arrived at the small shacks that make up this rustic beach town. I instantly wished we would have reached this place to stay the night prior as the laid-back vibe seemed very relaxing. Apparently, it also gets quite busy during the summer but there were only a few hostels and shops open this time of year, even though the weather was perfect (though I think the locals would say it was cold!). But at least we had a whole day to explore. We walked about an hour up the coastline to walk along the big sand dunes.
 |
| There were lots of jumping photos! |
Thankfully the sun came out and the sand dunes were a perfect spot to relax, eat our sandwiches and take lots of fun photos.
 |
| Loved the seashell colors! |
We made our way back to town in the late afternoon to go up the new lighthouse to see the beautiful views. The lighthouse was built after a few ships wrecked off the rocky coast.
 |
| Tons of sea lions were swimming and chilling on the end of those rocks |
 |
| Beautiful view over town and both sides of the peninsula |
Then we bounced our way back to the park entrance at sunset. We met an English girl and gave her a ride to a town along the main highway to help her out. But unfortunately, we arrived in Punta del Este later that night and realized she had left her phone in our car. Thankfully, we were able to send it with a bus the next day to her in Punta del Diablo and she received it by the afternoon. With our good deed done, we explored Punta del Este, the ritzy and internationally known beach town about 2 hours east of Montevideo.
We returned to Montevideo in just enough time to get our big backpacks, return the car and hop the bus to Colonia del Sacramento. This historic town was founded by the Portugese in 1680 and faces Buenos Aires across the incredibly wide Rio de la Plata. It was once a city of strategic importance in resisting the Spanish but now the old town is a UNESCO historic site. We had a few hours before our ferry to walk around but it was quite windy and cloudy so wasn't as photogenic as maybe it could have been.
 |
| The old gate from the 1600's |
The ferry to Buenos Aires was just over an hour and absolutely miserable. It was hot, stuffy and super bouncy (probably due to the high winds) and I got sea sick :( I had made tentative plans with Christy to go back for a day trip next week but don't think I want to get near another ferry anytime soon! In BA, we shared a cab with some Brazilians we knew from Montevideo and arrived at the hostel in time to rest from our long day!
No comments:
Post a Comment