Uruguay
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Next location: Santiago, Chile (15/03)
Current location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Last location: Ihla Grande, Brazil
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After several successful days in Buenos Aires, we figured it was time to head north and check out Uruguay and Brazil. As there is only a small ocean/large bay between the Buenos Aires area and the Uruguaian city of Coloniel, we chose to embark on our northbound journey by boat.
Coming from Buenos Aires, we did not really have any expectations towards our stay in Uruguay. We had only heard good things about the country, and we knew it was supposed to be similar both in terms of language and price level. Our first stop was Montevideo (1,3mill.people) , a quiet and very relaxed capital set on the shore. The city is ranked as the city in Latin America with highest quality of life and regarded among the 30 safest cities in the world(I´d go for Buenos Aires!). We didnt really explore the city itself, but spent a good while walking along the boardwalk, enjoying the oceanic view and enjoying some hacky-sack practicing under the sun.
I like Uruguay´s flag! The sun emblem is the ‘Sun of May’; it is a symbol of freedom and independence. The nine stripes represent the nine provinces of Uruguay, which existed at the time of the flags creation.
Regarding the city name, Montevideo. According to Wikipedia, the first theory is that the name originates either from Portugese meaning “I see mountain”, or that the Spaniards recorded the location of a mountain in a map as “Monte VI De Este a Oeste” meaning “The sixth mountain from east to west”. Personally, I saw so many cinemas in the city, I think the name stems from the time when people were building cinemas, hence in Norwegian: Monter Video! haha, typical Martin humour…. ey?
It didnt seem like there was much going on in Montevideo. The hostel we stayed at was nothing like the one in Buenos Aires. Functional-wise it could be compared, but the atmosphere was dull and the Borat-wannabe-without-purpose receptionst was the only thing that made it stand out. Music wise, playing Red Hot´s latest album on repeat is what I would regard as mean audio-torture!!!! Anyways, we survived and left on the morning of my birthday, heading to a small coastal fishing village by the name of Punta del Diablo (about 5hrs northeast of Montevideo, towards the Brazilian border). Most people tend to visit Punta del Este, which is the Argentina-Uruguaian-SouthBrazilian answer to any hot-pricey-partying location in Southern France. A quick look at our budget, Punta del Diablo seemed both more plausible and “unique”.
Punta del Diablo was/is unique, but perhaps not as paradise-ish as we expected, reading and hearing about it. We do not know why it is called “the Devil´s point”, perhaps it is because of all the beetles that appear in the dark of the night, leaving beetles corpses/carcasses literally everywhere. In my opinion, Punta del Diablo is no place to visit if you fear creepy insects or if you can´t handle sudden and unexpected beetles to randomly fly into your face, upperbody or even ears/hair. Haha. On the contrary, the place is a popular site for surfers and hippies/artists. The beaches are nice, the landscape is almost untouched by commerical tourism and the streets are unpaved, with small restaurants/pubs along the mainstreet towards the oceanfront.
Our first night in Punta del Diablo was spent at a “hostel” some 8 blocks (appx, 1km, first time I heard someone calling wild nature “blocks”) from the beach. The place was cheap, but the dorms had some 25-30 beds, the choice seemed simple - a private tent was easily much more preferred. In the evening we had a few drinks with the hostel crowd, and later we searched the town for a open bar…only one place on the beach was open, but it was my birthday, and naturally we had to celebrate. Let´s just say I wasn´t the cleverest guy at dancing that night!
Next day we hooked up with two Norwegian girls, Tone and Linn, who we met in Buenos Aires. They came all the way from Buenos Aires just for one night…quite a journey! We ditched the hostel and rented a somewhat “charming” and rather unfinished beachhouse, at $40 per night.
Our very own beachresidence, quite the experience..
Norwegian meet-up in Punta del Diablo, no clubbing without a proper “Vorspiel”!
I would recommend people to visit Punta del Diablo, it is truly uniqe, and going there you travel for hours seeing many towns and the very beautiful landscape of Uruguay. The location is very remote, with few shops/mercados, no banking possibilites, a bus-station that looks like a kiosk, internet cafes are called “Cyber” and the town itself only has a population of about 400 people.
Getting away from Punta del Diablo, you can either go south to the more urban areas of Uruguay (Montevideo/Punta del Este…) or you can catch a bus to souther locations in Brazil. To do this you need to reach the bordertown of Chuy, located EXACTLY on the Uruguaian/Brazilian border. In fact, the mainstreet divdes the city. Most people speak both Spanish and Portugese and the city has a very “harry (redneck)” feel to it. This means that it can be compared to bordershoppingtowns in Sweden or Germany. Big families from Brazil flock to Chuy to buy cheaper electronics, beer and candy (why is it always that its the stuff that makes you stay home and get unhealthy that is tax-free???).
Arriving in Chuy we missed the first bus at 12.30 to Porto Alegre in Brazil. Next bus was scheduled at 23.00, giving us plenty of time to explore this “very exiciting” town. Before leaving, we had to complete immigration procedures, getting the Uruguaian exit stamp and the Brazilian entry stamp.
More on Brazil and the exotic adventures in country of beaches, capirinhas and bikinis soon…
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Take care, and use insect repellent!
- Martin
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