Another shot of the houses in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay.
Cabo Polonio down the beach.
This is the obligatory cape-lighthouse on the tip of Cabo Polonio. The rocks around the point are much loved lounging locations for sea-lions and people like me.
The truck groaned out of the parking lot and over sand dunes covered in scrub grass and hardy bushes before leveling out onto a wide beach. To the south there was nothing man-made in sight, just the slowly tumbling ocean and a lightly curved plane of sand arcing into the distance. Grumbling, the truck carried us north towards the cape’s shack-peppered outcropping, passing a decomposing sea-lion, dreaded hitchhikers and wandering sunbathers along the way. Our arrival and first exploration of town was similar to one’s first experience at the Oregon Country Fair. It takes a while to settle into being a part of the scene instead of observing it in awe and wonder.
Though it took time to settle into the groove, Cabo Polonio was one of the places I knew, almost instantly, I didn’t want to leave. Populated only during the warm months, it’s a little vacation town on a cape in a national park in Uruguay. Most of the town doesn’t have electricty and the rustic appeal of the vacation houses sprouted around the cape is incredibly attractive to me. Many are just a single room while others have two small floors but they all seemded to be scarcely more than a sleeping area, a cooking area and a porch. With hammocks. So what if you have to heat water for a shower? I’ll let my hair get saltwater crunchy from swimming in the ocean instead. I can only imagine the calm one would feel after a few days of simple food, afternoons reading in a hammock, lounging on the beach and mingling with the travelers and hippies that give the town it its distinctive flair.
We only had time to stay for about six hours but the jokes about changing our midnight flights back to Buenos Aires started almost immediately. We made friends with some benignly loony hippies that were intent on having us stay the night. The prospect of going fishing for dinner and a partying on the beach at night wouldn’t have required persuasion under any other circumstance. We said goodbye and parted for the ride back, fuzzy brained and sun kissed from a day-trip that felt like a vacation. My giant reset button was sufficiently pushed.
Our last day in Uruguay we took the day off, jumped into our rental car (tiny, 5 people, 3 of us are taller than 6 feet. yeah.) and headed up the coast on a road trip. We passed the mate gourd and let the wind blow our hair as we cruised through the Uruguayan countryside towards our destination two hours north: Cabo Polonio.
Except for Martin, none of us knew what to expect of our destination except that it was: 1) some kind of fishing village that 2) didn’t have electricity and 3) was only accessible by riding on the back of a truck through sand dunes. Sounded good enough for me!
During our time in Uruguay we stayed in a house on the beach about 45 minutes north of Punta del Este in a little town called Manantiales. Although the internet was slow, we worked from the house for 3 days and then took the fourth off to travel. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening runs through the town, down the coast and back on the beach. Upon returning, I would grab my towel and immediately jump into the ocean waves. The water wasn’t too warm or cold but exactly refreshing for the situation. On at least on occasion I got to watch orange and pink shards of sunset reflect on the ocean while bobbing among the waves. Very nice.
My work view for the day.
On Sunday we flew from Buenos Aires up to Punta del Este, Uruguay and I snapped this picture of Buenos Aires on our ascent.
Evan Lovely snapped this picture of me with the bottle of OMBU cane liquor we found in the grocery store. Ombu is the name of an Argentinian tree and the name of our company, Ombu Web. But for just under $12 pesos, it’s a little frightening.
