Uruguay

Flow's search for the perfect wave

How would you like it - hippy, calm or trendy?
We met three surfspots in Uruguay. First el punte del diablo which is still sleeping in November but turns into a fancy party village in summer. Coloured houses all over the place, dirt roads with deep holes and a cash-machine which only functions during the holiday season.
People were constructing houses to be ready to host the tourists who are arriving in december.
We parked our trailer in the center of town on an empty property.
A man who looked like a homeless pretended to be the owner and asked for money but wasn't willing to prove it at the police so finally he left us in peace ;-)
Surrounded by street dogs who followed us to the beach and into the dunes we wished for the first time not to be in the off season.
The swell of the waves wasn't high enough so we moved on.





Further south we spent two nights at La Paloma. This small town is allready settled with more expensive houses and we finally found a laundry and a free wi-fi spot...back to civilisation...
The first night we slept on a huge parking of a military base and the second one directy on the beach next to the waves. While Mireille was reading and relaxing, Florian practised his surf skills with some locals.




In punta del este it's not allowed to park a trailer in the city. The fanciest beach of Uruguay with the big buildings wasn't very charming to us. So after posing at the big hand in the sand (tourist attraction) we went to the suburb to eat and relax from the ride on the road.




So the perfect wave wasn't found in Uruguay. But one week later, back in Argentina, Flow finally found a very sweet surfspot on the southern end of Mar del Plata. However the sea was much colder there and he was happy to own a wetsuit and have a warm shower in the camper afterwards.

Parking in Montevideo

Finding a parkingslot in a big city ain't that easy if you are driving a vehicle of 7,5m length so we left it at a petrol station and went by foot. At the tourist information center two old ladies gave us a map of the city, but didn'd seem to know anything about the capital of Uruguay. After a long walk, at the end of the main street it started to rain.
Tired of walking without finding anything nice to look at we caught a taxicab, went to a shopping mall and watched two movies in a cinema. Sometimes the basic instincts are the best.

Back to Switzerland

In Nueva Helvetica a colony founded by swissfolks we suddenly felt appetite for Röschti with Zürigschnetzlets so we ate lunch in a 4 star hotel and filled up our tank with swiss quality water.
Anyway they didn't understand swissgerman and the mountains were missing so we went on to the south.





Horse riding in Colonia

Colonia is a beautiful historical city, founded in the seventeenth century by the portugese, who invites tourists to stroll around. Watching the maneuvers of birds struggling with the wind on top of a lighthouse, enjoying a drink at a bar next to the sea or buying a mug for mate (type of tea typical for the reagion) in one of the little shops are the small things in life to appreciate.
Dirk and Lucette a couple from Belgium showed us how to spend the retiremend without getting bored. They have been travelling around the world in their camper for years - five alone in Southamerica - only going back home when they are missing their family two much. Mireille was thrilled to do the same one day while Florian kept on switching the languages from french to german to english and swissgerman.




The next day we went horseback riding with the crazy german guide Sandra. She has bond and pink hair, 7 dogs and about 15 huge cats because she is breeding them. She fell in love with a real gaucho (cowboy), Enrique, the landscape of Uruguay and last but not least the horses.
Mireille convinced Florian to extend the trip from two to four hours, so we could galopp along the beach. After these four hours of trotting and galopping our legs were scratched and our bump red like the one of an orang-utang and the muscles tired and aking.
Satisfied we continued our trip with our camper denying the offer of Enrique to exchange it with a horse...




To say goodbye to Uruguay we took the ferry back to Buenos Aires were our trip had started four weeks ago. Now the direction is the deep south and next stop Puerto Madryn. Mireille just can't wait to see the wales.