Punta Del Diablo - February 12th

Today begins our revised schedule of travel in Uruguay.  Originally we planned only a quick trip to Colonia and Montevideo before moving back to Argentina, but since being here everyone has been telling us we have to see the beaches of Eastern Uruguay, so we are taking them up on this.  There is a second less happy reason; because of police strikes in Brazil we are thinking we might spend less time there (only in the areas with no strikes) so we are taking time from beaches there to spend on beaches here, 3 different beach resorts for 2 days each, doubling our time in Uruguay.

Our first beach resort is the furthest away from Montevideo, a place called Punta Del Diablo.  This is a small fishing town only 50km from the Brazilian border, which has recently become one of the top beach resorts.  After a four hour bus journey (made four and a half hours by a wait to change a bus just outside Montevideo, we arrive at our hostel.  To say it is basic is an understatement, but it will do us for two days.  After checking in we walk down to the town, a bit of a walk, we are about a kilometre away from the beach, but close to the bus terminal, so at least our big walk was without backpacks.

The town is a bit chaotic, sort of like a town where uncontrolled development has taken place.  It is a mixture of beach houses, bars and supermarkets, but there is no real soul to the place.  As there is a road right to the beach when we get there we find it is not the deserted beach we were promised, but a packed throng of people.  It is a Sunday, so there might be day trippers, but a lot of them are here for the week.  Our beach is made less pleasant by the smell of rotting fish from the fishing boats, but what can you expect from Playa de los Pescadores.  It is easy to see how it would have been pretty before the development.

In the evening we decide to self-cater in our hostel and sort out our photos from the Montevideo Carnival, no easy task as due to the movement and darkness there are a lot of blurry photos.  We find out we are the only residents in the hostel, other than the dog who lives there.  It is a bit of depressing place.