Punta Del Diablo - February 13th

Today we get the beach experience we are looking for.  The man who owns the hostel turns up and offers us a lift to the beach.  Given the walk and the heat we accept, and on the way we ask which is the best beach and he delivers us to Playa Grande.  When you think about it this should always be the best beach with a name like that.  We just didn’t know where it was. 

We didn’t actually get delivered to the beach, because to get to it you have to walk over a kilometre through dunes.  So we haven’t gotten out of the walk, but it is a far nicer walk than along the main road.  When we get to the end of the dunes we see the beach spread out in front of us, a beautiful bay of over a kilometre of white sand backed by trees and dunes.  This is what we were looking for.  There were still quite a few people on the beach, but it was nowhere near as crowded as the other beach.  This is the advantage of not having a direct road to a beach.

And after that it was just lie on the beach and swim in the water.  The water is far colder than you would expect given the almost tropical feel of the place, but there is the full Atlantic Ocean behind it so it’s not really that unusual.  It is still a shock when you go in for the first time.

Walking back from the beach was a bit of a challenge, as there are few signs or names on the streets, and they all look the same.  However we make it, and after changing decide to go out to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  Again the lack of street signs makes it hard to find and we end up walking into the village centre past every other restaurant before finding it.  It was an OK meal, but the most expensive we have had in Uruguay, justifying our decision to self-cater all other meals from the big supermarket across the road.  This includes breakfast, because this hostel with no soul provides an even worse breakfast than the normal ones we get in South America.