This week was a bit of a diversion from our original trip plan but we could not have done otherwise after all Uruguayans we met convinced us that our visit to their country would not be complete if we skipped their wonderful beaches. Not much convincing was required as we were travelling a lot through big cities and a week on the beach would us a much need rest for our battered feet! The Uruguayan Atlantic cost is short and is has a handful of small beach resorts in the Province of Rocha and some beaches between Punta del Este (the summer party capital of Uruguay) and Montevideo on the estuary of Rio de la Plata, that is so humongous that it anyway looks like the sea (I think I already said that before). Given we had only one week we had to pick where to go. We knew that we will skip Punta del Este, as it is full, expensive and laud in the high season. So we picked Punta del Diablo, furthest west, Cabo Polonio for its remoteness, both located in Rocha and Piriapolis just to check out river beaches. So here is my report from the Uruguayan beach experience:
Punta Del Diablo – where the streets have no names
We arrived in Punta del Diablo after a 4 hours bus ride from Montevideo and checked in to our hostel, where we turned out to be the only guest… and not surprisingly so as the hostel was really shabby and was 1km away from the beach, but it was free. Strange to be so far out from the beach in the beach resort but as we later found out the old small fishing village of Punta del Diablo grew uncontrollably in the last years and stretched it self in all sort of directions. They did not even manage to give names to its streets, though streets is an overstatement; these were mostly sandy roads through the dunes forest leading in all sort of uncoordinated directions. All what remained from the old fishing village were two decaying fisherman’s houses. As the owner told us the pescadores (fisherman) are now all about pescadolares. Most of the village is full of hats and houses for rent of varying quality. It had a small town centre with a few not very inviting restaurants and of course trinket vendors The other sign of the ex-fisherman village were a few working boats on the Playa Pescardores. We stayed on this central beach that afternoon but I felt slightly disappointed. The beach itself was all right but was completely packed and the road alongside it was full of traffic. To get some shade from the scorching sun we sat under one of the boats but were annoyed by the sand flies that were attracted to the smells from the boat. So not great I thought, and could not understand what all Uruguayans were on about…?
Punta del Diablo was ‘saved’ however the next day when the owner of our hostel gave us a lift to the slightly more remote beach Playa Grande. We arrived there after some 15min walk through the dunes. It was great long stretch of sand along the bay surrounded by the dunes and it was almost empty, at least compared to Playa Pescadores. Now I knew what the Uruguayans were all about. It was wonderful!
Cabo Polonio – where there are no streets
This was supposed to be the highlight of our Uruguay beach crawling week and it totally lived up if not exceeded our expectations. Amazing place! There is no road access to the village and everybody has to either walk 7km from the main road or take a 4x4 vehicle through the dunes. The place does not have electricity and everything is powered of solar and wind energy. The village of Cabo Polonio is simply a bunch of small houses on the rocky cape scattered around in no particular pattern, certainly not alongside any streets. There some paths to move around but you can also wonder around as you please. The seemingly never ending beaches stretch to the south and north with dunes and forest behind them. Oh and it has a lovely lighthouse and a colony of the sea lions on the rocks just outside the lighthouse. We thought we would not get to see them because Lonely Planet said they hang around all year except for February… but sure enough they were right there. They are really fun to watch even though their fur colour blends their lazy bodies with the rocks. We got to see a fight of two males fighting for dominance.
As it turned out the accommodation we booked was in the village itself but about 1km away on the southern beach, and there was nothing around. I say accommodation because it is hard to describe. It was basically a family home with some additional rooms for rent build around it. Given its remoteness (there was nothing else around) they also served food for the guests from its own family kitchen and all what they cooked (if they did not run out of supplies) was really lovely, not sophisticated, just really good home cooking including a salad made from home grown veggies. So not really a hotel but a bit more than b&b. The place was so remote that we were often alone on the beach, some occasional people on the beach walk would pass by or the transport vehicle, bringing day-tripers in and out from Cabo Polonio.
Piriapolis – metropolis with numbered streets
When we arrived in Piriapolis we left the dunes and cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean and changed for the sandy banks of Rio Parana that does not look a river at all! Immediately when we arrived it was different. The cooling breeze from the ocean was missing and it was very hot and humid. Luckily our accommodation was this time set far away from the beach on one of the hills surrounding the town so it had some more air than the town and the cost itself (except for it cost us a dreadful walk uphill in the heat). On the first day we went for Playa Grande, some 3km away from the centre mostly because we did not have enough power to walk one more km to Playa Hermosa. The we set out for a longer walk to Playa Hermosa that unfortunately did not live up to its name, although it was less crowded (at some point we were almost alone but that might be becauase of the weather, it was not too sunny) than the more central beaches but sure not worth extra walking in the heat. So conclusion for Uruguay is when in doubt always go for Playa Grande!
Piriapolis itself is rather dull big resort town. It long town that stretches along the river banks but is certainly not big enough to run out of the names for its street, yet like in big metropolis they numbered its streets except for some in the centre. You could feel that its hay days from 1930 were over and all the cool action now moved to Punta del Este. The holidayers here were mostly young families and elderly couples. However its landmark building Hotel Argentino still remains impressive and the pedestrian walk way along the river has some charm
I thought that these three were the end of our beach experience for this week but then on Sunday morning we arrived in Encarnacion in Paraguay on river La Plata, where in 2010 a part of the town was flooded because of the new dam and the town created a beach on the newly established river bank just this summer and our hotel turned to be just few meters away from another beach! This time tired after overnight journey, we decided to skip the beach experience and almost 40C heat and stayed in the fully air-conditioned room typing this blog. Anyway, the beach was so crowded that it did not need additional two people.
Punta Del Diablo – where the streets have no names
We arrived in Punta del Diablo after a 4 hours bus ride from Montevideo and checked in to our hostel, where we turned out to be the only guest… and not surprisingly so as the hostel was really shabby and was 1km away from the beach, but it was free. Strange to be so far out from the beach in the beach resort but as we later found out the old small fishing village of Punta del Diablo grew uncontrollably in the last years and stretched it self in all sort of directions. They did not even manage to give names to its streets, though streets is an overstatement; these were mostly sandy roads through the dunes forest leading in all sort of uncoordinated directions. All what remained from the old fishing village were two decaying fisherman’s houses. As the owner told us the pescadores (fisherman) are now all about pescadolares. Most of the village is full of hats and houses for rent of varying quality. It had a small town centre with a few not very inviting restaurants and of course trinket vendors The other sign of the ex-fisherman village were a few working boats on the Playa Pescardores. We stayed on this central beach that afternoon but I felt slightly disappointed. The beach itself was all right but was completely packed and the road alongside it was full of traffic. To get some shade from the scorching sun we sat under one of the boats but were annoyed by the sand flies that were attracted to the smells from the boat. So not great I thought, and could not understand what all Uruguayans were on about…? 
Punta del Diablo was ‘saved’ however the next day when the owner of our hostel gave us a lift to the slightly more remote beach Playa Grande. We arrived there after some 15min walk through the dunes. It was great long stretch of sand along the bay surrounded by the dunes and it was almost empty, at least compared to Playa Pescadores. Now I knew what the Uruguayans were all about. It was wonderful! Cabo Polonio – where there are no streets
This was supposed to be the highlight of our Uruguay beach crawling week and it totally lived up if not exceeded our expectations. Amazing place! There is no road access to the village and everybody has to either walk 7km from the main road or take a 4x4 vehicle through the dunes. The place does not have electricity and everything is powered of solar and wind energy. The village of Cabo Polonio is simply a bunch of small houses on the rocky cape scattered around in no particular pattern, certainly not alongside any streets. There some paths to move around but you can also wonder around as you please. The seemingly never ending beaches stretch to the south and north with dunes and forest behind them. Oh and it has a lovely lighthouse and a colony of the sea lions on the rocks just outside the lighthouse. We thought we would not get to see them because Lonely Planet said they hang around all year except for February… but sure enough they were right there. They are really fun to watch even though their fur colour blends their lazy bodies with the rocks. We got to see a fight of two males fighting for dominance. 
As it turned out the accommodation we booked was in the village itself but about 1km away on the southern beach, and there was nothing around. I say accommodation because it is hard to describe. It was basically a family home with some additional rooms for rent build around it. Given its remoteness (there was nothing else around) they also served food for the guests from its own family kitchen and all what they cooked (if they did not run out of supplies) was really lovely, not sophisticated, just really good home cooking including a salad made from home grown veggies. So not really a hotel but a bit more than b&b. The place was so remote that we were often alone on the beach, some occasional people on the beach walk would pass by or the transport vehicle, bringing day-tripers in and out from Cabo Polonio.Piriapolis – metropolis with numbered streets
When we arrived in Piriapolis we left the dunes and cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean and changed for the sandy banks of Rio Parana that does not look a river at all! Immediately when we arrived it was different. The cooling breeze from the ocean was missing and it was very hot and humid. Luckily our accommodation was this time set far away from the beach on one of the hills surrounding the town so it had some more air than the town and the cost itself (except for it cost us a dreadful walk uphill in the heat). On the first day we went for Playa Grande, some 3km away from the centre mostly because we did not have enough power to walk one more km to Playa Hermosa. The we set out for a longer walk to Playa Hermosa that unfortunately did not live up to its name, although it was less crowded (at some point we were almost alone but that might be becauase of the weather, it was not too sunny) than the more central beaches but sure not worth extra walking in the heat. So conclusion for Uruguay is when in doubt always go for Playa Grande!
Piriapolis itself is rather dull big resort town. It long town that stretches along the river banks but is certainly not big enough to run out of the names for its street, yet like in big metropolis they numbered its streets except for some in the centre. You could feel that its hay days from 1930 were over and all the cool action now moved to Punta del Este. The holidayers here were mostly young families and elderly couples. However its landmark building Hotel Argentino still remains impressive and the pedestrian walk way along the river has some charmI thought that these three were the end of our beach experience for this week but then on Sunday morning we arrived in Encarnacion in Paraguay on river La Plata, where in 2010 a part of the town was flooded because of the new dam and the town created a beach on the newly established river bank just this summer and our hotel turned to be just few meters away from another beach! This time tired after overnight journey, we decided to skip the beach experience and almost 40C heat and stayed in the fully air-conditioned room typing this blog. Anyway, the beach was so crowded that it did not need additional two people.
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