Well, I’ll say one thing about this trip: it certainly hasn’t been boring!

Here I am, sitting on a big, Peggy’s Cove-style rock beside the Atlantic Ocean, in the little surfer/ghost-town called Punta del Diablo, on the east coast of Uruguay.

When I randomly chose Uruguay as my World Cup pick last summer, I thought it was somewhere in Africa.

But no, apparently it’s between the giant countries of Argentina and Brazil, and it seems to be the perfect place to clear my head for a couple of days. I’m here with no water, no food, zero cash, and if it weren’t for the VISA signs I saw in a few restaurant windows, I’d be living the life of an ascetic.

How the HELL did I get here? (and, perhaps more importantly, how the HELL am I going to get out?)

To recap the journey:

My night bus to Montevideo wasn’t too bad. I arrived at the main terminal, Tres Cruces, at around 6am, and then caught the bus to Punta del Diablo at 7am. South American bus terminals are a little different from Canadian terminals; there are always several agencies selling different tickes to destinations, so you have to window-shop a little bit when you arrive at the terminal. Tres Cruces isn’t as huge as Retiro in Buenos Aires, but it’s got quite a few options. I finally chose Rutas del Sol, which seemed to be the best option for getting to the coast.

I tried to use the ATMs at the terminal, but none of them were working. It was before the official opening hour for the bank, so I figured that was the problem. I had spent all of my Argentinean money, and had no Uruguayan pesos, but I figured I’d be able to take some money out in Punta del Diablo. So I hopped aboard, ate the rest of the ham and cheese I bought yesterday, and slept for most of the ride.

Lonely Planet had said that Punta del Diablo was the opposite of Punta del Este, which apparently is a real touristy, superficial party town. It sounded like precisely what I needed: somewhere quiet, where I could write and relax, hopefully a hippie place just like Tulum, Mexico (which I fell in love with last month).

The bus arrived in town at 12 (it’s approximately 5 hours between Montevideo and Punta del Diablo), and I was dropped off basically in the middle of the Wild West. There was a supermarket and a pharmacy, a few wooden signs nailed to trees and posts, and no one around. No one. A young boy on a horse-drawn carriage clomped by. A dog was asleep in the ditch. I had no clue what I was in for!

I had hoped to stay in one of the many cabanas for rent, but there was no one around to offer one (I was missing all of the Croatian grandmas at the bus stations who are waiting to bring you straight to their homes!). My suitcase was simply too heavy to lug it around the streets (which, incidentally, are sand), so I went into the first hostel I came across. It was the HI (Hostelling International) hostel, a big, white building, and an old German man (drunk, I’m pretty sure), came out to greet me. He told me that it was the off-season in town, which was why everything was so quiet, and indeed, I would be the only person staying in the whole hostel!

I wasn’t entirely convinced that I wanted to stay there, as I was hoping to find somewhere slightly more lively, so I told him I would go to the ATM first, and then check in when I returned (but hopefully find a better place first). When I found the only ATM in town (nestled away on a side street in a glass enclosement!), I made the rather unsettling discovery that my debit card doesn’t work in that particular machine. Oops.

I returned to the hostel, now quite happy to stay there if they accepted cards, but Gerhardt (or whatever his name was), informed me that they don’t accept credit cards, and neither do any of the other places in town. He said my only option was to go to a town called Chuy, 40 minutes away, and try to use the bank machine there. After the long journey I’d already had, plus the fact that I didn’t even have one peso for a bus ticket, that didn’t seem like an option. I asked if I could leave my luggage there while I checked the other hostels in town, just in case.

And, like a miracle from the Travel Gods, I happened upon the magnificent Casa de las Boyas (meaning “house of the buoys”, because there are buoys of all shapes and sizes strung up around the deck). The lovely, Ecuadorian pixie named Marisol told me that not only do they accept credit cards, but she could also lend me some cash if I needed it.

Impersonal HI hostel be damned!!

I returned with my bags and checked into my wonderful dorm room, with a window at the end of my beds that looks straight out to the ocean.
I am a bit thrown for a loop by the money situation, especially since I’m not actually sure if the restaurants around town accept credit cards, and I face the very real possibility of going hungry, which is something that has never crossed my mind before. So I walked around town for a little while, and simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It is really like a ghost town here. There are old fishing boats on the beach, empty bars and restaurants, signs falling off their hinges, wild sand dunes and dogs dogs dogs everywhere! Apparently, this town gets totally packed out with surfers in the high season and the population swells to something like 100-times what it is in the normal season.

But right now, in the off-season, I’ve pretty much got it all to myself. And I couldn’t be happier (I also couldn’t be hungrier… must find something to eat).