Cabo Polonio
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Take me down to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the guys are pretty. And that is exactly where I ended up. Cabo Polonio, which after three days already feels like my second home.
None of the travellers I spoke to went there, or had even heard of it before. Even some Uruguayans had no clue where I was talking about. When I tried to look it up on the map, I couldn't find it. Is this place real? Well, there was a bus going in the direction of Valizas*, so let’s give it a go. Together with Walker, an out and proud American I met in the hostel in Montevideo, I took the 5,5-hours ride and watched the roads getting smaller and smaller and narrower and narrower, until there was only dirt road left.
* Barra de Valizas, a place I ended up visiting about 2,5 years later. By that time Cabo Polonio had grown out to an absolute tourist hotspot
* Barra de Valizas, a place I ended up visiting about 2,5 years later. By that time Cabo Polonio had grown out to an absolute tourist hotspot
In the last hours I didn’t see any houses, just stunning nature. After this journey we were dropped in the middle of nowhere and had to take an 8KM ride on a 4-wheel-drive truck through a national park, as this was the only way to reach Cabo Polonio.
We passed wild horses, cows, drove on an empty breath-taking beach… and there it was.
Rainbow-collared, self-built houses dotted the coast line, peace-signs smiled at me, as did the 60 residents (no not 60.000, just 60)...
A gorgeous hippie complete with a beard and afro laid down his acoustic guitar and waved at me. “Que tal linda, yo soy Andrès, bienvenidos”. The usual formal check-in with passports was skipped, as he ‘just needed a first name to define a person’. From now on, I was told to slow down, relax and feel the positive energy. I could do that, right?
Rainbow-collared, self-built houses dotted the coast line, peace-signs smiled at me, as did the 60 residents (no not 60.000, just 60)...
A gorgeous hippie complete with a beard and afro laid down his acoustic guitar and waved at me. “Que tal linda, yo soy Andrès, bienvenidos”. The usual formal check-in with passports was skipped, as he ‘just needed a first name to define a person’. From now on, I was told to slow down, relax and feel the positive energy. I could do that, right?
Three days passed quickly. I did… well nothing. I walked barefoot around the beach and dunes, watched a colony of sea lions for hours...
... got sunburnt, read books in a hammock and drank mate (some kind of herb tea which every Uruguayan drinks at least 2 litres a day of).
After those lazy days we climbed on the rooftop and watched the sunset that turned Uruguay into a fairytale. When it cooled down during the night, we sat around a campfire, smoked whatever was growing in the backyard and Andrès would grab his guitar. Yes, everything gets better with a guitar.
And the sounds of Gustavo Cerati filled the room:
Naves como nubes cambian de velocidad
Mis pupilas dilatandas otra noche más...
Más azul, es la luz
Si me alejo
Fuerza natural
Me perdí en el viaje
Nunca me sentí tan bien
Naves como nubes cambian de velocidad
Mis pupilas dilatandas otra noche más...
Más azul, es la luz
Si me alejo
Fuerza natural
Me perdí en el viaje
Nunca me sentí tan bien
Related:
- Beach hangouts in Uruguay: Barra de Valizas & Punta del Diablo
- Nature and hiking in Uruguay: Minas, La Serrana & Santa Teresa National Park
- Visit the colonial city of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
- This can't be missed: Uruguay's wine region Carmelo!
- Argentinean beaches: Puerto Madryn & Colón
- Brazilian beaches: Florianopolis, Ilha Grande & Rio de Janeiro
- Paraguayan beach: Encarnación
- Bolivian beach: Copacabana & Isla del Sol
- Colombian beaches: Palomino, Cartagena, Santa Marta & Tayrona National Park, Colombia
- My 1-month Workaway-project on an (almost) uninhabited island in Panamá: Isla San Cristóbal, Bocas del Toro
- More beaches in Panamá: San Blas, Santa Catalina & Costa Abajo
- Beach getaway: Nicoya and the Costa Rican coast
- The tropical beaches of Tortuguero, Costa Rica
- Beach and surfspot in El Salvador: El Zonte
- The beaches of Honduras: Tela & Roatán
- Enjoying the beaches of Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe & Playa Gigante
- The beaches of Mexico: Cancún (don't go there), Cozumel & Tulum
- A vegan camping on a meat and dairy farm in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay
- Back to nature: a wooden cabin in Los Alerces National Park, Argentinean Patagonia
- A perfect wooden cabin in the middle of absolutely nowhere: Aukštaitija National Park, Lithuania
- Relax at the beaches of the Algarve, Lisbon
- Spain and its beaches: Barcelona & Malagá
- The ultimate off-the-grid beach & surf spot in New Zealand: Port Waikato
- An island with only 59 inhabitants: Easdale, Scotland
- The hippie settlement of San Marcos around the Atitlan Lake, Guatemala
- A journey through the mind with ayahuasca [Peru]
- Wannabe a hippie? Head to Tulum, Mexico
- Vegan food and tarot-readings in Minca, Colombia
- Hotspot of the Argentinean (wannabe) bohemians: Purmamarca & Tilcara
- An independent hippie-republic in the center of Copenhagen [Denmark]: Christiania
- An independent hippie-state in the center of Vilnius [Lithuania]: Uzupis
- Where time stood still: Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third main island
- Beach hangouts in Uruguay: Barra de Valizas & Punta del Diablo
- Nature and hiking in Uruguay: Minas, La Serrana & Santa Teresa National Park
- Visit the colonial city of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
- This can't be missed: Uruguay's wine region Carmelo!
- Argentinean beaches: Puerto Madryn & Colón
- Brazilian beaches: Florianopolis, Ilha Grande & Rio de Janeiro
- Paraguayan beach: Encarnación
- Bolivian beach: Copacabana & Isla del Sol
- Colombian beaches: Palomino, Cartagena, Santa Marta & Tayrona National Park, Colombia
- My 1-month Workaway-project on an (almost) uninhabited island in Panamá: Isla San Cristóbal, Bocas del Toro
- More beaches in Panamá: San Blas, Santa Catalina & Costa Abajo
- Beach getaway: Nicoya and the Costa Rican coast
- The tropical beaches of Tortuguero, Costa Rica
- Beach and surfspot in El Salvador: El Zonte
- The beaches of Honduras: Tela & Roatán
- Enjoying the beaches of Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe & Playa Gigante
- The beaches of Mexico: Cancún (don't go there), Cozumel & Tulum
- A vegan camping on a meat and dairy farm in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay
- Back to nature: a wooden cabin in Los Alerces National Park, Argentinean Patagonia
- A perfect wooden cabin in the middle of absolutely nowhere: Aukštaitija National Park, Lithuania
- Relax at the beaches of the Algarve, Lisbon
- Spain and its beaches: Barcelona & Malagá
- The ultimate off-the-grid beach & surf spot in New Zealand: Port Waikato
- An island with only 59 inhabitants: Easdale, Scotland
- The hippie settlement of San Marcos around the Atitlan Lake, Guatemala
- A journey through the mind with ayahuasca [Peru]
- Wannabe a hippie? Head to Tulum, Mexico
- Vegan food and tarot-readings in Minca, Colombia
- Hotspot of the Argentinean (wannabe) bohemians: Purmamarca & Tilcara
- An independent hippie-republic in the center of Copenhagen [Denmark]: Christiania
- An independent hippie-state in the center of Vilnius [Lithuania]: Uzupis
- Where time stood still: Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third main island
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