Punta Del Diablo

Time to say goodbye to Brazil and hello, Uruguay; but not before 2 days of traveling and 37 hours of those 2 days spent aboard buses! We were extremely happy to arrive in Punta del Diablo and even happier when we found that the glowing reports we'd heard about this place were all true. It is still a relatively undeveloped fishing village, with stunning beaches and forest surrounding it on every side and just enough in the small town to help us survive for a few days here. We stumbled across an absolute gem of a place to stay, Naranja Lima, a small cabana perfectly and beautifully kitted out and with the most helpful and friendly owners you can imagine, Roberto and Andrea.

We awoke each morning and looked out at the Atlantic Ocean, before eating breakfast out on the decking in the sun. We explored the small town during the first morning and then headed out along the rocks and in to the Santa Teresa National Park. The sea here was still rough and wild, despite Uruguay heading in to the summer season.

We walked for a couple of hours along the beach and came across a handful of people the whole time. We did however discover a whole array of dead wildlife, nothing sinister, just the results of a high tide and the Atlantic ocean; 2 huge seals, a penguin, birds, fish - Dave was in his element! We couldn't believe how beautiful this place was and how few people were around, absolutely brilliant.

After enjoying the chilled out atmosphere and gorgeous weather we decided it was time for some more activity and signed up for a sunset horse trek. After my evil horse in the Pantanal I was rather concerned when I was introduced to my horse for the afternoon, 'Borracha'; for those who don't have a clue why that would worry me this translates as 'Drunk'! My fears were unfounded though and Borracha turned out to be a great little horse. We rode into the National Park and our guide pointed out the various plants and birds along the way and then came up trumps when she produced a bottle of red wine from her saddle bag, which we polished off between the 3 of us.

We made our way back down through the sand dunes and onto the beach to enjoy the sunset and a gallop in the waves. I'm lying, Dave and Rossini (his Stallion!!) galloped off into the sunset and me and Drunk trotted gingerly behind; even that probably the result of dutch courage from swigging wine from the bottle.

After our equestrian efforts the day before, we lazed for the most part of our last day in Punta del Diablo; our most strenuous activity being a lick of an ice cream. We did narrowly avert certain death during our evening stroll on the dunes though when Dave, collecting wood for our fire, uncovered several small scorpions and proceeded to poke them with a stick! His comment,in typical Dave style, was 'oo that one's aggressive'; yes, that'll be because you're poking him with a stick Temple. We returned, scorpion sting-free, to our cabana and lit a fire to drink our beer and eat our dinner around, perfect!


Next morning we jumped on our bus to Montevideo, but both agreed that Punta del Diablo is definitely a place we would love to return to one day.