Cabo Polonio

23.01. The pride of the Uruguayans, Punta del Este, the 'Miami of South America', we avoided it widely - we both got a bad sunburn and we generally don't like crowded beaches in high season. But we didn't want to miss another highlight: Cabo Polonio! A sleepy fishing village surrounded by rugged nature, without roads, not even tracks leading there. There is no electricity, only the sea and the wind, the dunes and tranquility. This attracted dropouts a few decades ago, who settled there, built houses from planks on the beach, tried out alternative forms of coexistence and probably much more. This in turn attracted the eco-scene and tourists who also wanted to 'drop out' for a few days or hours. Today you don't have to walk painstakingly through the dunes for kilometers anymore, you can be driven there on the back of a truck. The colorful plank houses on the beach have turned into hostels and bars, and the dropouts have become young entrepreneurs. The trucks are now equipped with seats and during high season they transport the crowds to the sleepy fishing village in minutes intervals. Of course, the hippie village lured us too, but even more so the sea lion colony at the old lighthouse. That's why we simply spent the night on the huge meadow that serves as a parking lot for tourists, got up at 5:45 am to be there with the first truck at 7:00 am (with whom we naturally have nothing in common😉). The truck then left pretty much on time at 8:15 am and rocked us along with the first day tourists and some young people with backpacks, guitars and a lot of anticipation on their faces towards the village and the beach. But everything was still asleep here....in hammocks, in beds in open rooms with a view of the beach...the nights seem to be long here - and can now be paid with VISA &CO.

First we hiked to the lighthouse and spent a lot of time watching the sea lions and seabirds. On the way back, the village slowly awakened, the beach was already overcrowded and we quickly took a truck back to the parking lot.

We made sure to move on and drove over gravel roads through endless palm forests to Laguna Negra, where we found our camping spot for the night and could watch a heavy thunderstorm pass over us in peace.