Fabulous Uruguayan hospitality and some unexpected hippie time;-)

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Back in Asia we heard that South America is a great place for CouchSurfers. We did not participate much in CS in Asia but decided to give it a go in here. We already stayed with Leandro in Buenos and now came the time to try some of the Uruguayan hospitality. We took a bus from Montevideo to Maldonado (100UR$/10$ each) near Punta Del Este to meet our hosts – Lau and Max. We could not believe how high the standard of Uruguayan buses was. Not only they have brand new flotas but also all of them have Wi-Fi on board. Shame on you, bus companies in Europe!!! We got there around 8 pm and were a little bit skeptical about walking 8 blocks to the main plaza with all of our stuff. As we learnt later on this place (Punta and surrounding neighborhoods) is super safe and people don’t even lock their cars at car parks so there was no threat whatsoever. We agreed to meet Lau in Culture Centre where she spends loads of time enjoying herself … dancing to be precise ;-) Max joined us half an hour later and we all went shopping for some dinner and wine;-)

To be honest, we have never met people like them - so warm and outgoing but more importantly with a great view of life. They work as much as they want and the rest of their time is spent on doing what they love. Lau is an English teacher and Max is a lifeguard during summer but what they really do most of their time is dancing and playing music. When asked why they work so little – simple answered was given - because they can and they want to enjoy life. If only all people have this approach to life. We loved them instantly and we did not even have to try to enjoy our first evening together. The bond was created ;-) Lau and Max and their dog Amici (we just love hosts with animals) live in a nice neighborhood of La Barra just 10 min on a bus from the trendy Punta Del Este. We were lucky with the location and their open house as we could see much more than we initially wished for.

We had a stroll around La Barra and it was just stunning. No wonder masses of people from Uruguay and Argentina come to this place for summer holidays. It was filled with beach houses, wealthy-looking villas and rental apartments but all of them closed for the winter. La Barra was a ghost town and we could not really feel the atmosphere of it. We had some nice bakery visit though and the beach walk was great to. It was nice to be back at the coast again even though it was not as tropical as we were used to. That evening Lau and Max took us to Maldonado for some snacks and rock concert. When we arrived we were positively surprised that it was in fact a folk concert. Potato, patato … same same hahah I was thrilled as I love folk music especially that this kind of music was features in my adored soap opera I mentioned in the previous blog. Lau was laughing so much from the Natalio Oreiro thing as she could not even believe that someone in Europe would watch 'Muneca Brava' on TV hahha

The concert was followed by a very special show, which we were just so lucky to see. We could listen to comparsa groups playing tambores and we learnt that these sounds are actually Afro-Uruguayan. Apparently the whole tradition started when slaves were walking from a river after emptying urinals which back then had shapes of today’s tambores/drums. They started to play on them as a way of passing time. Cute but rather gross story to be honest hahaha Anyhow when they began playing our legs started to move simultaneously to the sounds of drums. They were amazing and rocked the silence that fell upon gathered audience. Later on we grabbed some nice pizza and beer and we called it a night (2 pm or so).

Of course we also had to see the famous Punta Del Este. We already knew it would be very deserted but we wanted to visit it nonetheless. It was stunning, we must admit. Like a super trendy town somewhere in the south of France with luxurious apartments and boutiques, yachts in the bay and very upscale restaurants where price of any simple meal would start from 30$. We had lunch in Burger King for obvious reasons hahaha. We spent the whole afternoon strolling along the promenade, soaking in the sun and just enjoying our time. Part of us hated this place for its upscale and classy feel. We felt out of place and really not suited for this. We stayed till twilight watching sun setting and eating ice-cream by the beach – overall it was a lovely day.

We were supposed to move on to Punta Del Diablo next but our hosts invited us in to their newly build house in a small beach town several kilometers from La Barra. They only live and work in La Barra outside of summer season and spend every weekend working on their eco-house. You would not believe but these two built it all by themselves and with their own hands. When we thought we could not admire them more, we saw their super cozy home. It was a self build design with all the eco features of green roof, hey isolated walls and green toilet etc. We had a lovely evening with home-made food (I cooked), wine and grapa miel. Lau and Max even made tapioca for us (of yucca flour) not to mention delicious bread with guacamole for breakfast. We talked and talked about travels, South America and Uruguay and we learnt so much from one another. This kind of experience cannot be compared to any hotel/hostel stay ever.

We even got invited to a Bday party of their neighbors’ son (1 year old) which was quite an experience on its own. Few blocks away from Lau and Max’s house is a kind of hippie settlement. I don’t want to offend anybody here (in case they don’t really consider themselves hippie) but it is hard to describe this community otherwise. Group of friends who live very close to each other built their houses of anything and everything by themselves. It was a similar eco concept to Lau and Max’s house but more budget driven if you will. We saw a house that cost only 800USD to build and it is completely livable. Human creativity has no end, really. They used hey, clay, old door and windows, glass, wood and even wine bottles to finish and decorate their homes. They look a little bit like hobbit houses from The Lord of the Rings – small, cute with green roofs and round windows. One house was even built in a shape of a boat as its owner is a fisherman.

But the house is not the only thing in their self sufficient eco-living. They grow and produce their own food, make clothes and just live in this remarkable community. We got offered home-made pates, hummus of many kinds, pizzas, pita breads, chesses, cakes, drinks etc. The table was full of delights. There was bonfire and tambores music at the end of this perfect garden party. Because of our language limitations we could not fully participate in conversations but people kept coming to us, kissing us hello ad trying to get to know us – fantastic place and people, really. Lau told us later on that when the Bday boy was born (at home of course, cause who needs a hospital), his mum made shoes of the placenta …. hmmm

We had a walk along the beach and could not stop wondering how much this place resembles Polish coast. We have similar pine forests (apart from random palm trees here and there), sand dunes and very wide, sandy beaches. It felt like home – really. Strange as we have come so far from it. At the end of this perfect weekend we were invited to yet another home of Lau and Max’s friends for some cannelloni and wine. It was a wonderful afternoon with great company, food and stories. We discovered that we knew of their Natalia Oreiro (still funny for them) and they knew of our famous football player – Grzegorz Lato, who happens to come from my home town (Polish team was big in the 80-ties). It is strange how familiar people can be even at the other end of the world. When you travel for a long time you stop looking for differences in people but seek similarities. I supposed we must have reached this point on our way. Sometimes the places we visit are not fabulous because of their beauty or interesting things to do but because of people we meet. This was one of those places, discovered with help of fantastic people, who opened their home(s) to us and showed us real hospitality. What more a culture hungry traveler can wish for?

We also made a short stop in Punta del Diablo as it is said to be a complete opposite of Punta Del Este – undeveloped, remote and shaggy yet still amazingly beautiful. But the weather was so horrible and foggy that when walking along the beach we could not see anything beyond few meters. We saw some nice beach houses and sand dunes and we did some extensive walks around to catch up on excercise. We happened to stay in the most fabulous hostel you could imagine – Hostel de la Viuda and thanks to that our time in Punta del Diablo was very pleasurable. Even though their cottage type house could be more suitable for a mountain resort than a beach place, it is incredibly well decorated, cozy and had fantastic kitchen/dinner area that made us feel like at home. Not to mention breakfasts they served – it was a reason to wake up on its own haha. Initially we were the only people staying there so we had all the sofas and fireplace to ourselves ;-) They also had 3 rescued dogs that followed us everywhere on our walks and made for great companions. Good weather or not it was worth the trip up there. From Punta del Diablo it is only an hour drive to the Brazilian border and even though we did not plan to go there we could not help to wonder that it was so close … Of course we get on the bus to Brazil, we could not resist … plans change all the time, that is the beauty of traveling ;-)

Additional Note - Summary of Uruguay:


• 11 days, visited 5 places
• our favorite place: Colonia del Sacramento
• our favorite activity: weekend with Lau and Max
• our favorite hotel/guest-house: Hostel de la Viuda in Punta del Diablo
• our favorite thing about Uruguay: people, Dulce de Leche and wi-fi on buses hahaha
• our total cost per day: 30£/48$ per day for both of us (surprisingly similar cost to Asia)



This video was taken with a cell-phone so visuals are not great but you can here the tambores;-)

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Photos

visit to the bakery
hmmm dulce de leche

eco house
Lau and Max's

Comments

[Anastasia78]

Making Friends
Making a good friend during your travels makes the experience so much richer. Your time with Lau and Max sounds perfect!

[Beata and Tomek]

thanks
it was very special I must admit;-) thanks for reading! B

[D MJ Binkley]

Friendship and chemistry
What a joy to make such good friends while traveling. It happens to us frequently and those are the best friendships. So far so good with meeting your budget.