Shared Illusions

I think it has been a while since either of us posted about our travels or our whereabouts.

We are in Punta del Diablo in Uruguay, having arrived in mid afternoon yesterday. We left Buenos Aires on Monday afternoon, taking the direct ferry to Montevideo where we spent the night in a hotel near the ferry terminal. We caught a morning bus to Punta del Diablo and four hours later arrived in this small beach community on the Atlantic coast.

We are housed in a cabana with a view of the ocean. I would classify the accommodations as sub-optimal, but it is only for a few days, so we’ll make the most of it. Here is a view from the deck in front of the unit.

The bus station is about a mile from where we are staying, and since there were no taxis waiting, we decided to walk. Our camino experience last year has permanently changed our definition of walking distance. We headed out in the bright sun oblivious to the fact that Airbnb gave us the wrong direction in a town that has no street signs and house numbers. We also found that google maps directions do not account for the roads that had been reclaimed by the environment and no longer passable.

To make a long story shorter, by the time we got to our unit it was much more than a mile, and we were hot. Really hot. I was particularly hot in my short tempered way, angry with Airbnb, the property owner, the sun, the air, and anything else that exposed itself to my conciousness. Paula put on her swimming gear and went to the beach while I fumed.

In particular I was put off by our host’s insistance that we barricade ourselves inside at night, raising the spector of roaming bands of crimnals breaking into cabanas while people slept and stealing their valuables. Even at that they assured us the town is safe for walking, so we should just carry everyting we value with us if we left the cabin.

I don’t know. Maybe they’ve been burglarized and are just telling us that as a precaution, but since it was at least 90 degrees inside the unit and no breeze to speak of, I could only imagine laying in a pool of perspiration all night wile we fought off home invaders like it was the onset of the zombie apocalypse.

Paula returned from the beach with a couple liters of beer and a cheerful attittude, and I took a shower to cool off and things began to look a bit better to me. As sunset approached we went for a walk to the playa de pescadors. The beach was alive and vibrant, with families strolling through the area, shopping, eating, drinking, and watching street entertainers of various sorts: clowns, jugglers, magicians, and story tellers.

After a night of rain we are setting out for our first full day in this town. Paula hs been to the beach, and I have been relaxing on the porch, guarding our property and wondering what sort of insect has been chewing on my extemities since I’ve been here.

I’ll be catching up on our last two days in BsAs later.