Almost the whole summer had gone by and I hadn't swam in the ocean, walked along a beach or ridden a wave. Something had to be done, and quickly as the winter temps set in pretty quickly around these parts. I needed to renew my tourist visa as well, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit the beaches of Uruguay over Easter and kill two birds with one stone.
By the time Easter came around Marcela and I were both in need of a vacation away from the big city, so our choice of La Pedrera - a quiet little beachside village on Uruguay's far coast - was perfect. Unfortunately most of Uruguay's other more popular areas are usually full of holidaying Argentines over Easter so most of the ferry tickets were already sold out weeks in advance. (Uruguay is just a short 2hr ferry trip across the Rio Plata from Buenos Aires for those that don't know). Lucky there was some seats left on the slow boat that left from outside of Buenos Aires and landed in rural Uruguay. It would add a few more hours to our trip but we had already booked accommodation so there was no choice.
I was lucky enough to borrow an 8ft longboard from a friend here, after previously talking with him about how much I missed the salt water and surfing. So it was off on a local bus, a train, the slow boat across to Carmelo then 2 more buses (all with the big surfboard!) to finally get to La Pedrera about 13 hrs later. I was praying that the surf god would be generous to me after all the effort I was going to taking this board on all these crowded public transportations... Lucky he was - the first and last days there were some nice beachbreaks just 5min walk from where we were staying.
La Pedrera is unlike any other beach side town I've been to. Small, quiet, relaxed, and thankfully devoid of ugly hotels, highrises, or shopping strips, its mainly dirt roads and modest houses were a refreshing change from Argentina's Mar del Plata and Queensland's coasts. Maybe this is what somewhere like Kingscliff or Coolum was like 50 or 60 years ago? Who knows. It was a strange mix of surf beach, rural town and hippy escape. Only 200 residents live year round (winter is cold and ugly apparently) but in summer it heaves with thousands of visitors on annual vacation, mainly from Uruguay and Argentina. The owner of the house we rented said I was the first Australian he had met! If tourists from other countries do visit Uruguay, they rarely venture further than Colonia (historical old city on the river), Montevideo (capital), and Punta del Este (famous beach resort town for the rich and famous) - La Pedrera is another 2 hrs past Punta.
Quiet side street with a Pizza joint. Closer view of the ramshackle, rustic pizza place below (closed during the day):
Yes that's a sheep under a palm tree on the side of the road!
No, this isn't a bathroom, it's where we stayed! Simple little house on a leafy block just 5min walk to the beach and around the corner from the main street. Probably not going to win any architecture awards in the near future. The owner said it's possible to buy a block of land like this for $US10-15,000, within a few blocks of the beach! Very tempting....
Almost the whole summer had gone by and I hadn't swam in the ocean, walked along a beach or ridden a wave. Something had to be done, and quickly as the winter temps set in pretty quickly around these parts. I needed to renew my tourist visa as well, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit the beaches of Uruguay over Easter and kill two birds with one stone.
By the time Easter came around Marcela and I were both in need of a vacation away from the big city, so our choice of La Pedrera - a quiet little beachside village on Uruguay's far coast - was perfect. Unfortunately most of Uruguay's other more popular areas are usually full of holidaying Argentines over Easter so most of the ferry tickets were already sold out weeks in advance. (Uruguay is just a short 2hr ferry trip across the Rio Plata from Buenos Aires for those that don't know). Lucky there was some seats left on the slow boat that left from outside of Buenos Aires and landed in rural Uruguay. It would add a few more hours to our trip but we had already booked accommodation so there was no choice.
I was lucky enough to borrow an 8ft longboard from a friend here, after previously talking with him about how much I missed the salt water and surfing. So it was off on a local bus, a train, the slow boat across to Carmelo then 2 more buses (all with the big surfboard!) to finally get to La Pedrera about 13 hrs later. I was praying that the surf god would be generous to me after all the effort I was going to taking this board on all these crowded public transportations... Lucky he was - the first and last days there were some nice beachbreaks just 5min walk from where we were staying.
La Pedrera is unlike any other beach side town I've been to. Small, quiet, relaxed, and thankfully devoid of ugly hotels, highrises, or shopping strips, its mainly dirt roads and modest houses were a refreshing change from Argentina's Mar del Plata and Queensland's coasts. Maybe this is what somewhere like Kingscliff or Coolum was like 50 or 60 years ago? Who knows. It was a strange mix of surf beach, rural town and hippy escape. Only 200 residents live year round (winter is cold and ugly apparently) but in summer it heaves with thousands of visitors on annual vacation, mainly from Uruguay and Argentina. The owner of the house we rented said I was the first Australian he had met! If tourists from other countries do visit Uruguay, they rarely venture further than Colonia (historical old city on the river), Montevideo (capital), and Punta del Este (famous beach resort town for the rich and famous) - La Pedrera is another 2 hrs past Punta.
Quiet side street with a Pizza joint. Closer view of the ramshackle, rustic pizza place below (closed during the day):
Yes that's a sheep under a palm tree on the side of the road!
No, this isn't a bathroom, it's where we stayed! Simple little house on a leafy block just 5min walk to the beach and around the corner from the main street. Probably not going to win any architecture awards in the near future. The owner said it's possible to buy a block of land like this for $US10-15,000, within a few blocks of the beach! Very tempting....
