Date of Entry: May 3rd 2016
Date of Writing: July 9th 2016, Drago Do Mar Hostel, Fortaleza, Brazil.
It’s almost midnight by the time we arrive t the abandoned bus stop in the center of the tiny town of Punta del Diablo. Luckily we’ve managed to get in touch with our hostel and they are still going to pick us up, and sure enough just ahead of the bus we find a waiting pick up truck, toss our backpacks in, shake hands with the friendly guy who co owns an amazing hostel called Hostel De La Viuda and climb in for a ride to our new home. Here we’ll spend three nights, which after the frantic pace of Colonia and Montevideo feels like an eternity. It’s so dark that all we can really see is the beautiful hostel and that the town around is empty so we head to bed and wait till the next morning to discover the town around us.
We wake up refreshed and enjoy a nice breakfast with lots of fruit beside the hostel’s incredible kitchen (seriously if you like cooking on the road go here). It’s a slow morning for us as there’s ominously dark clouds outside and we’re not feeling up to that much. Eventually though as the clouds refuse to clear we decide to head out for a walk down to the beach and through the town, Lydia deciding that it’s best to save the nearby national park for tomorrow in the hopes of better weather. As it is the town is abandoned but very pretty a brisk breeze rushing through shoulder high grass on either side of the dirt roads.
About a ten minute walk from the hotel we get to the edge of the outskirts of town and enter a field of sand dunes, leading out towards a beautiful beach and an abandoned wooden structure which makes me think of Marissa’s thinking spot in the television show the O.C. because I’m cool. Luckily Lydia is too and we reminisce about the show for a bit as we head out along the beach and towards the center of town. The beach is chilly and windswept but utterly incredible and makes me think a lot of Nova Scotia. I think my Dad would like Uruguay a lot. As we walk we also encounter lots of beach dogs though they make no move to attack us so it’s no problem.
As we keep walking onto a smaller beach it becomes littered with washed up sea life, countless crab corpses and lots of starfish and muscles. I naturally make a crab tower because why wouldn’t I. Lydia has the better pictures so I’ve stolen one or two within this entry. And since I’ve lost my pictures for about a week long stretch from Rio to Sao paulo later you’ll get lots more examples of Lydia’s photographic skills.
We get into town and find just about everything is closed down for the winter. One restaurant shows signs of life but tells us they’re just closing up shop from the weekend when they do bother to open. So what’s left? there’s a tiny convenience store, two small grocery stores, and a pizza place that looks like it might be open for dinner, though we’re not sure. We grab a bit of food at the grocery store and head back to the hostel to make some late lunch.
The sun sets fairly early and we’re still hanging out at the hostel as the light fades from the sky. We take another walk down to the beach together because why not, and sadly my camera is just not good enough to capture the eery darkness in the sand dunes. The soundscape of the rolling waves crashing onto the shadowy beach is magical and even though it’s getting quite cold we go out walking on the beach for a while before heading back to the hostel.
The thought was to skip dinner but Lydia is German and I’m me so around 930 we find ourselves heading into town starving and hoping that pizzeria might still be open. From just how empty the streets are we’re not feeling good about it, but as we round the corner to the supermarket about 15 minute walk from the hostel we find the place open, and as a bonus the pizza is absolutely delicious. It’s a good meal and a pleasant walk back to the hostel together hoping that tomorrow brings better weather for our visit to the national park.
