Date of Entry: May 4th 2016
Date of Writing: July 9th 2016, Drago Do Mar Hostel, Fortaleza, Brazil
We wake up earlier today and our thrilled to find the skies are blue. Not wanting to waste to too much time we head down and eat breakfast and head out to the public bus stop beside a second grocery store on the only road into town to catch one of a handful of daily buses to the national park entrance and further northward to the town just shy of the Brazilean border.
We catch the bus and pay a dollar or two worth of uruguayan pesos (the exact number escapes me I’m sorry) and then settle in for the 40 minute ride climbing down where the driver tells us too. There we meet a friendly security guard who tell outlines a few options. We can follow a road through the forest to the fort or walk down to the ocean and trace the coast to it which takes longer. For me Ocean always wins and Lydia feels the same so we head down the well paved road eventually catching some tantalizing glimpses of the ocean below us. It looks beautiful and I’m excited by how much it reminds me of home.
We take a sandy path down to the outcropping rocks and argue over which viewpoint to go to first. At the right time of year it’s very possible to see whales from the shore here but sadly we’re out of season so we’re left with just the waves. But the waves are utterly beautiful to watch and we spend a good chunk of time on the rocks just watching the waves crash and chatting away too. Coming with Lydia has proven to be a great decision and by this point I’m hoping to join her un Brazil until she heads home.
We sit down on some rocks for a quick lunch purchased while waiting for the bus at the supermarket and I find I’m developing a taste for banana’s in brazil, which is great as they are cheap and plentiful. Of course I’ll never love them like Lydia seems to in this photo.
From here we consider walking to the fort but by most reviews it’s not a can’t miss attraction and together we decide instead to walk all the way back to town along the endless beach to our right. Stopping for a relaxing rest on the beautiful beach along the way.
It takes us less time than we expect and after maybe an hour and a half of actual walking we’re crossing back through town, passing surfers and eventually finding ourselves back on the beach from yesterday’s entry. There we find the same pack of beach dogs who decide to viciously attack one of two friendly canine followers we’ve picked up on our passage through town. The poor thing is forced out into Ocean rocks by the pack as we try to intervene without much luck. It takes some more determined locals to come and save the poor little pooch driving off the beach gang and letting him escape, soaked and scared but unharmed.
We’ve been talking about swimming all day but we haven;t done it yet, so even though the sun is sinking low in the sky when we reach the little abandoned house on the beach Lydia agrees to wait for me there while I go swimming after chickening out from her initial promise to come in with me. I go sprinitng into the very cold and wavy waters ignoring the shock and revelling in the heightened sensations and clarity before everything goes numb and turn around to wave to lydia only to see her running down the beach to join me in the waters. Awesome. Respect Lydia. Cool beans.
Both quite cold but immensely refreshed and full of laughters and smiles we head back through the dunes and the outskirts of town to hostel viuda del mar. As we Walk the sun starts to since below the tall grass all around us providing a beautiful backdrop for pictures. And Lydia covers her face for some reason I can’t even try to explain.
As we criss cross through the maze of identical looking dirt roads onto the one which leads us home the sun is descending in a brilliant ball of burning pure light behind the hostel and the chance for photos is hard to pass up. Later tonight we’ll be crossing into brazil and dealing with a long night and day of buses, as well as a horror show of a border crossing, but that’s a story for the next entry, stay tuned and live in the serenity of this beautiful rural Uruguayan sunset.
