Cabo Polonio - Most beautiful of them all

This past weekend I went to Cabo Polonio, a "village" in the sand dunes of Uruguay. You take a bus to the side of the road then you have to take a dune truck to the coast because it's a natural preserve. There is no electrical grid so they use gas lamps and candles everywhere. (The lights from our cell phones - which had no service whatsoever there - also came in handy when trying to use the bathroom or get ready for bed at night.) There is no running water - they need to pump it from wells. Our hostel was on the beach and it was the most beautiful, relaxing place I've ever been to. On Saturday Cecile and I did a 3-hour walk to a neighboring village. The walk took us along the coast across beach, dunes and giant rocks jetting out into the ocean. On Sunday we woke at dawn to see the sunrise. All pics below.

Sitting on the hostel swing, with the beach and ocean behind me:


The beach in front of the hostel, close to dusk:


A view of the "town":


Jumping on sand dunes while on our 3-hour walk:


Shadows pic:


More dune jumping:


Self portrait with the ocean:


The deserted beach. At one point we put down our stuff and went for a swim and laid out in the sun for a while...the was no one as far as we could see:


Rocks along the cost. We had to climb over a few of these to get to the next town:



Paradise!


We saw a dolphin pod along the way. This is the best pic I could manage:


As we approached the next town it was around 1pm and the sun was harsh. We wore our towels like capes to protect ourselves:


Looking down on the beach from the top of a rock formation. You can get a sense of how far up I am by that little person in the middle of the photo:


On top of the rocks


Beginning of sunrise, Sunday morning:







Walking back to the hostel after the sunrise


One of my favorite pics from Cabo Polonio:
Looks like sunset but it was actually right after the sunrise.


The hostel dog, Lobo:


The restaurant that we ate in 3 times. The waitress, Sheila, was so nice. Uruguayans in general are some of the friendliest people I've ever met


A calzone, or as I like to call it, big empanada, for dinner. Yum.


Cecile relaxing at our table at the restaurant:


Our hostel on the beach: