To the capital! (Punta Del Este – Montevideo)
Posted on | January 15, 2010 | No Comments
The day we started walking from Punta Del Este, Guido, Bruno´s brother, who became a friend, wakled with us for about 20 km.
We had a lot of fun and enjoyed his company very much.
Johnny Walker
Andrej, Guido, Juliana
At night we were still walking on the highway. No village or potential place to sleep. It was late in the night (as usual) and hardly anything to see. Half awake, half asleep, we moved slowly, step by step forward.
There was something like a supermarket standing at the side of the street. Of course closed, but there was something inside moving. We knocked the window. Ju explained with her innocent voice to the man (who was a bit scared) that we were lost walkers, searching for a safe place to sleep. The man let us camp behind the supermarket. And: He brought us sandwiches, a candle and a bottle of beer. He joined us for a nice chat. The day couldn`t end better. The next morning: Piriapolis, our next destination, was close. Maybe 12 km. I can tell you, this were the longest 12 km ever. It was about 40 degreese and our water was over very quickly. We were creeping the last 5 km to reach finaly Piriapolis. The whole day I was in a bad mood. But at last we arrived. What a beautyful town! I was so surprised: Everybody was talking about Punta Del Este, La Paloma, La Pedreira, … as beautyful places for spending your time. And nobody ever mentioned Piriapolis, which is five times better than the above mentioned places together.
Piriapolis
It was so nice that we even stayed one more day there.
The walk continued on the route. We decided to go to Solis. On the map it looked like at has maybe 1000 habitants. Just 12 km… Located behind a big river which we have to cross on huge bridge.about 6 km before Solis we got sick of the highway. We went down to the river and walked along the water. It was very pleasent. Fresh air, silence, the water, grasy ground and,… oh, what is that? A shrimp. The sidewards walking guys. How cute. Oh, there is another one. The ground is getting a bit watery here… Another shrimp, and another one. JESSE… THERE ARE THOUSANDS!
We found ourselves in a marsh, with thousands of crabs around us. The ground was covered with them. It was hardly possible to step forward. Because of them and because we started sinking in this marsh. The bridge was maybe 500 m away, but it was just impossible to reach it. We couldn`t go all the way back, because the sun was setting. I wouldn`t like to swim through mud at night, with shrimps around and on me. We wandered through the marsh towards countryside and found a hpuse with a big garden. And behind that garden there was the road, waiting for us. The only way was, to climb the fence, enter the garden, climb the fence on the other side and get away. So we climbed the first fence and tiptoed to the other side. When we arrived in the middle, I looked to my right and froze. A huge, hungry-looking dog staring at us. He was 3 seconds silent, and then gave a small “woof” from him. We kept walking to the other side, but the dog seemed to dislike our idea of escaping and started barking like crazy, coming closer.
Something else appeared: The dog called the attention of the houses owner, who called the dog back to its place.
“What are you doing here?”, the woman asked.
“We got lost, we wanted to get to the bridge”.
The woman laughed and opened the gate for us to get to the road. And finally we reached the bridge. Solis. Some houses, some trees and some streets in between. That`s it. I think it was one of the most boring villages I`ve seen so far. It was so boring, that we didn`t even think of staying there. So we kept walking about 5 km more and reached a forest with many little paths. People passing by told us that there was a camp, where we could sleep. And indeed there was. Itwas not public but belonged to the bomberos, who were training there. They let us camp, shower and have dinner with them.
On the camp of the bomberos
Next day we walked through the forest, directly to the beach, where we met Sam.
Sam - the seal
Our target for that day was Atlantida. The walk on the beach was awesome. Many little “balnearios” (villages at the beach-side), so finaly we didn`t have to deal with hunger and thurst anymore. A lot of tourists and fishers on the beach, swimming, laying around in the sand, watching us walking.
Amazing nature
And suddenly: Deadend. A big river. And no bridge. Going back was not an option. It would mess up with the nice day. There were only 2 possibilitys…
Option 1:
The Moses-move
didn`t work….
Option 2: look for the point with the lowest water-level and…
Walk
On the other side, Charly, the crab welcomed us.
Charly - the crab
And we kept walking until we finally reached Antlantida, where we stayed on a camping.
After washing our dirty and stinking clothes the next day, we decided to try something different. In the evening we bought some wine and drank it at sunset. Then we packt our things and tottered forward, to Montevideo.
It`s incredible… Walking drunk. You walk with 7 km/h with 20 kg on your back at night on the highway, and that for 3 hours, and you don`t even note it. We made a little break at a gas-station, ate something, got a clear head again, and walked more 5 km until we reached the outskirts of Montevideo!
Maybe I expected too much of the city Montevideo. We can`t really say that we liked the city, but definetly the person, who hosted us, and the place. We had a great week and are thankful for that:
Nicolas, Christi, Irina, Andrej, Juliana
With Fatima & Family
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