The way to the Devil (Chuì – Punta Del Diablo)

Posted on | December 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

Skull at the beach of Uruguay

 03.11.09… I knew the day would come. My visa in Brasil was over. I had to leave the country and continued my walk from Uruguay on…

Chuì. A small ugly town. With a lot of shops. I walked through the streets, looking for a sign or a notice marking the border between Brasil and Uruguay. Nothing. I stopped at a big road and asked someone, where I can find the border between Brasil and Uruguay. The man pointed on the road: “Just cross the street and you are in Uruguay”. I crossed the street and entered the new country. Indeed… On the  right side of the street the notices are all in Spanish, on  the left side  they are in Portuguese. I walked about  one kilometer through the town until I reached the Bomberos. They let me sleep  in a  tiny Gym and the next morning I made my first steps through Uruguay…

Amazing… You can see it, but also feel it in the air: The country is almost empty. 3 Million habitants in the whole country. 99% nature. First i walked on a (empty) road, then I reached the coast.

 

Coast of Uruguay

La Coronilla, a tiny village with about 100 habitants. I asked at the police where I could sleep. “Ask at the town-hall”, they said. I went to the townhall and explained the young lady what I am doing and that I need a place to sleep. An old lady, sitting nearby on a chair in the entrance-hall jumped up: “No, we can`t let you sleep on the street, boy”, she started talking to the people from the townhall  and didn`t stop, until they allowed me to sleep in the changing room of the soccer-field of the village, where a monster-butterfly welcomd me, flying around my head, and landing on my walking stick.

Huge butterfly - La Coronilla

After sunset I walked around in the village. The people are shy, but very friendly if you make the first step and talk to them.  I sat down in the only open Bar and drank a coffee. An english-speaking woman joined me and we had a chat.

…

“So from here you will go along the coast, until Montevideo?”

“Yes.”

“So tomorrow you will arrive in Punta Del Diablo… It `s a nice place, you will like it”… she pointed on a man sitting  3 tables further “You see this guy? He is living there. He  is very nice, maybe he will let you camp on his field”.

He looked sympathetic. I went outside with him to smoke a cigarette. Fabian, maybe 30 years old, with warm, smiling eyes, a very clear voice and very clear Spanish, offered me to stay at his place, when I arrive there.

“How long do you intend to stay in Punta Del Diablo?”, he asked.

“Just one night I think.”

Fabian chuckled… “Well… I don`t think you will stay only one night ,… But let`s see…   If you arrive , You can go to a hostel called “El Diablo Tranquilo”.  There you can ask for Fabian and the guys will call me. I can pick you up then.”

All agreed.

 The next morning I walked about 20 km through the sand (again). But this time it was different… It was Uruguayan sand. I know sand is sand… doesn`t matter in which country it lies… But this sand seemed to be different in any way… I really, really enjoyed it.

On the way to Punta Del Diablo - Uruguay

I got into a state of trance and woke up again, when I saw something moving in the sand, far away…  “What is that?”

Something was moving towards the see and tried to get inside, but couldn`t, because the waves were to strong and pushed it back to the land. I came closer… “Jese… a huge see-turtle”.  I called him Bob.

Bob was very tired. It looked like he tried to get back into the water for hours and hours. He hardly could move anymore, and still tried to get into the see… That`s the spirit. I took Bob onto my backpack and walked with this additional  10 Kg, about 5 kilometers, until a point, where the waves were low enough to let Bob into the water.

Me and Bob - the sea-turtle

 Bob swam away…

And I kept walking… Until I arrived in Punta Del Diablo. I went to the hostel “El Diablo Tranquilo”. It was still sunny. The red and very nice looking hostel, located on a little grasy hill, with 2 floors a beautyfull terrace and hammocks, had a magnetic, almost hypnotic charisma. Music coming out, Yoga-classes in front of the hostel, smiling, english-speaking people. I was impressed and went up the hill to the entrance…..

(To be continued…)

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