Our 90 day turista visas were about to expire, so the girls and I set sail on the midnight ferry to Uruguay. Two three-hour bus rides later, we were at the entrance to La Área Protegida de Cabo Polonio." An enormous all-terrain vehicle called "La Tortuga Ninja" (Ninja Turtle) shuttled us through the dunes and over the waves to the "town" on the peninsula.
Luke's description of Cabo Polonio as simply "a few houses in the sand" was pretty accurate. There didn't seem to be any kind of order to the brightly colored houses sprinkled on the beach, although the Tortuga Ninja's trail did form something of a unifying path. There was a small mercado artesanal "downtown" selling the usual goods- woven jewelry, máte gourds, scarves, and other various artisan treasures. One booth covered in a variety of trinkets had a sign tacked to it that read "Alquilo House"(House for rent). We didn't waste time on house shopping. We gave h
er 15o pesos Uruguayos ($10) in exchange for a key tied to a red bottlecap with some string.
The house had 5 cots, a kitchen/dining room, and a bathroom with a bucket for a shower. We were lucky to have some running water, although we had to supplement it by fetching water from our well in the front yard. The entire peninsula was without electricity.
It was the perfect weekend getaway spot. We soaked up the Uruguayan sun, made futile attempts to ride the waves, ate seafood for a change, and drank warm white wine on the beach. Cabo Polonio ranked high on everyone's list of favorite places they've been. It really was magical. I wasn't even too suprised when a double rainbow shot through the clouds on our cold and wet return on the Tortuga Ninja. The town was perfectly enclosed in the colored arches, and as it became more and more distant, it reminded me of a snow globe at sea. Carly and I sat on top of the Ninja for the ride back. The rain poured on us the whole way and we couldn't stop shrieking with laughter.
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