Rocha

Last weekend we went to Rocha.  Which didn't actually mean the city Rocha but La Paloma and some surrounding stuff.  Close enough.

Friday was pretty hectic.  We got up and drove to Pirapolis and saw a view of the city then continued driving and went to Casa Pueblo which is outside of Punta de Este.  It's pretty cool!  It is a museum/resort where an Uruguayan artist keeps his collection.  We went to the museum part.  There were some I really liked!  Besides it looks really cool!  We had a picnic and then continued onto Punta and went back to the fingers sculpture and took pictures. Then we continued onto La Paloma.  But on the way there is a cool bridge and we crossed over it.  And then turned around to do it again! As you can see why!

We arrived in a small beach town that afternoon and then went to the beach!  This was actually the Atlantic so it's a lot colder than the water in the Rio de la Plata in Montevideo!  But it really wasn't that bad.  We went out and "body surfed" for a while.  It was cold but whenever you got use to it, it wasn't bad at all.  So we hung out there for a while and then went out to eat that night.  It was someone's birthday so we went out for ice cream!

The next day we were suppose to go to the Ombú forest and then to Cabo Polonio but that morning it was raining and there was apparently a cyclone on the way and thunderstorms.  So plans got canceled.  The guys had already rented a body board so they went out to the beach in the morning to get some use out of it before the weather got really bad.  The rain let up and I decided to go on a walk thinking that I'd get out while I could if I was going to be stuck in the hotel the rest of the day.  And it didn't rain again...So we went back out to the beach, they got some more use out of the body board, I met some people from Quebec, and we got pelted by blowing sand.  It hurt a bit...Again the water was cold until you got use to it.  Apparently that morning it was colder and you didn't get use to it because it was still raining outside.
That afternoon I went up the lighthouse in La Paloma and decided that it was going to be a goal to see how many lighthouses I can go up this semester.  Because lighthouses are cool!  Power went out in the whole city...and as soon as I told someone that the power was out in the whole city it came back on. That night we went out to eat and ice cream and then hung out for a while on the porch.  La Paloma is a small town and there are stars and the air is fresh and it was just really nice to get out of the city.  It was cool to see a small, even though it was touristy, town in Uruguay to get a different impression.  We've mostly been in the city so it was interesting to see how other Uruguayans interact.  I really liked La Paloma.  It was really chill.

Sunday we did what we were suppose to do saturday.  We went to the Ombú forest which is a forest of Ombú trees.  Well obviously but ombú trees are really cool.  So we saw that and then went to Cabo Polonio.  Cabo Polonio is a hippy town (for lack of a better description).  It's actually a natural park but people already lived there so there is a small town.  They don't have electricity or running water and very small huts for houses.  There are dunes around and so we had to ride a truck to get out there.  It was quite a ride!  After there the beach was fantastic! And really clean!  There was one that I really wanted to get on but we didn't have a lot of time and there was a red flag because the waves were pretty dangerous so we couldn't swim.  We went to the other beach.  We swam, walked around, went and saw sea lions.  And I went up another lighthouse (that makes 3 this semester!) So that was fun!

Casa Pueblo

Lighthouse in La Paloma

Ombú tree

Lighthouse in Cabo Polonio

We headed home and got back later than we expected but we still got to do a lot and it was a lot of fun!  I love travelling with the group because you get to know people better when you travel.  It was the same in Oxford, the only difference was that in Oxford while travelling I would get to know people who I hadn't really known well before and in Uruguay we're so small that we know everyone well.  So we get to know each other better.  Like this Friday 5 of us are going to Ushuaia!  How crazy is that?!!! I'm so excited!!!