From Mendoza, we flew to Cordoba, the second largest city in Argentina which is known for being home to several universities. The days in Cordoba felt like “stopover days.” Our non-stop travels started catching up to us and the exhaustion started to set in, we needed to slow down a bit. We also both caught a mild stomach bug, so we decided to just take it easy! We spent our days taking short walks around the city, checking out the local market, and relaxing in our apartment.
After Cordoba, we flew to Uruguay – the last country on our South American itinerary! We spent a brief evening in Montevideo before boarding the bus that would take us along the coast to our Uruguayan destination…Punta del Diablo.
Punta del Diablo
We had ten days to spend in Uruguay and it took us awhile to decide how we wanted to spend them. Did we want to go inland to experience the gaucho culture or on the coast along the famous beaches? We chose coast and it turned out to be EXACTLY what we needed! When we arrived at our little bungalow in Punta del Diablo, we both took a deep breath – this place was perfect. The tiny beach town was known for their laid back hippy vibe. The town was still quiet, right at the beginning of the tourist season, and we could hear, see, and smell the ocean from our place. We also had a little kitchen – probably what we have missed most about not having our own place. It only took us 24 hours to decide to extend our stay from 3 nights to 6 nights and take full advantage of this place!
Over the 6 nights of our stay, we only went out to eat 1 time – we really missed cooking. Our one restaurant meal was to try the sandwich of Uruguay, the chivito. It was a bit like a Cuban sandwich, but much more elaborate. It was good, but we enjoyed our morning muesli, salad lunches, and home-cooked dinners much more 🙂 Even the neighborhood dogs could not resist the smells coming from our place!
The beach was incredible and went on for miles. We walked for hours and stumbled upon one quiet, empty bay after another. There were so few people and it made it feel so remote, we felt so lucky to experience it before all of the holiday tourists swarm the area. We came at the perfect time!
They left the beach very raw, not like in many parts of the US where the sand is raked and the beach cleaned up. We came across freshly washed up dead seals, dolphin skeletons, tons of dead jellyfish, shark eggs, sea turtle shells, and tons of other stuff we wouldn’t be able to identify.
Cabo Polonio
The three days we extended in Punta del Diablo were going to be spent in Cabo Polonio, a national park about an hour down the coast. Instead, we decided to make it a day trip. There are no roads that lead to this small settlement, so we got a ride to the entrance and hopped on one of the all-terrain vehicles that drives people through the dunes. That in itself was a blast!
Cabo Polonio is known for the sea lion population that makes their home on the coast there and it was the main reason I didn’t want to miss this destination. When we arrived, we did a short hike to where they all bask on the rocks. We hung out for awhile, watching them bark, swim, fight with each other, and hop around like little weirdos. So cool. Eventually, their smell became too much to handle and it was time to move on. Phew! We spent the rest of our day there walking around the cute little beach neighborhoods and eating lunch on the water before making our way back to our cozy little bungalow in time to cook ourselves dinner 🙂
Montevideo
After our week in Punta del Diablo, we took the bus back down the coast to spend a few days in Montevideo. We enjoyed our stay there, it felt like such a normal city. It wasn’t especially touristy, there were tons of good restaurants and bars and some interesting architecture as well. Uruguay has a similar grill culture to Argentina, so we made sure to make our own comparison – and it was just as delicious!
From Montevideo we hopped on a ferry that would take us across the bay back to Buenos Aires where we would spend the last few days of our trip. I didn’t really have any expectations for Uruguay, but I absolutely loved it. Punta del Diablo especially blew me away – it felt like the perfect ending to our time in South America. I hope we have a chance to go back some day!
Wandering Between Meals 
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