We decided to go the 'back way', a road not really travelled by tourists, to Punta del Diablo, on 4 separate buses via Melo, Trienta y Tres then Chuy on the border with Brazil. We had very little idea of how easy that would be, knowing only that Juan and Susanna said that it may take a couple of days.

We started with a 6:30am bus from Tacuarembo, getting to the bus terminal with only a few minutes to spare, as it wasn't as easy to find as we'd hoped, we were told there was only standing room left on the bus for a 3 hour trip. Hmmmm. The next bus out was 5:50pm so we decided standing it is, but somehow in our decision time 2 seats became available! Next stop Melo.

The reason for taking the back way was that Lonely Planet suggested that it's the beautiful back counrty of Urugauy, well and truly Gaucho Country. Truth is you'd be forgiven for thinking it's county Australia! Just change the ostriches for emus and it would be spot on. The scenery is almost exactly the same, it's amazing just how many gumtrees are growing throughout the country. To quote Juan, 'the only good thing to come out of Australia'.

We arrived in Melo to find that the bus for Trienta y Tres was in 10 mins, time enough to buy tickets and then straight onto the bus. It's a quick trip of only an hour to Trienta y Tres. As we hit town our stomachs were rumbling for lunch. First things first, find out when the bus to Chuy goes. Lindsay somehow managed to find the 'terminal' (as the bus simply pulls up on the street), and with 3 hours to wait there's plenty of time for lunch.

We're not sure how long the bus to Chuy took as we were both in and out of sleep, but we finally arrived, to be dropped off once again on the side of the road. Chuy offers duty free shops (free shops, as they are labelled, though things definitely aren't free, bloody expensive really!) and not much else, as it borders with Brazil. We firstly found out what time the bus to Punta del Diablo was, 20mins, no time for shopping.

It's now dark and we've got no idea where we're going, as the bus appears to be going in circles, plus we were trying not to fall sleep for fear of missing our stop. Finally we see a sign for Punta del Diablo, then 5 minutes down a dirt road it was time to get off. 14 hours and 4 buses, we made it! Thankfully there was WiFi at the bus stop to we could search for somewhere to stay. El Diablo Tranquilo was reasonably cheap so backpacks on and off we went.

The hostel had suites on the beach while the hostel is back from the beach, so we headed to the suites only to find out we had to go to the hostel anyway for reception. Once there we inquired about the suites, and were told they are US$55-65 per night. Ouch! Even though online said US$44 a night they said they wouldn't accept that if we'd booked it. The manager was kind enough to give as a 10% discount, so we agreed on a cheaper suite but as we headed back he stopped us to tell us that our suite was having maintenance done, so he upgraded us to the Superior suite, score!

With such a great view it was off to get some wine, cheese, salami and ham and sit on our balcony watching the waves crash onto the beach in the moonlight.

Punta del Diablo is a ramshackle beach side town with dirt roads and built mainly of 'shacks' with a few newer and somewhat out of place cabins and apartments. There is very little to do in winter, with only a permanent population of around 900. Summer is a completely different story, with the population growing to about 25,000. There are apparently 2 night clubs in town that hold approximately 7,000 people each, give or take.

Our first morning was gloomy and overcast and it started to rain. Great news for our seaside stay! Thankfully the rain was light, so we got up to breakfast in the hostel and then took a look around town at all the brightly painted shacks. Lunch was some 3 day old sandwiches from one of the supermarkets which we were hopeful would stay down. For the afternoon we headed north to Playa Grande (Big Beach). We're told if you look carefully you can see tortugas (turtles) which we did. The beach was also scattered with what we thought to be turtle eggs.

On our return we passed a couple walking towards us who tried to offload the two street dogs that they had following them. They successfully lost one and we proceeded to throw a stick for it for about 1km down the beach until it lost interest in us and went to see if some fishermen had caught anything off the rocks.

As we got close to home it started to bucket down. Our limited amount of clean clothes were now quite wet, hopefully they'll dry, along with the hand washing we did when we first arrived. The rest of the afternoon we spent inside our room as the rain continued to fall.

Finally the rain cleared for a while and we thought it was a good time for dinner (8ish). Wet clothes back on we went out into the cold. We discovered there were 2 restaurants open for the night, one quite expensive, so to the other one we went. When we got there it appeared open, as all the tables were set, the lights were on, the TV running and a dog was even looking at us through the door, however it's padlocked from the outside.

We decided to head to the bus terminal as it's got WiFi and the Americans we met in Panagea were also in town, we thought we'll message them and try to meet up but hte Wi-Fi was playing up. Back to check on the restaurant, still closed. Instead we grabbed a beer and chips for pre-dinner nibbles on the beach. In the rain we found a seat under cover near the fish markets looking out to the beach.

After some more roaming it was nearly 10 now, so we headed back for one final check, thinking that it'll be cold meats and cheese again if it's shut. As we were walking down to it a van passes us and parked out front to open up. FINALLY! We once again wondered if we'll ever get used to this eating late business?!?

After we had a nice dinner, in an empty restaurant, the woman gave us the bill of 600 pesos, We gave her 1000 but she proceeded to tells us (so we think) that she didn't have change. She instead she took the 400 that we had in smaller notes and after a lot of gestures we worked out we were to leave the reamining 200 under a placemat out the front at some point the next day. We left regretting that we'd signed the guest book, as the woman now had our names and we've definitely got to leave the extra 200 pesos!

The following morning, gloomy! We decided to join the Americans and head into Chuy. Main reason being that there aren't any ATMs in town during the winter, plus we would get to check out the 'free shops' and see what bargains we can find.

Now cashed up we joined the Americans for lunch, at a churrascaria, in Brasil. Yep, we popped over possibly the least protected border in the world to Brasil for lunch. No need for customs and immigration, you simply cross the road. If you weren't aware, you wouldn't even know that you'd crossed the border, as there is nothing marking the border line running down the middle of a road.

For those that are unaware a churrascaria is an all you can eat restaurant, where they bring meat to you on skewers. When we got in we were told the meat is a 20min wait, so we started with the salad bar. When the meat arrived it was AMAAAZING! We completely stuffed ourselves, well with a little bit of room for desert.

We left the Americans as we wanted to get an earlier bus back and get dropped off at the entrance of Fortaleza de Santa Teresa (a Spanish Fort). Our plan was to save the apparent 3.5 hour walk from Punta del Diablo to get there, and only walk the return trip instead.

After some discussion with the bus driver he seemed more than happy to drop us at the top entrance of the park. As we saw the top entrance pass by we asked the driver who nodded and said our stop was just ahead. He ended up dropping us at the bottom entrance of Parque Nacional de Santa Teresa, 4km down the road. After the lunch we just had we probably could do with the extra 4km walk.

Cue the rain, though we were actually prepared for it this time. The rain didn't last long, but was replaced with humidity, and when we got to the fort, as our luck would have it, it was closed. So was the night club beside the fort. Night club?!? We can only assume that as the park allows for camping it's open in the summer months for all the campers?

We headed for home, walking as far down the park we could before hitting the beach and walking along that. Unfortunately we were losing daylight, but we pressed on. It was a full moon and fortunately Lindsay still had her head torch in the backpack we were using. So as the sun set on us we continued by moonlight and Lindsay's head torch, wondering how long it would take us to get back. Finally after 16km, completely exhausted, we made it home. We really didn't need those extra 4km and would probably have made it home in the light without it.

Dinner was cold meats and cheese again as we didn't want to, and couldn't afford to, wait for a 10pm restaurant opening. We also had to leave the extra 200 pesos at the restaurant. When we got there it was open (at bloody 8pm) and we handed the money to the owner who was looking at us like she's got no idea who we are and why we're giving it to her!

We were pretty tired by this point we were wondering if it was a good idea to have invited the Americans and Anne (who had also arrived in town) over for drink, but still grabbed some wine and beer. Unfortunately one of the American's received some bad news from home, so they decided not to join us. We messaged Anne to let her know, in case she didn't want to join just us, but shortly after she knocked on our window, informing us that she's just walked 30 mins from her couch surfing location, back near the main road. So we sat inside (rain again) chatting and had a nice night enjoying some wine.

On our morning of departure, in line with our neverending good fortune, it was a beautiful day! We made a quick run around town to get some photos with blue skies, had some lunch and then made our way to the bus station ready to head to our next seaside location.

LAPFWT