After a three-day rainstorm, I emerged from my cabin to find the sky a loopy pink, a whale washed up on the beach and penguins wandering around in the grass. 'It's because of an eclipse,' someone in town said.
Are you kidding me.
We asked some Urugians about Cabo Polonio who told us it is difficult to get to: "You need to take two buses to get nearby and then a sheep to get into the town."
Are you kidding me.
Our excitement was momentarily halted when we saw that the only two hostels in Cabo Polonio were completely booked. But remembering the themes of the trip (theme: nuts to the bones) we hopped on the bus anyways, hoping to figure it out without phones or electricity but prepared to sleep on the beach (theme: filth) if we couldn't.
We were in Cabo Polonio by mid day Monday. Turns out the "sheep" we had heard about riding was actually a double decker "Jeep". Still, it was a sweet ride into town, "sheep or no sheep" (as they say in the old country).
Mike's friend told us that we might be able to get a place to stay by knocking on locals' doors and asking for their house for a night or two. Seemed like a nuts concept but so was an eclipse making penguins go to the beach so when we got into town we went to the first store we saw:
"Hola, me gusta su tienda. Quiero su casa."
"Si, $80 por la noche."
"Belisimo!"
Easy.
The store owner took us through town (the entire town is less than a mile) to the house, a small, candlelit shack with three mattresses.
From the outside -- there is a small upper level that fit just two twin mattresses and has a window that leads to a raised porch
Our hostess made us feel at home, insisting that we help ourselves to any of the kitchen supplies like salt, pepper, oil, and these sandy lemons that she already used but would probably still be okay if we blew the sand off
As we were settling in, a band of horses came barreling through our yard, chasing after some pooches. Sweet.
We next headed for the beach, a vast stretch of sand dunes on one side and flat ocean on the other.
The beach had weird eggs and strange things drifting ashore, which kept us entertained for most of the rest of the day until we stumbled upon a grass basketball court outside a hostel at sunset. Despite having Dickie "Knockdown D" Sutton on offense (and therefore Dickie "Lockdown D" Sutton on defense) Team USA suffered an embarrassing five game clean sweep to the locals in both 2 v 2 and 3 v 3 formats.
Afterwards we got dinner at a shack nearby although Dickie advised us not to eat because all they had were carne (meat) sandwiches and there ain't any cows around, just horses and beached sea lions.
As the darkness settled in on the electricity-free village, we made our way to a small moonlit bar, Joselo, that looked like a heap of bushes from the outside. Inside, we saw the walls and ceiling were constructed from flower plants and leaf plants growing through and around each other. Smooth jazz played all night while the large flowers dripped into our whiskey and wine. Bellies full of beached sea lion and wine, it was easy to fall asleep that night.
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