Punta Del Esta - The Final Swim,.

Our last night in Punta we basically decided had to go out with a ban. We organised to meet up with absolutely every person we had met during our time. Drinking, dancing and talking all night with everyone definitely was a great way to finish...and of course the night ended in true Punta style by trudging home around 8am via McDonald’s, which was packed with all the different groups of people that we knew.. Being the only non South American’s there, we stood out and everyone started cheering that we were there, we stayed here for a while getting out final goodbyes.. Man we will definitely miss this place! It’s hard to understand how this thriving pleasurable place completely shuts down over winter so that less than 1000 people remains living throughout the whole region...

After the last few days just lazy-ing around, it has already come to the unfortunate last day in Punta.. We decide that it is best to do something touristy before heading off to Montevideo, so we get the lady at the 1949 Hostel to call and book a sea lion tour for that morning... Which she tells us, if you can make it in 15 minutes, you can come. So we leave our packed bags at the hostel, and using Matt’s superior GPS tracking skills, make it in time only to be told it doesn’t leave for another hour.

After a quick breakfast, we enjoy a nice hour boat ride out into the Atlantic, and I don’t realise until now that we haven’t really seen that much of Punta. The beach and nightlife probably isn’t all it has to offer, but damn it was good enough for us... However this is a nice chance to admire the city and the vast amount of huge yachts floating around the harbour.

We eventually come up to an island known as Isla de los Lobos. Lobo being the Spanish word for lion, and at first glance it (maybe to me as I have terrible eyesight) it just look like a lot of rocks. But as you get closer these rocks start to move and then I understood why the island has been named after them... Seals and sea lions as far as the eye can see in the water and draped over the rocks to soak up the warmth of the sun. There are supposedly over 200,000 of the creatures on this small island. The sea lions are so huge it surprising that the lions can even find space among the seals for their bit of rock. However it soon becomes clear that they will fight for their space and the seals are forced to squander for their own space. The area completely reeks of the smell of seal shit, which usually would be as gross as it sounds, but it really adds to the atmosphere of just how many seals call this island home.

Now on our boat is just a Spanish family with small children and us three. So just after our guide had shared with us the level of aggressiveness and brutality of the sea lions (which we could see and hear), he told us to go for a swim... Which we just laughed at thinking that he was pulling our leg, when even the family encouraged us to jump.. George not wanting to get his man hair wet, left it up to Matt and I to prove our manhood...3 2 1...In we go!!
Now my first thought was “I am going to get eaten alive by sea lions” but then the terrible taste of seal shit overpowers and all you can think is “I am eating seal poo!” After a while we got used to it and the guide told us to start splashing our hands as that will attract the seals and we will get an amazing view... Still a bit hesitant of actually attracting attention to ourselves, we starting thrashing about and sure enough, seals were jumping around us from within 2 metres... Amazing! Thank god they were not Sea lions though!

Enough excitement for one day, we decide to take our stinky selves back to Punta to get the bus to Montevideo. The stench and taste of the seal waste seems to follow me around all day, and I definitely felt sorry for the people on the bus sitting around us! But all in all, Punta del Esta will definitely be a place where I will have to come back soon, and there will definitely be only hotels next time...