La Paloma, Uruguay

We arrived in La Paloma, Uruguay after dark, sans una mapa y sans anyone to ask for help as the bus station was deserted. We followed a dog down a path to the street where we picked a road, any road, and walked into the silent, deserted town. Along the way I saw a human! and asked her where the park was where we were planning on camping near the beach. She said it was closed in the winter and gave us directions to some hotels. Following her directions we walked down the main avenue to a beach y back finding only wicked expensive places to stay. Don´t they know this is the off season? We thought we´d try our luck at the park and see if we could sneak in which was impossible. Luckily, there was signs for a hostel which we followed to a cozy, lit place with a man y a woman inside who were surprised to see us, or anyone for that matter. They were very nice and very welcoming providing us a heater for a our nice room with TV y bano privado, the use of their personal computer y internet connection y a fresh assortment of pastries from the panaderia in la manana. Kindness is much appreciated when traveling through foreign lands. With the campground closed y the whole place simply out of our budget we walked through the wonderfully smelling pine forest back to the bus station and headed east along the coast to Punta del Diablo.