What Anthony Bourdain didn't tell you..

Ahh, Cabo Polonio. Billed as the retreat for artists and escapees alike, Cabo Polonio sits on a desolate, hard to reach point all by itself. The only way to get there is to walk the sand dune or to pay $5 for a roundtrip monster truck to take you (we paid the $5). If you are our friend or were within earshot/grabbing distance, you have heard about the show "No Reservations" and it's host, Anthony Bourdain. And if that's you, then you also know that he did a show on Uruguay. So here's the run down on his take of Cabo Polonio. He went to a place that had a sign saying, "It's a shity life" and also drank something random at a bar that had a resident penguin. He made it sound like a magical little place and it is but let us tell you what wasn't mentioned: A) the wind does NOT stop, B) the sea lions, alive and dead, stink, C) the hippies are out of control (some resembling Jeseus) Ok, I'm not a complainer, Cabo Polonio is actually kinda charming. What seems to have once been a retreat is now a station for day trips with varying degrees of sunburn. At a point there is a government lighthouse that you can climb, but I have to warn you that it's not a spot for people with a fear of heights and tight quarters because this staircase has both, 50 degrees of one-man spiraling, concrete fun! The only way to pass someone on the staircase was to hug the center pole and kick your descending leg out of the way which would then be hanging a good 10 feet into the air. We were never really scared because we don't really have a fear of heights, but we were laughing our asses off because that kind of thin would never fly in the states. After you fight the fear and reach the top it's beautiful. That was topped off by the sign at the bottom in English and Spanish that stated the lighthouse does NOT have medical coverage. We love it here =) One thing we weren't prepared for was the smell of the sea lions, let me re-phrase not just sea lions but dead sea lions and not just one or two but about 20 to 25. This did not make Dani very happy and is now on a mission to fix it. With that said if you go to the end of the point, beware. The wind will blow that lovely smell right up your nose before you know it, and you will gag. Apparently Cabo Polonio as a town doesn't officially exist. It's all government land that over the decades people have quasi-colonized. There isn't any electricity and no running water. people either hijack it from the lighthouse or have generators. Most of the huts run on sunlight and candle power. And every hut has a well too. We walked around and enjoyed it, but it was to windy to go into the water. We found the hut that Bourdain went to with "it's a shity life" (their mis-spelling) but it was rented out by a group of students. We also found the place that has the penguin, but here's the deal. The guy is blind, has no electricity and set his place up with candles and he doesn't open until around 11 at night. So we didn't see the penguin. Dani was a little bummed but when we got back to Montevideo her cousin Gabo told us that we should go there and spend the night. He said it's amazing because it is truly just a small group of people together on an unforgiving cape with the bare essentials. So our plan is to go back then we can see the penguin.