La Pedrera Uruguay

Cata and her almost finished board

grovelling

beach burger shack

navigating windswell

arvo session with the lads

carnaval carnage

Cata y Den

tent city

some of the protests (taken from http://rochaaldia.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html)

surf check a a secret spot ssshhhh

humble abode

some of the locals checking the lineup

Brazilian influence

asado froth fest

bar and chopping board

Dave and the delicious national food of Uruguay - Chivitos

In 5 days Cata and myself will be able to mark off one blissful month in Uruguay and the longest time we have spent living in a tent. We have made great mates with the local lads running the hostel and a big group of other Argentinos and Chileanos .
The event of Carnival was massive in the small town of La Pedrera. Thousands of partygoers from all over South America converged and crammed the streets at night all sporting crazy costumes. The streets were lined with makeshift bars offering Caiparihnas and sporting blow up pools brimming with ice cold beer.
Tragically though, the event was blamed for the deaths of two young residents; one hit by a car and the other unknown. I was alerted to this news when walking to the shopping centre to find the street blocked by locals beating drums, burning tyres and holding signs saying " violence, death and disorder in our town". I felt sorry for the locals as it seemed like they were busy for days after the event cleaning all the rubbish and dodging shanty style groups of tents everywhere.

Our little hostel was a bit hectic as our beds and clothes were saturated by the rain and every covered space was full of snoring bodies and rescued bags. Every night the kitchen was jam packed with people trying to tends to pots on the stove, people mixing drinks, and even girls drying and straightening their hair! Needless to say it was an absolute blast though was a huge relief to say chiow to every one and have our space back.

It's great that the hostel is kind of built around surfing, it brings everyone together to share good times in the ocean. Most of the time we are grovelling in small wind swell, though recently we had 3 or 4 days of really good waves. Up the road at a spot called La Aguada - we were blessed with pumping 3 to 4 ft a - frames with no one out. Needless to say we feasted all day to make up for the usual lack of swell. With a bit of peer pressure - I got Cata out the back on the big day. It was a great experience for her being amongst the excitement of one of those all time sessions. This excitement quickly turned to panic though as she copped a set on the head and told me on the beach " I thought I was going to die!". To my amazement though she took a minute to breathe then charged back into the rip to try and get another one! I guess one positive aspect of grovelling in crappy waves is that you really truly appreciate quality waves. Sometimes I lye in bed and think about surfing long Peruvian points up in the North West in March - though for the moment I'm very content living Rasta in Uruguay...