SUMMERCAMP QUEST 1 - TRAVEL ALL THE WAY - into the wild!

This is not a normal trip, in case you are looking forward to see the Eiffel Tower, the Sahara dessert, or maybe some Egyptian pyramids photos, I must say this is not the fancy post about traveling the world, in fact this is the story of a trip about nowhere, loneliness and peaceful nature time going back to the roots.

So it begins...

Last year when summer was about to end we (me and a couple of friends) decided to go camping, but not anywhere, we wanted to feel the freedom of not going anywhere specific, a couple of backpacks, sleeping bag and some food were hanging from us trying to make this trip a bit more safe.
It all started one morning, around 9 am we met in the middle of the road 50 km from Punta del Este, and decided where we wanted to go, even we didn't want to choose a specific place, we at least wanted to define in which direction to go. It was time to move, and east was the only reference we have as a main goal, as we started walking with our 10 kilos backpack under a cooking sun, the civilization was already left behind and we were heading more into a wildness nature.
It was already noon and we were starving, so stopping by a big tree to have some fruit was the best choice at that time, we were checking our GPS and found an amazing spot to camp for that night, it was 20 km far from where we where eating, so we end the energy meal and started to walk toward that direction, but only after smoking a great relaxing weed in that peaceful and lonely place.





It was half past five when we started to see in the horizon the amazing spot where we were going to spend the first night, and I must admit if I knew how the trip was gonna end I would have stayed there for sure. This place is called "Laguna de Rocha" and its where the lagoon meets the ocean. Our food was almost over and we were thinking about getting some fresh fish for dinner even we are not the best fishermen, we knew that it could be our lucky strike. Two hours went by, and nothing, we were hopeless and all we could do was set the tents up, and start boiling water to eat some basic and tasteless white rice.





The night was amazing, full of stars and surrounded by a lot of bugs noises that made the perfect environment to relax and enjoy the perfect time we were having. After walking more than 30 km under the sun we were really exhausted and fall asleep almost immediately, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a really long walking day.
I woke up almost with the sun that morning and must admit that it was totally worth it, the sun coming out from the ocean with such amazing colors was the perfect welcome for what was about to happen.
We started walking the road like 8:30 am, and by 8:45 we were already in the back of a big truck smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee heading to our next spot, we didn't even know where that was.




As usual we ended up in the middle of nowhere in the road, almost without water on a 25 Celsius windless day, it was time to make a decision. The biggest problem was that we needed water, it was almost 12:00 and the sun was burning our heads by that time, we knew that if we started walking east, we will eventually find "La Pedrera" a nice little town along the bay where we could find a enough civilization to fulfill our problem. 6 km and 45 minutes later, we found a local spot where they have a small camping for rent, I didn't remember if we asked them to buy water or to drink directly from the hose, I think we only could said "water please". We talked a bit with the locals for a bit and decided to keep walking, we checked the weather and a big storm was coming for that night, a cheap tent wasn't gonna hold for a heavy rain, we checked the map and find a little place called "Balizas", we knew this was the most lonely place around the area with a very few people living there most of them artisans and fishermen, so it was isolated enough for us to spend the night there and find a good place as a refugee.


Already on a small local bus, that reminded me to the late 90s even the music and the bus driver matched that specific decade, anyway we were focused on the main plan, walk down the bus and start to find for a shelter, it was almost five o'clock so we had 2 hs before sunset to get ourselves installed.
It was some kind of magic, 5 minutes after we were walking a man came to us asking for fire, and as we were more like tourists for them he immediately offered us a place for rent, he lead us to a small hippie house a couple of blocks from there, and introduces us a young woman with two sons. She had a really precarious house, full of bugs and spiders, where you have to get water outside to use in the toilet as a cistern, so it was perfect, and really cheap.





The contract was sealed and payed, so we decided to go for some food and se the town for a bit before the rain, it was pretty calmed and quiet so by eight pm we were already cooking and watching how the wind was starting to blow harder, even it wasn't a big storm, renting that place with a minimum ceiling protection was the best idea.
Next day was the worst, I woke up noticing my wallet was missing, with all my personal ids, money, driver license, credit cards, etc. I remember spending the whole day looking for it in the house, in the town, the beach, asking in the places we bought food, but nothing, no luck, I was in the middle of nowhere without a nickel, and my friends didn't had much at that time. We couldn't go that far, also I needed to call for my loss to all the credits card companies, etc. So the best was so stay another night in that house and see how we could start going back without wasting much money trying.





The next day I woke up really early, and I remember thinking that this thing about loosing my wallet wasn't gonna be the reason to not enjoy the amazing trip we were having, so we decided to go and spend the day on the beach playing some frisbee and walking the amazing dunes. Launch was ok, we had some fruit and a couple of sandwiches, and at least we had water. It was time to talk about the return, even we didn't want to, it was time for us to went home, the plan was to spend the last night in that house, (which we hated by that time) and start hitching a ride the next day in the morning.
So there we were again, in the middle of the road walking and trying to catch a nice truck driver who let us climb into the back of his truck. We ended un in a bus, cause seems like good drivers had the day off that particular day of the year, anyway we where heading home, it was a short trip, that end up not going as we wanted, but it was a great experience and lesson for my mind and soul.





Just thinking about how disconnected we where, how I was with money without id in the middle of nowhere, no battery on my cellphone, it made me realize how much time we spent connected to a device, or involved with money, transactions, payments, checks, credit cards, I definitely realize that we need to connect more with us, with nature, and animals, because for that moment I was truly the happiest person alive.