Ola Uruguay Real Estate and Investments

With friends visiting from France, my wife and I decided on a day trip to Cabo Polonio. We had never been before.

Much has been written about Cabo Polonio, the tiny community without electricity or running water at the end of a windswept peninsula between coastal towns La Paloma and Punta del Diablo. It is home to less than a one hundred who choose to live there for most or all the year. However, in the warmest months, it swells with seasonal residents and tourists. You arrive in Cabo Polonio in one of the large four-wheel drive trucks that transport people and supplies from the highway along restricted crude roads through the sand.

The peninsula is buffeted by strong waves on one side, but gentler waters on the other, where the people live. A long time ago, huge wind-driven sand dunes moved freely about the peninsula. However, plantings of pines during the military regime considerably altered the natural geography.

For many years, the uniqueness of the area has been recognized; it has been included in the National System of Protected Areas. About six months ago it officially became a national park. The village area is shared by the Uruguayan government and private owners, who can own their homes, but not the land. No new construction is permitted.

When we arrived, we knew the resident population was a mix of fishermen, entrepreneurs, and expat or native alternative lifestyle seekers. We didn’t expect we would actually get to know any more than that about the residents. However, the universe had decided otherwise and an hour or so later, my wife spotted a home with a Canadian flag out front. Being Canadian, I felt a need to investigate. That is how we met Raul.

“Who’s the Canadian?” I called out toward an open doorway.

“I am,” answered Raul “and please come in.”

Raul was with friends who were just leaving, so we asked Raul to tell us his story.

Raul was actually born in Uruguay. However, he moved to Canada at age nineteen and lived there for more than thirty years. He married, had children, and became a restorer of antiques and fine furniture. Later, he and his wife opened another business involving pianos and a school of music. Eventually, the marriage ended and Raul began to question his life in “a huge house full of electronic gadgets and the latest sports car parked outside in my driveway”. He needed to find a new direction in his life and boarded a plane for Uruguay, “to see what it was like”.

In the beginning, adjustment was difficult as things move so slowly in comparison to Canada. As he said, “manana is a word that we all get to know”. About five years ago, almost by accident, he came to Cabo Polonio. He knew he had found the place where he wanted to be. He immediately began building a small hut right on the beach. It was illegal to do so, but the law wasn’t being enforced at that time. As he told us, he was lucky to have done it then, as soon after a park ranger station was established and illegal construction ended.

He still owns the beach house, now a rental (and for sale, an interesting opportunity in a market where no further construction is permitted) but about two years ago, a thirty-year-old block and brick house became available and he purchased it. He is still making it into a comfortable home. It certainly seemed to us to be a nice place. It has a kitchen, bathroom, and dining/living area on the main floor, and a bedroom in an upstairs loft. It is small, but sufficient for one or two people. We admired his efficient kitchen and his rebuilt fireplace. He explained that he gets power from a solar cell just outside the door and can store it in batteries for days without sun. His fridge and stove operate on propane, available from another local. His washing machine is powered by a small gas generator. His TV and computer operate from the solar cell too. His water comes from collected rainwater and a well, which all the homes have. He boils his well water but says others don’t bother.

He likes his life in Cabo Polonio. In the summer months, he is hired by some travel agencies and estancias to guide English-speaking tourists around Cabo Polonio, showing the multi-colored homes, the creative huts, the eclectic collection of vendors, the grazing horses and chickens, the beach, the dunes, the sea lions, and the lighthouse. He also takes tourists to nearby Rocha, Bosque de Ombues, La Pedrera, La Paloma, and the fortresses of Santa Teresa and San Miguel. For four months each winter (the Canadian summer), he heads north to Toronto to visit his children and friends.

We are not the first ones to discover Raul. When gallivanting American chef, Anthony Bourdain, decided to visit Uruguay, retracing the steps of one of his grandfathers, he also visited Cabo Polonio. And yes, he was hosted by Raul, or El Condor as he is called in the video. The interesting five part series (Raul is in Part IV) is available on YouTube. An American travel writer and teacher, Kelly Westhoff, also featured Raul in an account of her visit to Cabo Polonio. Raul, El Condor, is becoming the Cabo Polonio media star, simply by being a wonderful, likeable, warm, and open human being.

He has promised to visit us in our home near Atlantida and be the cook for a real Uruguayan asado. We look forward to seeing him again. We also look forward to going back to visit our new friend in that most mellow and unique of Uruguayan communities, Cabo Polonio.