Stuck in a Muck in Chuí…or is it Chuy? A Misadventure from Florianópolis to Punta del Diablo
I’ve been around the block. It wasn’t my first rodeo crossing an international border…and I still got it wrong. Here’s how to avoid falling into the same trap.
I put myself in this situation from the start. Scheduled to meet a friend in Uruguay, I couldn’t force myself to leave Florianópolis (Floripa), Brazil on time, so I had to make it all the way to Punta del Diablo, Uruguay in one day. There was no backup plan. It’s only 620 miles (1000 kilometers). Should be easy, right? Wrong.
The first leg~easy breezy
The journey was pretty long, so I decided to fly from Floripa to Porto Alegre, Brazil. (50 mins, $80 US, Azul Airlines).Porto Alegre is a large, grim Brazilian port city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state. The other option was a 6 hour bus ($30 US). Buses in Brazil are luxurious, yet slow and expensive…and Brazil is REALLY big. The 50 minute flight sounded like a winner. Plus, I’d be able to catch the 1:00 pm bus to the Uruguay border and get to Punta del Diablo at night. So I thought.
The second leg~this is gonna be cake!
I arrived in Porto Alegre without issue. I took an Uber to the bus station, bought my bus ticket and grabbed some lunch. Things were looking good. The bus would take me from Porto Alegre to the Brazilian border town of Chuí. The bus ride ( 8+ hour, $37 US) was pleasant, if uneventful, other than a rest stop where we encountered bus-loads of beer guzzling football hooligans lighting firecrackers at a gas station.. They were Grêmio fans, a famous club from Rio Grande do Sul.
The bus arrived on time to Chuí at 9:30 pm. Chuí, Brazil and Chuy, Uruguay are twin “towns” straddling the Brazil/Uruguay border. The main street is literally the border. Immigration is a few miles in either direction, and I’d gotten my Brazil exit stamp before arriving in Chuí.
“Step” three~arriving in the “Chuíys”
This was where the fun ended. I should’ve known this. I’ve traveled for years and pride myself on travel logistics. Hell, it worked in Siberian Russia, it should be EASY in Uruguay, right? Wrong. Why did I think it was a good idea to arrive in a border town at 9:30 pm with no onward ticket and no clue if there was onward transportation?!?
I hop off the bus in Chuí walk across the border (the main street) to Chuy, Uruguay in search of onward transport to Punta del Diablo. I realized right away I’d made a mistake. I don’t care where you are the world over, border towns are sketchy. This one was teeming with bootleggers, bandits and smugglers. There were scores of rough characters lounging around the street hammering adult beverages and smoking weed. At least weed is legal in Uruguay. This was starting to look bad. I needed to find onward travel or a hotel, and I needed to do it fast. Later I found out that smuggling is big business in the Chuíys.
While Chuí, Brazil has a proper bus terminal, Chuy, Uruguay doesn’t. Buses from Chuy leave from a church next to a park. A park that was fenced off and under construction. I’d have taken pictures, but at this point I was starting to get a little nervous. I entered a hotel. It’s booked. At least there is wifi. Good.
Step four~getting a room in the Chuíys
I’d read that there was a hostel in Chuy, so I looked it up and programmed the directions into maps.me (which is a GREAT app GPS location but AWFUL for place location), and walked there. Yes! Done for the night. I went in and asked for a bed…and the receptionist tells me I can only rent the whole room?? (4 beds at $60 US). Baffled.I politely declined and left on principal, with no clue where I was headed next.
As I’m walking around the pitch black streets heading God knows where I start cussing myself for being so stupid and not planning ahead.
I ALWAYS plan ahead. I LIKE planning ahead. It dawns on me that tonight could be the worst travel night I’ve had night since passing out in a ditch in Thailand and getting robbed. But I was 24 then…and at a Full Moon Party. I’m no longer 24.
What am I doing wandering around the streets of a sketchy border town without a place to stay? I decided to returned hotel on the park to ask for a room and use their wifi. Sold out. I then hopped on booking.com and see one hotel room left in the Chuíys. It’s about a mile away, back in Brazil, for $75 US. Screw that. I decided to get some Uruguayan cash from an ATM, walk back to the hostel and rent the whole damn dorm room.
Angry but resigned to the fact that I’ve lost the day, I walked back to the hostel. As I enter, the receptionist coldly tells me she’s rented the room five minutes ago to a couple. There are still 2 beds left, but she won’t let me have one. Now I’m actually nervous. I storm back to the hotel on the park (where they’re probably starting to wonder about me) and get back on booking.com to reserve the last room in Chuí. I’ve really lost the day now, blown my budget, and I’m still a mile+ away from the overpriced hotel. So I set out walking through a sketchy border town. I was the easiest target for a robbery. They’d have hit a goldmine with the array of electronics I was carrying.
I walk. And walk. And the road turns from asphalt to dirt. The streetlights disappear. There are screams coming from houses. I must be in hell.
I finally arrive at my hotel, the “Turis Firper,” and the place is packed with Grêmio fans watching their football match, it’s now in a shootout, which explained the screams coming from houses… At least I’d made it and won’t be sleeping on concrete at the Chuí bus terminal. I go to check in and the English speaking receptionist saves the day. Seeing I’ve booked a quadruple room (heck, it was the only one available) and seeing I’m alone, he charges me only $25 as opposed to $75. He also gave me a beer. He didn’t have to do any of that, but he did, and I’ll always remember and recommend the Turis Firper to those stuck in the Chuíys.
Step five~getting to Punta del Diablo
This would have been CAKE had I done my homework. If I’d reviewed my Bradt Guidebook, I would have learned Rutas del Sol had a late night bus down to Punta del Diablo. However, I was lazy and didn’t take the time to research because I thought it would all just work out. In the end, it did, but I got lucky. It could’ve ended poorly. I could’ve easily run into trouble and been robbed. 70 countries in and I’m still learning valuable lessons every time I’m on the road.
Here are my Takeaways for Other Travelers~
- Always have a firm plan when you’re arriving in an unfamiliar place, especially at night
- Always know your transportation and lodging options beforehand
- Always have a back-up plan if your first plan doesn’t work (delays happen, especially in the developing world)
- Take the time to research your route from A to Z, noting when buses, trains, etcetera leave!
- Get a good guidebook (Bradt, if available) to help with logistics, especially on more obscure routes, or find travel blog posts from those who’ve been on the same route
- NEVER get overconfident, always put in the research
- Don’t put yourself in situations where you need to rush. Always give yourself ample time to get from one place to another
- Border towns are generally sketchy and not places to be at night
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