<p><strong><br />First published in International Living, March 2007</strong></p> <p><br />Perched on a small headland just thirty kilometres north of the glitzy swinging resort of Punta del Este, on the sandy, duny Atlantic coast of Uruguay, sits the exclusive hamlet of Jose Ignacio. Unlike Punta, there are no highrise apartment blocks here, no casinos, no nightclubs. Martin Amis owns a house in Jose Ignacio, and Ralph Lauren and Naomi Campbell often choose to relax here.</p> <p><br />The neat, quiet town boasts a couple of supermarkets, two internet cafes, a clinic, and many, many estate agents. Jose Ignacio is growing fast.</p> <p><br />A popular, excellent restaurant, La Huella, serves fresh fish and sushi at the entrance to La Playa Brava, the seemingly endless white beach to the east of the headland. Half of the cars cramming the access to the beach are Argentinean.</p> <p><br />Ice-cream sellers, and vendors carrying bright Indian blouses over their shoulders, weave their way among the scantily clad, copper-coloured crowds. Kiosks rent out boogie and surfboards and offer surfing lessons.</p> <p><br />Children build castles at the water's edge, youngsters play beach tennis, groups lounge about lazily sipping mat&eacute;. Two lifeguards sit atop their lookout, keeping an eye on the swimmers and surfers. It's three o'clock, and no one seems concerned about the thin ozone layer.</p> <p><br />I visit during the four-day Carnival weekend, on of the busiest times of the Uruguayan summer. I stroll west, leaving the crowds behind, and clamber over the boulders near the lighthouse which is stuck out on the end of the peninsula. Here a few children are collecting shells from the sandy hollows between the rocks. A few fishermen sit quietly contemplating their lines.</p> <p><br />I swing around the point and find myself on another beach, La Juanita, stretching west towards Punta del Este. Here there are no kiosks, no vendors, and very few people. The sea at La Juanita is safer and calmer than at la Brava, though the waves are definitely surfable.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Ahead, a lifeguard gazes into the empty sea from his perch. Plovers, sanderlings and oyster-catchers hop along the shoreline, guiding me towards him. I wade into the cool turquoise water and swim out to sea, diving under a few waves. Beyond them, I float on my back and wonder why this beach is so peaceful, so private. Maybe crowds simply like crowds. Unlike me.</p> <p><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Tips</strong><br />Jose Ignacio lies 150 kilometres east of Montevideo<br />Frequent buses connect Punta del Este to Jose Ignacio.<br />The season is short: although the best time to visit is between November and March, you won't find much action outside December, January and early February.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />For budget travellers, El Backpacker, just outside the bustling town of La Barra twenty kilometres to the west, is an exceptionally well-equipped and attractive hostel set in a wood. Their $15.00 bed and breakfast rate includes lockers, towels and bedlinen, as well as the use of bikes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />But if budget is not a problem, try La Posada del Faro, an exclusive small hotel set discreetly in the dunes in Jose Ignacio, where accommodation prices range from $90.00 to $550 per night, depending on the season and the type of room. Naomi Campbell stayed there, and loved it!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />El Backpacker: www.vivapunta.com.backpacker, backpacker@vivapunta.com, Tel/fax (598 42) 77 22 72.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />La Posada del Faro: www.posadadelfaro.com, Tel 598 486 2110, Fax 598 486 2111</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">If you happen to be in the pretty hilltop town of San Valentino in Abruzzo on 10 November, as I was a few days ago, you will witness a rather unusual parade which opens the four days of festivities around the feast of St Martin.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span>Saint Martin</span><span>, a chaste, holy man who lived in the fourth century, is famously known for having torn his cloak in half and shared it with a poorly clad beggar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Somehow, he has ended up being associated with new wine and unfortunate husbands.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The event that opens the celebrations in San Valentino has little to do with religion and generosity, and everything to do with ribaldry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>At seven in the evening, there is a procession of men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well, men lead the procession, and women and children follow behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No priests, mitres, statues, or icons. no veils or vestments: in this particular cort&egrave;ge, the men wear horns, and carry all sorts of huge phallic symbols, mostly made out of olive tree roots and branches. This is the Festa dei Cornuti, or Feast of the Cuckolds.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Traditionally, a group of men would creep around the village at dead of night, and would light lanterns outside the homes of men who had been betrayed by their wives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The night-creepers were in fact the lovers of the unfaithful women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The unfortunate cuckolds, who, on waking, discovered what their wives had been up to, had to wear their coats and hats back to front to publicly acknowledge their status.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Nowadays, the procession is much more light-hearted, and everyone has a lot of fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The largest and most elaborate of the phallic symbols, at the end of the procession, is offered to the most recently married man in the village by the previous year&rsquo;s recipient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Groups of musicians sing: the bawdy songs are often improvised and particular members of the village are singled out for good-humoured teasing.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Wine cellars all over the town open up, and local pizzerias stop serving pizzas, instead preparing traditional beef <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spezzatino </em>or stew<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</em><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The village is redolent with the mixed aromas of new wine and roasted chestnuts.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 35.4pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">&lsquo;It is important,&rsquo; says the town mayor from the front of the parade, horns balancing on his head, &lsquo;to understand an essential fact: the men who take part in the procession are not cuckolds.&rsquo;</span></span></p>