Guardia Del Monte
Uruguay is a bird-watchers paradise. You can stay on Dona Alicia’s estancia, Guardia del Monte, which stretches for miles and has its own lake, Laguna de Castillos, with bird-watching hides, close to the sea. The main house is charming and olde worlde but very comfortable. All Dona Alicia’s food is cooked on an ancient, wood-burning stove and the flavour is delicious! Combine your stay with a visit to a nearby coastal fishing village which can only be reached by travelling over sand dunes in a specially designed truck. The houses have all been built from whatever material is available locally. Here you can watch sea lion colonies at Cabo Polonia. Not far from Guardia del Monte is a unique forest of Ombu trees. These trees normally only grow in groups of 2 or 
3 so a whole forest is extremely rare. Some of these trees are over 500 years old and have a diameter of 2 metres.
