This is where your house will stand.
We build in two departments on Uruguay's coast: Rocha and Maldonado. The map shows roughly where our houses already stand.
Rocha
180 kilometres of Atlantic coast and plenty of room behind it.
Rocha is the quieter of the two neighbours. On an area of about 10,500 square kilometres live around 80,000 people. In La Paloma, where some of our houses stand too, just under 6,000 people live year-round. In January and February there are about 30,000. From Montevideo it is a 3 to 3.5 hour drive.
- by car from Montevideo to La Paloma
- 3–3.5 h
- of Atlantic coast
- 180 km
- inhabitants (2023)
- 80,710
- area
- 10,551 km²
Coast and beaches
The beach towns are La Paloma, La Pedrera, Barra de Valizas, Aguas Dulces and Punta del Diablo. From July to October southern right whales are off the coast, some only a few metres from the shore.
Nature and protected areas
The Laguna de Rocha is protected over about 22,000 hectares, 7,200 of them water, only 58 centimetres deep on average. A sandbar separates it from the sea and opens from time to time. More than 220 bird species live here, among them flamingos and one of the largest populations of the black-necked swan in the world. The lagoon is part of the Bañados del Este Biosphere Reserve, recognised by UNESCO in 1976, which holds about 70,000 hectares of butiá palm groves. At Cabo Polonio, dunes more than 20 metres high shift with the wind. On the islands offshore live almost half of all the fur seals and sea lions in Uruguay.
Towns and villages
The capital is the city of Rocha, with just under 27,000 inhabitants. La Paloma was founded in 1874 and has a harbour for fishing and pleasure boats and a lighthouse at Cabo de Santa María. Your car stays at the park entrance. From there, licensed trucks cover about 7 kilometres through the dunes, or you walk.
Hills and inland
Behind the coast, people live from cattle, sheep and rice. Across the whole department there are fewer than eight inhabitants per square kilometre. Two fortresses still stand: Santa Teresa and San Miguel.
Getting there
From the centre of Montevideo it is a good 3 hours to the city of Rocha, 3 to 3.5 to La Paloma and 4 to 4.5 to Punta del Diablo. From Carrasco airport it is about 25 minutes less each time.
Living here all year
La Paloma has an emergency room that is open around the clock. There are hospitals in the city of Rocha, with an intensive care unit, and in Chuy. In January, in midsummer, the average is around 23 °C, in July 11 °C. The village has changed, its population has doubled, and it has stayed quiet. La Paloma has few schools and few shops and amenities. The bilingual schools are in the city of Rocha. Punta del Este is about 1 hour away. Rocha has sanatoriums that have agreements with the Sociedad Médica. Maldonado is better equipped, but more expensive.
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