La Paloma

The cape was long feared by sailors. One explanation for the town's name is that from a distance the rocks and the foam of the breaking waves on Cabo Santa María looked like the silhouette of a dove — paloma in Spanish. The lighthouse on the cape dates from the 1870s, and La Paloma itself was founded on 1 September 1874. Its natural harbour lay sheltered between the cape and two small islands, La Tuna and La Paloma.

In the 1940s and the decades that followed, the resort was enlarged to plans by the architects Juan Antonio Scasso and Carlos Gómez Gavazzo, which gave the town its newer centre around the old core. La Paloma was raised to the status of village (pueblo) in 1939 and to city in 1982. Nearby, in October 1945, an Air France flying boat made an emergency landing on the Laguna de Rocha after a propeller broke away and cut into its fuselage, killing two passengers; the aircraft was later repaired.

The old harbour was turned into an artificial port, built on the former Isla La Paloma, now joined to the land and protected by a breakwater about a kilometre long. It serves fishing boats and pleasure craft. Proposals to turn it into a deep-water port for bulk cargo and timber have met strong opposition from environmental groups and the tourism sector. Under Uruguay's decentralisation law La Paloma became the seat of its own municipality, with its first mayor elected for 2010–2015.

La Paloma is known above all for its calm. Much of its identity comes from the houses built for summer letting — many in an Alpine, French-influenced style — and the tower block in the centre stands out among them.

Surfing is a large part of local life. Surf schools work along La Aguada, and the town's beaches range from calm water to waves. In summer the town fills with visitors from Argentina, Brazil and Chile as well as Uruguayans and Europeans, and the neighbouring village of La Pedrera adds a cultural note with its short film festival, held each summer since 2004.

The wider customs of the Rocha coast hold here: fishing families working from the port, craft stalls selling leather, wool and products of the butiá palm, the department's own carnival, and an outdoor life built around the beach, mate and long evenings. Out of season the town is quiet and residential, with life centred on the port and the shops of Avenida Solari.

The 2023 census counted 5,939 permanent residents. Even the 2011 census, which counted 3,495 people, found 4,633 dwellings, a sign of how much of the housing stands empty for most of the year. In the summer months of January and February the population can reach around 30,000.

Tourism is the main business, from letting houses and running restaurants and shops to building and maintaining holiday homes. The port supports a fishing fleet, and the surrounding countryside of Rocha department adds cattle, rice farming in the wetlands and eucalyptus plantations. La Paloma is also the seat of its own municipality.

The rhythm is seasonal: a crowded few weeks around January, then long quiet months when many houses and businesses close and the town belongs to its residents, surfers and fishermen. Current debates centre on the future of the port, where plans for a deep-water harbour have been repeatedly opposed, and on how far building should spread along the coast.

With a working fishing port, La Paloma eats from the sea. Fish is the town's staple, and corvina and brótola, a white fish, are the common catches on this coast, grilled or fried. Rabas, rings of battered squid, mussels steamed in white wine and fish stews appear on menus, and shrimp are caught in the coastal lagoons in season.

Like the rest of the Rocha coast, the town has buñuelos de algas, fritters made with seaweed, and the butiá palm that grows in the department gives small orange fruit made into jam, sweets and a liqueur.

The Uruguayan staples complete the table. The parrilla, or grill, serves beef, chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage); the chivito is the national steak sandwich, layered with ham, cheese and egg; and pizza is eaten with fainá, a thin flatbread of chickpea flour. Empanadas are the everyday snack, tortas fritas, fried dough, are the treat on rainy days, and dulce de leche fills alfajores and desserts. Mate, the bitter herbal infusion shared from a gourd, is drunk at all hours, and Tannat, Uruguay's dark red wine grape, is the usual choice with a grill.