On the coast a good part of the housing is short-term rental, so receiving in a place of one's own is less common and going out to the visitor's accommodation weighs more: a rented house, a cabin or a hotel. Inland, in the capital, in Lascano or in Velázquez, the logic is reversed and the appointment at home with an agreed time predominates. Each ad states the arrangement, the locality, the time slot and the expected duration: those are the four pieces of information to read before writing.
Outside Montevideo there are practically no agencies or reception houses: here the profiles are almost all independent, they manage their own diary and answer themselves. What changes a great deal is who posts at each time of year. In summer short stays appear from people who come to the coast for the season, some from Montevideo and others from Maldonado, on the other side of the Garzón lagoon. Once March is past the list shrinks and rests on local profiles, concentrated in the capital and in Chuy.
Hours are stated on each listing and vary depending on the locality. In La Paloma and in the beach resorts, between December and Semana de Turismo, the night stretches out and arranging things late is normal; afterwards the season cuts off abruptly and several towns are left with no night-time activity. Chuy is the case apart: border traffic and the free shops give it long business hours and a steady rhythm, without that seasonal drop. In Lascano, Velázquez and Dieciocho de Julio life is organised early and the sensible thing is to arrange in advance.
The department is arranged around Route 9, which enters from the west, passes through the city of Rocha, continues as far as Castillos and ends in Chuy. Off that axis run the accesses to the sea: Route 15 goes from the capital to La Paloma in a little over half an hour, and Route 10 runs right alongside the ocean linking the beach resorts. The capital has no coastal frontage and works as an administrative centre; La Paloma is the resort with a port and a stable population all year round; Castillos, surrounded by butiá palm groves, is the gateway to Cabo Polonio, Valizas and Aguas Dulces. Further north, Velázquez and Lascano lie on the cattle-and-rice plain that descends towards the Merín lagoon.
Some ads offer formats longer than the brief encounter and say so: company for a dinner, outings of several hours or accompaniment during a stay. Here that request is tied almost entirely to summer and to the coast, which is when there are people staying several days in a row in La Paloma or in the beach resorts along Route 10. In Chuy the usual thing is shorter, tied to whoever crosses over for the day. Since they call for prior arrangement, they are unlikely to be settled at the last minute.
Travel is the critical point: the internal distances are long. From the capital to La Paloma there is half an hour of road, but to Chuy it is close to an hour and a half, and between the northern towns and the coast the journey takes up a good part of the day. That is why many ads make clear how far they travel and several do not leave their locality. There is also a physical limit: you cannot drive into Cabo Polonio, access is by off-road trucks from Route 10, and in several small resorts the roads are sand.
Contact is made through the number that appears on each profile, with no intermediation by the site. In such a stretched-out department, the first thing to confirm is the locality: an ad posted in Rocha may correspond to the capital, to a beach resort or to the border, and between those points there are hours of difference. Only afterwards come the arrangement, the hours and the duration. In small towns such as Velázquez or Dieciocho de Julio discretion weighs heavily, and the exact address is usually passed on once the appointment is confirmed.
The season rules. Between December and Semana de Turismo people concentrate on the coast and diaries close further in advance; the rest of the year activity returns to the capital, to Chuy and to the inland towns. If you are looking at a beach resort out of season, confirm before travelling: many profiles move with the season.
Chuy is a case of its own. The avenue that splits it down the middle separates two countries: on one side Uruguay, on the other Chuí, in Rio Grande do Sul, and it is crossed on foot. The free shops bring Brazilian and Uruguayan visitors all year round, and a few kilometres away, on Route 9, are Dieciocho de Julio and the fortress of San Miguel.
Each listing describes what the person offers and under what conditions: where she receives, at what hours, with what duration and whether she travels. The site publishes the ads, but the conditions are set by each companion and the rest is agreed between the parties.
For anyone arriving from outside, the reference is Route 9, which threads together the capital, Castillos and Chuy. Velázquez and Lascano lie off that axis. From the capital, on the other hand, going down to La Paloma is the simplest journey in the department.