Had you asked me what I thought of Carmelo in Uruguay at around 4pm on Sunday, I would not have been able to answer without a tirade of expletives. Everything was closed for siesta, there was nothing to do, and, worse, there was no way out. The bus I was supposed to get never came and I was one step away from getting the return ferry straight back to Buenos Aires. This godforsaken place wasn't just sleepy, it had a full onset of rigor mortis.

So how come just a couple of hours later, I was blissfully cycling around town and thinking about a return visit?

It came after having a turning-point conversation with someone working in local tourism. Not someone who worked at the tourist information office (those that typically pass you a useless government-funded brochure and send you on your way), but someone who had personally invested in local tourism and wanted to make it work.

In this case, it was an enthusiastic hotel owner. He appreciated my interest, gave me some background information on the town and re-sparked my desire to get to know the place.

I ended up scraping my plans to move on and decided to stay the night. Something clicked. I became more proactive; I went for a drive among cornfields that looked like sand dunes; I checked out some historical sites. When I came back, the town was awaking from siesta and everyone was heading to the riverfront to watch the sunset. Finally, there was some atmosphere and the contrast made it (almost) worth the wait.

I shouldn't romanticise it too much as it wasn't perfect, but I did suddenly appreciate Carmelo for what it was. That initially 'annoying' siesta habit was actually what made it so calm and noncommercial.

I have been thinking about how we judge places (and sometimes write them off) since reading an excellent debate on the Fevered Mutterings blog about 'What makes a place bad?'. We talked about how things can seem better with hindsight, when we realise we are being irrational. 

But can you sometimes adjust your mindset mid-trip?

Interacting with locals - as cliched as it sounds - can sometimes help, as it provides a reality check. I  found that couchsurfing made me more open-minded. When sitting around in a hostel with other travellers, it's very easy to slip into collectively bitching about the things you don't like in a place. However, you're not going to do it when you are living in someone's home and they are taking time to show you around their town.

Continuing the subjectivity/objectivity debate:

1. Here's Nomadic Matt's considered piece on why he didn't like Vietnam.
2. Here are some less-considered statements about Peru. 
3. And here's travel writer Lara Dunston defending a place that she has seen the good in but that many others name as a 'bad place': Dubai.

Have you ever had turning point on a trip where you gained new-found appreciation for a place? Ever hated a place at first and come to love it?

Have you ever been stuck in a place? (I think getting stuck somewhere – like I did in Carmelo - makes any independent traveller tetchy, even when we know we are being unreasonable.)

Maybe you think that occasionally disliking a place is all part of the fun of travel and we shouldn't have to like everywhere we visit?

Photo: Carmelo's boat cemetery by Hinayana via Flickr Creative Commons