Despite a bit of a fiasco at the start of our trip to Montevideo, the night bus to Montevideo went as smooth as the others. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but the night buses are pretty cool over here, some even have WI-FI. We were lucky enough to be on one which did on our way to Montevideo. The Uruguayan transport system also impressed me with its efficiency and organisation. They had always been on time, infact all of the buses we caught were early. After around a 6/7 hour coach ride we arrived in Montevideo in the early hours of the morning. I could tell we were in a bigger city as the first thing I noticed was the big golden arches of McDonalds, the first I had seen in Uruguay. Still I wouldn't be visiting I had set myself the challenge of not visiting a McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, KFC or similar American chain whilst travelling South America. While hoping this would trim a few inches of the waist I also thought it would help me in eating local cuisine. Somehow we managed to stumble across our hostel half asleep and checked in.

The next day we did our usual exploring of the town, we made our way to the central area, where we got caught up in the middle of the Uruguayan equivalent of the London Marathon and then went to see what we presumed was the tomb of Jose Gervasio Artigas - a national hero of Uruguay and often referred to as the father of Uruguayan nationhood. . I say presume as it was all in Spanish and I couldn't understand a word of it apart from the odd date. The thing that struck me most about Montevideo was the amount of dog s*** on the floor. Now during our travels of South America we have seen no shortage of stray dogs and the odd piece of dog crap along the way has been expected but in Montevideo it semt like you dodging the canine turds with every step you took. Luckily and touch wood neither Earl or myself have had the misfortune of stepping in any, but if the rest of South America is the same I'm guessing it's just a matter of time an accident occurs.

On our walk we also tried to find an Irish bar, something else that had been eluding us in Uruguay so far. It wasn't that we were missing a pint of Guinness or the novelty of Irish bars, we just came to the conclusion that this would be the best place to catch the much anticipated Carl Froch vs George Groves boxing match. We never managed to find one and any other pub we found also looked more like a restaurant. So we headed back to our hostel and had the great idea of using a google search to see if there was one. There was, there was two. Typically one was only one block away from when we decided to turn around. The other was the other side of town. They both quite a walk and to be honest we were all walked out. So we had a gamble and had a flick through the hostel TV and as luck would have it there it was midway through round one. We chilled out and watched our local sporting champion knock out Groves in the eighth round. The night was fairly chilled from there a few games of s***head were played and a few beverages were sank before retiring to bed where I decided to watch The Hunger Games 1 & 2.

My sleep pattern was all over the place. I was up all night and the little sleep I was getting happened to be between the breakfast hours. So when I eventually joined Earl the next morning we decided to have another stroll around town but this time in the other direction. Our first stop on our walking tour was the Uruguayan National Football Stadium the Estadio Centenario. For a bargain 50 Uruguayan pesos we got to walk in the stadium which we had completely to ourselves and check out where famous Uruguay players such as past Man Utd Striker Diego Forlan had laced there boots and scored memorable goals. After getting a few pics in the Estadio Centenario we headed south to Montevideo's beach. We tried to have a pit stop in the Irish Bar Gallagher's but unfortunately for us it was closed so we headed straight to the beach where we saw numerous teens doing outrageous back flips, summersaults and gymnastic moves. The beach was far better than the one we trekked to in the rain in Fray Bentos and better than the beaches in Colonia. The beach was really sandy and looked nice for a summer's day. However not the same can be said about the sea which had a distinct s***ty brownie colour to it. So it will come to no surprise to you that we didn't take a dip in the faeces stained water. We then made our way back to the hostel for a siesta. Everything was really quiet on a Sunday every shop was pretty much closed and no one was about, this was either because it was a Sunday or because the national elections were fastly approaching in the coming days, so that night we stayed in and played what was becoming our regular games of s***head. I also decided to sample one of Uruguay's finest - Patricia. No I hadn't been mischievous with my manhood, it was just the name of the local Uruguayan ale.

I finally made the hostel breakfast the next morning. I hadn't missed too much, it was just the usual selection of cereal, breads and jams and fruit. But at least it was free. I then packed my bags and checked out. We would be leaving that night to Brazil, where the carnival atmosphere for Brazil would begin. Where we would swap the Spanish language we were beginning to grasp a tiny tiny bit for Portuguese and where we would hopefully cheer our nation to success. But first we had a day in Montevideo. We needed to print stuff out for our travels in Brazil so we made that a priority. We got our transport documents printed off, had a stroll around a Monday market in the plaza near our hostel then had some lunch. The afternoon saw us visit another local market where Earl splashed out on some socks. We then made our way to the Telecommunications tower, which was a free viewing point 160 meters in the air offering views of the capital. It wasn't the best viewing point I'd ever been to, but it was free and they gave us a free pen. The walk also took us past the fancy National Palace building. We then headed back to our hstel where I sampled the other local Uruguayan ale - Zillertal and we had our usual games of s***head until it as time to the bus terminal.

So that was it the end of our stay in Uruguay. To sum Uruguay up, I'd day it was similar to Laos, not that it had great waterfalls, or a town where you got drunk as a skunk every night. More that it was a small country connecting two. Where Laos bordered Thailand and Vietnam for us, Uruguay was in between Brazil and Argentina. It was a nice country, don't get me wrong but there wasn't too much too see and do there. For me a week in Uruguay has been perfect, I felt I have done everything and seen everything I wanted too. I ate their local dish Chivito, saw the national stadium and got to run riot in a golf cart. It had been fun, but business would now pick up with our trip to Brazil. Next stop Porto Alegre.

So until next time stay safe and take care

Adi

xx