I wanted to go to Uruguay for the day which is just over the water from BA, so had booked a ferry across to a place called Colonia which was supposed to be nice.

The other benefit was the black market for US DOLLARS!

At the ATM I was getting around 7 Argentine Pesos to the pound. On the black market you can get over 8 to the Dollar. So in real terms it was making your money go more than fifty percent further, almost double if you were really shrewd.

If I had been wise to just how big a difference you could make, I could have saved a small fortune.

Oh well.

Anyhow, in Uruguay you can get Dollars out of the ATM. So basically you get as many dollars out as you can, then nip back to Argentina and take them to your friendly, slightly dodgy street exchange person.

They call it the blue market, but black market sounds better for story telling.

It sounds worse than it is as they are not allowed to change money on the street, so you have to follow them either to a flat or someone elses shop inside a small arcade.

Ok, with hind sight it does sound dodgy.

As it was The first day after Easter, all the ferry places had soon gone. I managed to get a cheap ferry out, but on the return there was only the business class option which was double the price. I did not really want to hang around for much longer so just went ahead and booked it.

You arrive at the ferry terminal and then have to go through immigration as of course you are in effect leaving Argentina and entering Uruguay.

It is a strange affair as you have the Argentine and Uruguay officers sat next to each other. The Argentine goes bang bang with the stamp and then simply passes your Passport to the bloke next to him. Bang bang I am in Uruguay already and I have not even left.

The ferry was pretty basic and crammed and I noticed the roped off upstairs part for the VIP.

Oh well at least I will be up there on the way back I thought.

It was early and I had missed breakfast at the hostel so I was keen for a caffeine fix.

I noticed a type of shop at the back with signs for coffee. It was out of those horrible powdered machines, but I was pretty desperate.

Latte?

No.

Cappucchino?

No.

She blasted off a load of Spanish and pointed to a button that said vanilla.

I pulled a face and said ok, knowing I would regret it. Plus it was about three quid, astronomical.

I pulled more faces as I looked at it and felt the top layer of skin on my fingers start to fuse with the plastic due to the heat.

I quickly sat down next to a lovely family of screaming kids and waited for it to cool down.

I should have just thrown it over the side, it was disgusting.

For some reason we were almost an hour late eaving. This put me under pressure as it would only give me a few hours there.

As we landed I had been told to head over to the left when you get off.

I stood at the junction and looked left and saw a pack of wild dogs so decided to go straight.

As it turns out the main area is pretty small, so I soon came across the high street and all the places I needed to be.

I went straight to the cash machine as apparently they soon empty, and licked my lips as to how much money I was about to make......

I punched in a big amount,

Amount rejected.

Eh?

Then it dawned on me I had hardly any money in my travel account, so only ended up only getting out $200.

Typical.

It was a really strange place with cars from the. 70's & 80's everywhere. Again not reconditioned or anything, these were currently used original cars. They were everywhere. It felt like back to the future.

The hertz car rental tickled me as it was full of golf buggies. I dont know if this is because the town is so small or they are on an environmental drive. I shall have to google it.

It was a strange place, really pretty but bizarrely quiet.

I guess the best way I could describe it was like a film set that got built for a movie and was no longer needed any more. Oh and with dogs, lots of dogs.

I did a few laps and realised that was it, it really was small, so no mad rush.

I went up the lighthouse for the sake of going up and then decided to go get some lunch. Everywhere was crazily expensive so I managed to find a place that seemed not too bad.

They did a fantastic grill as I saw them coming out with skewers the size of swords full of chicken and beef and sauages. Yum yum, i was dripping like a dog at food time.

Despite it being touristy the menu was in Spanish and the waiter spoke zero English.

I looked around and the table next to me had delicious steak with fried eggs, I was in a frenzy as what to order.

As it was lunchtime I decided not to go mad and decided to order sausage and chips, plus I knew the word chorizo meant sausage.

Not as daft as I look eh........

So mr waiter blasts me with Spanish and I said

Chorizo.

Nope that was not enough apparently and he blasted me some more.

Chorizo?

I was now saying it far less confidantly.

He started pointing at the menu a bit more.

Chorizo?

It was now more of a whimper.

He was pleasant enough, so just smiled and off he went.

So there I was really looking forward to my sausages and chips and probably a nice side garnish when out trots the waiter with.....

a single sausage on the plate.

I was so embarrased I just said thankyou and hoped no one was looking.

Note to self I thought....must learn more Spanish.

I must say it was a very nice sausage though.

So with my fist full of dollars about as full as my stomach, I called it a day and headed back to the ferry terminal.

I had plenty of time, so for some bizarre reason decided to have a coffee at the little stand. It was only polystyrene cups but it was proper filter coffee.

I saw the amount and started trying to translate it In to pounds.

My head was spinning with Uruguay, Argentine, Dollars and pounds and reckoned it to be about two quid.

As I got my lips round it, it had that horrible metallic taste to it, it was disgusting. Then it dawned on me I had got the exhange rate the wrong way round and that it was almost six quid....

Even Fortnum and Mason do not charge that!!!!!

So far financially the day had been a disaster.

Oh well at least I could relax on the business deck on the way back I thought.

Immigration was the same affair only larger.

bang bang I was back in Argentina.

The ferry back was not the one we came over on, and in a word was knackered, it was well old. It was even more crowded than the way over. I walked on with the lower classes and started to rehearse my smug look for walking through the rope and up the stairs.

I did one lap but could not find anything.

I went round again but quickly realised the only steps off the floor were out the side of the boat.

I went up to the woman at the shop and showed her my ticket. Business class I said?

Si, Buenos Aires she replied having clearly not understood me.

I went up to a rather grizzly looking shipmate and showed my ticket and pointed up.

He just gave me a dirty look and shook his head.

Shafted again!

What a disaster of a day I thought as I hung on for dear life with a taxi driver going faster than Schumaker through the crowded streets back to my hostel.

Oh well at least they had fixed the lift, let's just hope the mass murderer is not there.

Time to start heading west......next stop Cordoba....