Arrived in Colonia by boat. Its just across the river chanel from Argentina, but since its the mouth its pretty wid and is about an hor by boat.

very strange little town, Colonia is a very appropriate name. i dont think anything hasdchanged since the colonial days. very pretty but so so quiet...until we arrived. basically, trhere is nothing at all to do in this town so we went for lunch as a group and then the guide pretty much said the only thing to do is hir golf buggys to go around town in. so thats what we did. all 8 of us. since we are 4 pairs it workls pretty well so we got four buggys and went off round the town. so much fun, not exaclty the fastest machines but a good laugh none the less, pretty little town made our way along the beach front, did a few doughnuts in teh carpark and enearly made it into a fovella looking area but a few scared faces meant we turned back pretty quickly. got back and everyone went back to the hotel to chill out. the hotel was nice, literally looked like you could imagine a spanish villa to be like way back when. a nice little court yard in teh middle, a second story and then a roof top terrace.

me and andrew hadnt had enough and wed spied some proper beach buiggies parked on the road. found out where to hire them from and at 6 quid for the hour we thought we may as well. we could only get one as andrew doesnt have his licesnse with him but that turned out to be a good thing in the end.

so we asked the guy where to go, as in, where can we take this thing as the roads are pretty boring and weve done that in teh golf cart. so he pointed us down teo the beach and off we went. found a few places to rag it around ont eh way, what looked like a plot of land for a house was pretty good, lots of weeds to run through and hidden hills. eventually made it to the beach, found a place to get down and had the best hour fo teh day. got soaking wet as i thought it would be fun to make a bit ofa splash but it basically all came straight u`p at us, every last drop. then it was andrews turn to drive. pretty much puit it to its test, got some good speed, there were snad dunes and hills and all sorts of fun...until we got stuck. really wet soft sand by a creek that was running into the sea. 100% stuck, took us a while to get out by which time we were both even wetter and more covered in sand. including the buggy.

eventually it was time to go back and we were told to put petrol in it. coudltn find the petrol station so we decided to go back so they knew werent late and ask were the station was. i parked on teh corner so they couldnt see the buggy from teh shop but he came straight out when he saw andrew and saw the buggy covered in mud and sand. wips out the cxontract and points to the bit where the hirere is liable to a US$200 fine if the buggy is taken on the sand. perfect. he rings his man who gave it us who convienently told us not to go on the sand. he absolutely didint, he was the one that told us to go to the beacvh and is now coinsidently no where to be found. long and short, id signed the papaer without reading it so what turned into a ride that cost us 3 quid each now cost us 53 quid. still, it was probably worth it and we left the buggy without putting petrol in it or cleaning it so we paid 50 quid for convienience. again, they obviously saw us coming a mile off!

after that there was only one option but to get a massage to destress after the ordeal. went to bed for a few hours as we still ahdnt slept but enede up sleeping right through again until the next morning where we left colina for montevideo, the capital.