The next couple of days at Guarda were good, but it was pretty rainy so we didnt do much. The guys at the hostel we were staying at were great and helped us to buy our bus ticket to Porto Alegre. We had also met another couple of guys there, Matheus and Leonardo who also live in Porto Alegre. The bus was at midnight, another overnighter and we got to Porto Alegre at 7am, then jumped on a bus for another 2 hours north where Alex and Will )who we met in New Zealand) live. Alex picked us up from the bus station and we stayed with him at his parents house. We had a look around town, and in the evening we had a bbq and they invited their friends over. It was a great night, good to catch up with them again and to experience a proper Brazil welcome! The bbq was amazing, they put meat on huge skewers about 4 ft long and turn them over a coal fire, delicious. Will made some Caipirinhas, but after a lot of beers and i am sure there was far too much cachaca in there!!

The next day we headed back to Porto Alegre and Matheus and Leonardo picked us up from the bus station. As they are both Gremio fans, and so were Will and Alex, Jack adopdted them as his Brazilian team in New Zealand so he really wanted to go to a match. Matheus and Leonardo took us to a match on the Sunday night, but it wasnt at their stadium it was an away game. It was a pretty small stadium but it was packed, and we stood at the back just incase there was a goal and everyone rushed forward (they didnt score unfortunately, got beat 2-0). Gremio are famous for the "avalanche" you should check it out on youtube! There were some crazy fans there, playing music and dancing all the time, they actually broke part of the stadium it just caved in, but not the part that we were standing in so that was good! The game was good, but since the ref made some dodgy decisions, they were surrounded by riot police after the game and escorted out! but there was no trouble there so nobody panic.

That evening, was another traditional bbq, we have eaten so much meat in brazil it is crazy! Amazing food though, so good. They invited round some of their friends and we ate and drank all night. Everyone has been so friendly in the South of Brazil, really made us feel welcome, and we are so lucky to have stayed with great people.

We had booked an overnight bus to Montevideo, Uruguay, for the next day at 8.30pm - a 12 hour journey... so during the day we went to visit Gremio´s stadium, then had a famous Porto Alegre cheeseburger, it was honestly as big as the plate! Then we went to a pub to watch the fulham chelsea game (jack was gutted with the penalty miss) and then had to leave straight away to get the bus. We said goodbye, but they might be coming to London at the end of the year so will probably see them again.

The bus was fine, overnighters arent too bad actually they are pretty comfy and they even provided sandwiches, coke and then breakfast in the morning! nice. we got to Montevideo this morning at about 8.30, then went to find a hostel. we found a really nice place, Montevideo is beautiful, very Spanish with lots of Plazas and lovely buildings. Everyone is very relaxed here, much slower pace than Brazil! Time to test my spanish i have been learning on the DS! I promise i will put pictures on tomorrow, need to have a massive uploading session.

Adios por ahora!