Couldn´t leave the Punta del Diablo blog so devoid of details so thought I would put a few more details in about our time in Punta.

The hostel we were staying at was run by a young dude from the US called Brian. I had an interesting chat about Uruguay as a nation and economy because I had previously read that Uruguay had free education from pre school to post graduate studies. Through my discussions with Brian I also discovered that Uruguay has free healthcare for almost all ailments including dental. But on the flip side to pay for all these services provided and paid for by the government the taxes in Uruguay are stunningly high. No one can be resonably expected to pay all the taxes they are so burdensome, even the government acknowledges this. For instance the social welfare payments to be paid by a business owner on each of his employees is 96%, plus the sales tax of 36% and income tax of 45% its all a bit ridiculous.

But despite that we had a great time in Punta, our first night there we went to the only restaurant in town which was run by this old man ride by the sea and hence the restaurant was called "The Old Man and the Sea" (after the Hemmingway classic). Ernesto, "the old man" was quite humorous actually and was awfully proud of his little restaurant. I was less like a restaurant and more like sitting in his dining room whilst he cooked you dinner in his kitchen, but the fish was great that he had caught himself that day.

Ernesto was the "mayor" of some made up country for a commercial for lynx deodorant. In the add the citizens keep fish under their arms or something, I´m sure its on Youtube. Anyway that was Ernesto's moment of fame.

Other things we loved in Punta del Diablo:

• Hammock on the deck
• Em making hot chocolate for the whole hostel (except the two annoying dutchies and one annoying french travellers)
• Reading by the fireplace in hostel
• The hitch-hiking, jeep riding and long treks to Cabo Polonia with Sophie and Marcelle
• Em and Sophie feeding Ernesto's dog a whole plate of dulche de leche and hence renaming the dog "Dolche the dog" (think they had drank too much by this point)

From Punta we were heading for Colonia de Sacramento. But our first stop was Chuy, at the Argentinian and Brazilian border to organise our Brazilian visa for visit in a couple of weeks. Then from Chuy, to Montevideo were we would catch our third bus for the day and arrive in Colonia de Sacramento after lots of sleeping in the bus bed.