Leaving Uruguay turned out to be a lot harder than anticipated. We left Punta del Diablo on Friday morning, heading to Montevideo, in order to catch a bus which would take us over the land crossing into Argentina, to Rosario. What none of us noticed when looking up the Montevideo-Rosario bus online was the frequency - it didn't run on Fridays! We couldn't wait around until the next one on Sunday either as Sean's cousin Jimmy had already arrived in BA and we had told him to meet us in Rosario.

A quick decision meant we were now aiming for Buenos Aires. Thankfully we had some luck on our side - we were within an hour of the departure, which meant we got the ticket half price.

So we arrived back in our favourite hostel of BA with no booking. They didn't have a single bed free. Neither did any of their recommended hostels. We knew one of the staff from the previous visit and she decided to become our guardian angel and offer us the couches to sleep on. But that meant we had to go out to avoid the security guards for a few hours.

Oh well, fine, we'll go out. But only until 6am, then we want our free couches.

The club was Crobar and it turned out to be crap but it was daylight when we in the taxi home. The next day we split up so Sean could find Jimmy and then met again in Rosario. Of course we were a day late for our hostel reservation - weirdly the hostel manager wanted some Uruguayian Coca-Cola bottle caps as a reward for keeping our booking!

Sean & Jimmy managed to get chatting on their bus to a girl that sounded like she worked for the local tourism board. She told us about a local food festival called La Colectividades featuring food and entertainment from countries all over the world, including Ireland, although we didn't eat there. A few Czech beers and Brazilian kebabs later and we were ready for the night.

We couldn't find the bar that had been recommended so we interrupted a young couple on the street for their recommendation. Mom 360 turned out to be the equivalent of Redz and we were amongst the oldest people in there! Although it was refreshing to be the only gringos in the place.

It was another late finish which meant another late start. Callanan was first out of bed at about 1230 and quickly reported back to the room that breakfast was still being served. Thirty seconds later we were dressed, eating pastries and drinking coffee. We werent the only ones either - most of the hostel had been out that previous night. We asked the hostel manager, Juan, why he was still serving two hours after it was supposed to finish and he replied because we were asleep. How sound was that?

Sunday being the quietest day of the week, we responded to Juan's incessant recommendation to "Go to the beach!" by going to the beach.

Rosario is home to the Monumento Nacional a la Bandera (or the National Flag Memorial) as it is the first place that the blue and white Argentine flag was raised in 1812. Its also on the banks of the Rio Parana, the same river that passes through the Itaipu Dam, and has several islands off it's banks. A short ferry ride later and we were sunning ourselves on the beach of Isla Invernada/Espinillo with the locals.

The ferry port was next to La Colectividades so on the way back we made the near compulsory stop for some food. We had another "the Irish bar is the best place in town" moment before actually heading to O'Connells - cue several pictures of Sean with pub signs. He also proceeded to show his drivers license to a member of staff, without being asked to, which earned him a free shot of whiskey. Shameless!