Leaving Argentina took us to my seventh country - Uruguay. We took the hour long ferry from BA, crossing the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, heading to Colonia de Sacremento. It could not be easier to cross into Uruguay. At other border crossings, it's always been hop off at one side of the border for your exit stamp, hop back on the bus, then hop back off maybe twenty minutes later at the other side of the border for your entry stamp. For the ferry crossing, the Argentinian customs guy is sitting next to the Uruguayan customs guy - easy peasy.

Colonia, as given away by it's name, is a coastal, colonial town and a protected one too. All the streets are cobbled, the shops are small and all the walls are restored.

We experienced our first parrilla, or barbecue, on the first day. It included chicken and beef, which was fine, but also morcilla (blood sausage), rinones (kidney) and chinchulines (small intestine). Blood sausage sounds like it should be similar to black pudding, but isn't. I tried the kidney but only Sean was brave enough to try the small intestine.

Another Uruguayan delicacy is mate. Everywhere you go you see people carrying little wooden cups, with a metal straw inside and a thermos under their arm. It's also big in Argentina, but everywhere in Uruguay. The cup is called mate (pronounced mat-ay) and the filtered metal straw is called a bombilla. The hot water is added to the dried leaves of the yerba plant, and is to Uruguayans as tea is to the Irish.

We spent a couple of relaxed days in Colonia, exploring the town, drinking red wine, eating ice cream and lying by the pool. We left on Saturday to go to Montevideo. The bonus of travelling through Uruguay is the short bus journeys - none of the previous six or ten hour crap. Montevideo was only two hours away.

Strangely, for a Saturday in the country's capital, we could only find one decent place to eat. Another strange thing we have found is that when we ask for a good place to go out and the local were asking recommends an Irish bar, they're not doing it because we're Irish - it's usually the best place to go! Montevideo was the same and we were treated to some good trad music for Maire's last night with us.

Another short two hour bus ride on Monday took us further east to Punta del Este, a city at the point where the eastern and southern coasts meet. It's a city full of high rise apartment blocks, which were empty at the time and quite ugly because of it. In a few months, the week after Christmas, it will be high season and all if these apartments will be full, swelling the population up to several hundred thousand. It also means the price of everything swells.

Punta del Este is famous for it's beaches. The eastern, Atlantic facing coast is quite windy, preventing any warmth when sunbathing so, after visiting the famous Hand In The Sand sculpture, we did some lying out on the more sheltered coast. PC and I also took a trip to the famous Playa Bikini, which was a short bus journey up the coast. The bus journey took us through the town of La Barra, which is obviously where the money stays in the summer, as we past both a Sotheby's and Christie's. We had the whole beach to ourselves, not a bikini in sight!

On Wednesday we arrived in Punta del Diablo, described correctly by Lonely Planet (AKA the book of lies) as the anti-Punta del Este. Although being much smaller, nothing here is over two storeys high, it is a much more attractive, charming place to stay. It's still as windy though!

We have been here for two days and thoroughly enjoyed the quietness of the place, swimming and walking on the beach during the day and lying in front of the fire in the evenings.