So we left you guys slightly lost and concerned in a random bus station in Uruguay. I am sure you will be very glad to hear that we made it safe and sound to Montevideo ( or Monty V as we have affectionately named it as I cant seem to be able to pronounce it correctly!) the capital of Uruguay. This bus jounrey was definitely not as exciting as our wonderful experience with Andesmar the previous evening so to relieve the boredom we resorted to planning another career option for me. Basically the new life plan is to become a rapper ( S to the Hoyle will be my stage name). This all came about after a few rounds of singing `no diggity` and bringing out some crazy dance moves on the bus for the rest of the passengers to enjoy. Personally we believe that there is a real gap in the market for a white, female, well spoken singer from the ghetto that is yorkshire ( sian got slightly jealous and has also decided that she will become my back up dancer and after seeing her moves i think this will work well).

Anwyway it passed the time and before we knew it we were there. It was then that we had to attempt to find our hostel that we had booked into for a couple of nights. To say we were clueless was an understatement. Basically we had no idea where it was or how to get to it so Sian decided that the best plan was to simply write the name of the hostel in massive letters on her notebook and point at it over and over again until a taxi driver kinew where to take us. Unsuprisingly this did not work but very luckily we were saved by a lovely irish/maybe s.american sweaty and very hairy man who had witnessed all of htis and realised he was actually going to the same hostel as us. After us smiling sweetly and obviously appearing completely stupid the lovely man said we could get in his taxi with him and thankfully that meant we arrived before dark.

We immediately came across a few issues in Uruguay. For one thing we had absolutely no idea what the exhange rate was and this caused many problems. In fact we had no idea how much anything was at all. We eventually found out that there was 32 to the pound and thought we were sorted. However we then began to realise that dividing everything by 32 in your head was just far too much for us. It was then that maths genius jenkins bought out the counting on the fingers method to get us through. This didnt really work either and this even led to her yelling " its really hard to count on your fingers, there are only 10 of them" as we attempted to work out how much we were spending at the supermarket Not good.

Monty V was not exactly our favourite place. On our first day there we attempted to navigate the streets of the city with some assistance from someone working at the hostel, she did however seem to send us into the back streets of the city where we feared that would be stabbed by some 7 year olds on bikes, this was clearly not the tourist area. But we went on to attempt to find the sights that our trusty friend the Lonely Planet ( which we may have accidentally on purpose stolen from the hostel) advised us to visit. However we are slightly concerned that somewhere along the line we went wrong and have missed something vital as what we did see was really quite unimpressive for a capital. All there really was were a few department stores (not that we are saying we didnt enjoy the shopping as we may have both ended up with a very pretty dress each from Uruguays Indian version of Primark) and some bad restaurants.

We felt that culture was ticked off the list and the next day we decided to head to the beach. We got up early and jumped on a local bus just outside of our hostel and were very happy and proud of ourselves when we spotted the sea and a lovely beach and knew it was time to get off. A few tannage hours later came the realisation that we actually had no idea where we were and how to get back agaian and of course had bought no map. Sians seemingly fool proof plan to simply cross the road from the bus stop that we had got off was unfortunately foiled by the one way road system in place. After quite a while deliberating on what to do and realising we really had no option we had to resort to an extravagant taxi joruney back to the hostel and were very annoyed with ourselevs. We swiftly found a map and immediately circeld our hostel on it so this could never happen again, "you live and you learn" (this is our new motto of the trip which is muttered approximately 10 times a day when ever we do something stuopid!).

The map that we aquired has led me to a new and exciting life plan of chief map reader. God knows I need to be good as Jenkins always always sends us in the completely opposite direction from where we need to go . I am bloody brilliant if i do say so myself and have only got us slightly lost a couple of times. I did manage to direct us to Monty V`s Carnival that evening which was a strange mix of old people in crazy costumes and young girls in thongs with fruit on their heads. Not quite Rio but good fun all the same.

The city wasnt all bad though. In fact on the first night we discovered something very exciting. Vino Tinto in the supermarket was actually cheaper than bottled water ( if it can really be called wine when it comes from a carton) and it tastes amazing. As we feel it is extremely important to keep hydrated and in the cheapest possible way we have obviously taken to purchasing quite a few of these cartons to enjoy on an evening. Monty V was also where we met ( ot were accosted by) a couple of very strange hippys on the roof terrace of our hostel who were high on life ( or some over susbatnce), overly intense Americans who made us cheers to absolutely everything they said. After a long conversation in which we had to agree about the amaxzing electrical energy that surround glastonbury, amongst over things, we began to realise that this hostel was full of very odd people.

We also wanted to infrom everyone that we feel we have now nailed the Spanish language. We simply answer any question with SI and vigorously nod our heads ( regardless of the question as we usually dont know what it is), always greet people with an overenthusiastic O-LAR and when we dont undertsnad (literally always) simply run away shouting GRASSY-ARSE with a quick thumbs up for safety (high fives are optional but usually included). When any of this fails there is also of course the hand gestures we have become accustomed to using such as Sians slicing of meat ( so we get the correct number of salami pieces) or my dancing for taxi druvers (so we can find a club).

After realising we didnt really love Monty V we decided to leave for a little town called Colonia which is West of the capital. We happily check out and to save precious pesos we decided to catch a local bus to the bus terminal. I successfully managed to get us to the correct stop but here was where the fun was to begin. After a small wait bus numjber C1 arrived. Suddenly Sian was wedged on (wearing rucksack and all) and I was left hanging half in and half out of the bus more than slightly panicked. After some yelling in Spanish the door was shut behind me and I was somehow on the bus but unable to breath or move, it began to move. It was then, with the whole bus looking at us, that we were told by the driver to take our bags off our backs ( at least this is what we think he said) but we had no idea how this was oging to happen. The only space we could see was a luggage rack that was seperated from us by a hige piece of perspex and there was no way we could lift the bags over by ourselves. Hysterically laughing and not really sure what was going on somehow our bags were passed over the heads of all the other passengers and were deposited safely. To celebrate this victory we did a little dance (everyone still staring) to the Jazzy Uruguyan music that the bus driver was loving. Somehow we had made it alive and successully caught a bus to Colonia.

Once we arrived I gave Sian the chance to map read and get us to our hostrel safely (MISTAKE). Its a very smll town and thought that this wouldnt be a problem. Of course I was wrong. After hours (or it felt like it) of walking around with our rucksacks on in the midday heat we somehow checked in to our hostel. Jenkins has no been forever banned from directing us anywhere ever (she blames this all on her dad and claims its in her genes!)

Colonia is really stunning, With a heay Portuguese influence the old town is full of cobbled streets and a gorgeous promenade. The beach is also beautiful and we have spent a couple of very trying days lying in the baking sunshine. It is also the home of SUPERMARCARDO, our new spiritual home. It is in fact our local supermarket and where we visit about four times a day to stock up on our budget snacks and meals. We are currently trying to have a few cheap days. Jenkins has been made chief accountant ( fails miserably as her maths skills are rubbish, lucky luck deloitte) and we have been happily consuming meals of pasta and powdered soup. The whole thing goes out of the window however around 8 o clock in the evening when the craving for chocolate and vino tinto kicks in and takes over. "You live and you learn".

We are catching the ferry today to Buenos Aires and cant wait. Uruguay has been lovely (especially seeing as it was never part of the plan to come and we didnt actually know where it was) but cant wait for copious vino tinto, steak and tango. xx SH