Being so close to Uruguay, we couldn't resist having a look at the place. We had a major panic in the taxi to the ferry port. I had bought the tickets and knew we had to be there an hour before, but for some reason, I thought the ferry departed at 2.30 instead of 1.40pm. We arrived at the port at 1.25pm and genuinely thought we'd be refused entry due to border control and baggage checks taking time. It even stated on the ticket to arrive an hour before to check in. We ran in dragging our backpacks and waited as patiently as we could to speak to the receptionist. Thankfully we were let on, and other people were still arriving after us! It was the first time in over a year that we had nearly missed a pre-arranged trip. I was so relieved! I knew that if we hadn't been allowed on Si would remind me of my mistake for years and years haha. The ferry was only an hour long and a pretty smooth ride. Arriving in Colonial, we spotted buses waiting outside. It took us ages to try and explain we wanted a bus ticket and we still aren't entirely sure why they couldn't give us one. Luckily, a five minute walk away was the bus terminal. We caught the next bus to Montevideo, Uruguay's capital. Clocks had gone forward an hour and by the time we arrived at the hostel it was too late to explore. We bought food and cooked before checking our emails and heading to bed. It only took a day to explore Montevideo. The main square had a statue of a Jose Artigas on a horse. He was a hero of Uruguay's independence movement and honour guards keeps vigil at the mausoleum. In the main square was a 26 storey building, which used to be the tallest building in South America. It was ugly, old and plain - yet made it into the guidebook. We knew when reading this, that there wasn't an awful lot to see in Montevideo!! After a quick nose around the Cathedral and a walk down the main streets, we arrived at the food market. An old train station had been converted into a maze of market stalls selling steak. There were a mixture of tourists and locals dining at the bars which surrounded the meat filled grills. We heard that is was the best steak in Uruguay and rivalled Argentina so we had to try it. I ordered a half portion of ribs and Si had a small steak. Our eyes almost popped out of our heads when we saw how large a 'small' portion was!! It was delish!! We finished our day by the water and walked along the concrete path for a while. Almost immediately we were hit with a horrendous stench!! On the beach were hundreds of dead fish and a dead seal. Although really gross, we couldn't help but get a closer inspection. At the bottom of the concrete steps we also spotted some homeless persons shack, complete with sofa! In flip flops I was so scared about the dead fish touching me as I walked over the rocks!! The seal looked like it had got its nose stuck in plastic but we realised that it was just some of its fur. It also had no eye, probably eaten by a bird. All along the shoreline were dead fish. They all looked like a similar type of fish so we guessed that a net had broken.