Headed across the Rio Plata on a super fast catamaran to land ourselves in Uruguay, another country, another stamp in the passport!

Caught a taxi with a mentalist driver who insisted on giving us a speed-tour of the city despite the rain and the dark on the way to our hostel and refused to accept that our espanol was really limited....preferring instead to snap his fingers at us when he considered we were not paying enough attention....!

Finally reached Red Hostel, a lovely renovated house with big open fireplace and high ceiling but absolutely no other form of heating at all (apparently there was heating last year but the ancient electricity system couldn't cope!) so spent a few hours literally chilling out in our room seeing our own breathe!!! Bring back our luxury BA abode!

Next day we pottered round the pretty Old Town and then gorged ourselves in the Dickensen-esque wrought iron Mercado de Puerto where dozens of parilla BBQs shout and yell at you to sit at their stall. Not wanting to upset anyone we willingly obliged and sat at the BBQ 'bar' eating sausage after sausage....hmmmm!

Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to ease our greed guilt by trotting along the seafront..After short while hiding under the blankets in full outdoor clothes in our room we met up with Irish Pauric again, back from his adventures in Colombia and minus a bit of leg after being attacked by a crazed hound, and headed to the nearby Irish bar for full debriefing. Ended up in the La Pony Pisador bar, a strangely Lord of the Rings obssessed place, listening to a pretty good Spanish cover band before adjourning to the local nite spot for a spot of dancing to Montevideo's answer to Enrique Iglasias and where the boys were rewarded with stylish orange t-shirts thanks to their efforts drinking enough shots of the local firewater!

For our last day in Uruguay's capital we headed to the nearby mall for a movie to treat our hangover, decided we couldn't face Shrek 3 in Spanish and duly retired to drink more wine and eat more food....top marks Uruguay!