After Porte Alegre it was a relief to arrive in Punta del Esta. I didn't know what to expect of Uruguay, but what I found was a pleasant surprise. There was not much in the way of sight-seeing to be done here, it was your typical beach resort, but it was a beautiful one! With what seemed like endless coastlines of stunning white sandy beaches and expensive millionaire apartments over looking them. The harbour was very cosmopolitan, obviously to cater for all the rich people snapping up houses and apartments here, with funky restaurants and bars, which were perfect for entertaining ourselves in, in the evening.

Upon arrival to the La Lomita hostel I was dubious why it had received such a high 90% rating from the hostelbooker's website, since it was more like a guest house and the accommodation and facilities were very basic, and yet, after a few hours we realized why. The young family that ran the guest house could not be friendlier and do enough for you; they completely took us under their wings. The owner Rodriquez had nothing to do all day so spent all his time trying to entertain us, by being our personal tour guide in his 4X4; showing us the entire stretch of the peninsula, pointing out who owned the millionaire pads, explaining the strange architecture, taking us to see the exceedingly large sea-lions at the yachting harbour, telling us the best restaurants to eat at and the ones to avoid and showing us the ideal spot to watch the sunset at night and what time to see it - he truly was a tourists gem! We probably wouldn't have seen half of things we did if it hadn't been for him. Plus he was very amusing, he was a South American version of Dell Boy; a real wheeler, dealer, always looking for a good money making scheme and seemed to know everyone.

This 3 night stay in Punta del Esta was all about the sea, sun and vino and ended turning into 7 nights because we felt so at home and comfortable here. Matt was even looking in estate agents, eyeing up a potential holiday home. We just became completely absorbed in the laid back lifestyle of getting up late, soaking up the 30 degree heat on the beaches, taking siesta's in the afternoon, then eating and drinking late into the night with the host family and new traveler friends we had made. I even got the chance to feel like a teacher again, as I attempted to teach the young girl staying at the house English, in exchange for her teaching me Spanish.It was slightly embarrassing though because she was only 5 and picked up the English a lot quicker than I was picking up the Spanish!!

But after a week of bumming around and realizing we were on a tight schedule, in order to see as much of South America as possible in 4 months, we felt it was time to make plans and move on further round Uruguay. So we got on another coach and headed for Montevideo…