My parents were always worried I'd go off and leave Natalie somewhere on this trip. Well, I did for 3 weeks in Nepal when Mark came over but Nat could have come with us if she could walk for longer than 30 minutes in one go. Anyway, turns out it isn't a guy who has come betweeen us, it is a woman. Danielle Steel. Nat found a book lying in a hostel in South Africa. She can't put the thing down! One night I asked her what she was reading and she read: "She lay by his side after their love making. The light fell on his golden hair. He traced her breasts..." STOP! She even talks like DS using words like 'splendid' and 'charming'. Long and short of it, Nat wants to go to Chicago because DS mentions it in The Book. No info on the city - the character only changes trains there. I showed her on the map that is is slightly out of our way since we're going fom Miami to NYC. She's keen to make a detour though. So, question to you all: Worth the extra cost in time and money to visit Chicago? Anyway, back to the trip in hand... We checked out of Lime Hosteeel (renamed Line Hostel..) and took a small rucksack over to Uruguay for 3 nights to see what the place was like. Had to pay a small fortune for the 1 hour ferry to Colonia de Sacramento - they didn't have tourists seats left so we paid for 1st class seats only to find there weren't any seats left anywhere anyway. Buquebus should be renamed Buqueb******s. Colonia is a quaint little place. Very European with the cobbled streets, open-air caf?and the style of buildings. The wind reminds me of Scotland though. Without the coldness. Although we did have our (new, but not expensive mum) gloves on. A 'charming' place, in the words of Danielle Steel. We braved the lighthouse where I sustained a head injury as I was counting the number of steps going up. Despite afro, still came away with a lump on my head and nonethewiser of how many steps there were. Stayed in Colonia Hostel where we had the dorm to ourselves which was nice after the Piccadilly Circus traffic in Line House. They even had bicycles you could use for free but Natalie's sports injuries held us back. Met a guy in the hostel kitchen and said hello then thought "I know you... Famous? French? From uni?" No, hostel the day before in BA. Useless with faces and names after my work(s) allowed me to meet about 4000 people a year. Now tired of meeting other travellers and missing the ones we've met so far (namely the Love Truckers in Africa). We went from Colonia to Montevideo by bus. What luxury! Exactly the same as the buses in Spain. In fact, all very similar to Spain (although people don't smile and laugh near as much) which gets us down because we feel like we're in Europe and so so so close to home. Montevideos (I mean thee people) seem very hard done by - Lonely Planet lies! They're either very hard up or just like looking grey. I expeected to see Montevideo Vs Buenos Aires like Paris Vs London. No. More like Dundee Vs Geneva. And that is the Dundee when I was a teenager. Theree are lots of young people here though but no idea what they do at night as the bars we went to were full of old Americans and middle-aged women escaping the greyness of life. No, I'm not middle-aged, Natalie. Like the people, the gorgeous buildings need a bit of love and care. Several huge buildings lying derelict - great potential for a flagship TopShop store. Or possibly a casino. Not a great to do in Montevideo but Nat and I are running out of sightseeing steam anyway. What can beat giraffes and lions, anyway? Nat certainly wasn't impressed with the Museo Torres Garcia - a small art gallery with about 5 words in English. We treated ourselves (yet again) to the Buqueb******s direct back to Buenos Aires at a ridiculous price of 35GBP each. Other option was standing on a 2hr bus journey along the coast then getting a 3hour ferry. Half the price but we're averse to long journeys now. So, back to Line House for possibly a we before heading to Lima. The eeeeeees in this journal is no reference to our hostel - the keyboard is sticky.