Montevideo, Uruguay

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It´s another early start again today, but this time the bus ride from Salto to Montevideo only lasts about 2 hours.

We arrive to find that George W. Bush is in town and the area surrounding Plaza de Independenzia is cordoned off. All around the city there are posters and grafitti expressing the local sentiment toward him, which isn´t complimentary!

As we only have a couple of days in Montevideo we are pressed for time to see as much as possible so promptly get ourselves booked onto the city tour bus. This doesn´t turn out to be such a good decision as, although the tour is sold as being in English, the guide tells most of the history in rapid Spanish with the occasional word in English, which basically tells us the name of something we passed about 5 minutes earlier!

The next day we decide to visit Punta del Este - supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in South America. It´s another 2 hour bus ride and unfortunately the weather isn´t in our favour as it is overcast and there is a pretty strong wind blowing. The beach also turns out to be a bit of a let down, although the weather may have contributed to this quite a lot. There are very few people around and the sea is quite rough. You also get a good sand blasting on the beach with the wind whipping it up into small tornadoes.

So, after a few hours we´re more than ready to head back to the hotel where we get ready to move on once again.

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