Monday 18th March
After a late breakfast, we decided to extend our stay in La Barra for another night, then spent the rest of the morning working. In the afternoon, we went walking along an empty and windy but sunny beach.
Tuesday 19th March
In order to make the journey from La Barra to our next destination, La Paloma, (despite both being on the same part of coast) we had to take a series of three buses; one inland, one to the east and then one out to the coast. En route, we had enough time to have an uninteresting but perfectly adequate lunch in Rocha.
Upon arrival in La Paloma, we were collected from the bus station by the owners of our hostel and driven out of town to their place. First impressions weren't great, and when they told us the wifi was down, we were even less impressed. The beach nearby was lovely, though.
Wednesday 20th March
We got a lift in to town with two other guests in our hostel who had the sense to rent a car. Buying bus tickets for the following day was the first order of business, then settling in a restaurant/cafe to escape the increasingly heavy rain and do some work. We ended up staying for morning coffee, lunch, and then when Jess and Dani arrived in town and came to meet us there, an afternoon snack and more drinks. I think we spent about seven hours there, but with the rain and wind outside, we were just glad to have somewhere comfortable to sit.
After quite a lot of chatting with the girls, we went to the supermarket and bank, then sat with them in their hostel common area, drinking tea, stroking cats, swapping movies between our harddrives and chatting some more. Eventually, begrudgingly, we walked the 3km back to our hostel, made dinner and had an early night.
Thursday 21st March
We checked out of our hostel (thank goodness) and were dropped off in the centre of town to meet Jess and Dani at their hostel again. Again, we sat around stroking the cat and gossiping about travel blogs, then moved to the same restaurant as yesterday for coffee and a light lunch for me and Zab.
Unfortunately, we had to leave shortly after to catch our bus to Montevideo, which we just made. In the capital, we were met by our couchsurfing host who walked us to his apartment before going out to run some errands. We walked down to the beach, found a cafe and worked for a while, then returned to his flat and made a simple pasta dinner for our host and his girlfriend, by which they were disproportionally impressed.
Friday 22nd March
The day began with a walk along Montevideo's coast to the Old Town and the central part of the city, during which time we couldn't get over how nice the weather had turned, and the irony of having such great weather in the city just after having crappy weather for three days when we'd been by the beach.
Once in the Old Town, we took a recommendation for lunch and ate at Jacinto, a nice but pricey restaurant. We then wandered around for a bit, before catching a bus back to our host's neighbourhood and a visit to the bank. We then spent the afternoon working, before heading out to pick up some vegetables and back to cook them.
Saturday 23rd March
Zab wasn't feeling very well, so we mostly stayed in so he could relax while I worked. We did go out for a walk in the afternoon, and stumbled upon an interesting looking art gallery. Unfortunately, we didn't like the current exhibition much.
Sunday 24th March
After breakfast, we headed out to the Tristán Narvaja flea market, and wandered around looking at people's old junk while munching empanadas. We then decided to walk in to the Old Town, and were surprised how dirty and empty the streets were along the way. Everything was closed downtown, so we walked along the coast and stopped in what seemed to be the only café open in the whole city on the way back to our host's place.
