GRAEME'S BLOG DAY NINE

Mercifully, departure today was 10am. Everyone was pretty tired after a huge day of rugby and a committed exploration of Rosario's night economy. The bus was quiet and a couple of movies on the DVD screens passed the time. Lunch stop was a filling station less grim than the earlier journey and even with a fruit and preserves stall to browse.

A huge traffic jam at Buenos Aires ferry port made the last part of the bus ride drag slowly and we eventually arrived at the clean, modern terminal at 4pm. The intervening time until our 6:30 sailing was filled with more empanadas, pizza and fizzy drinks, money exchanging and staring into space.

The fast ferry is like being in a fast food restaurant with no tables. Hundreds of airline-style seats facing forwards in front of a snack bar. TVs showed the recent Champions League football final (Mourinho's “anti-football” frustrating Guardiola's “tiki-taka”) and then goalkeeper's bloopers and disastrous back passes. It was quite enjoyable in a brain off way.

The boys took their opportunity to load up with more empanadas, pizza and jamon y queso. The adults may have had a beer or so. Their was really little sense of motion, and nothing to see of the night through the windows. We chatted with a Uruguayan who lives and works in BA and he told us that Uruguayans eat more and better meat than Argentinians. He also said that Argentines supported Uruguay at football once their own team was out of the World Cup but that Uruguayans would not support Argentina at anything. Do they have haggis for dinner in Montevideo?

Arriving in La Colonia, where there is a disused bullring, was smooth. Boarding our two buses was silky. Riding those two buses from La Colonia to Montevideo was seemingly endless. Two and a quarter hours was not what anyone needed after an already exhausting day. Eventually we arrived at the Ibis Hotel, mercifully modern clean and antiseptic. Out to a restaurant where the boys got fed quickly and the adults more slowly. Sudi's meal went astray. Not a happy physio.