We just got back from Concordia, after spending a couple of days there to renew our visas and have a bit of a break. It's amazing how different it is to Salto, there seems so much more stuff in the supermarkets (mainly in the line of cheap booze) and it seems much busier. We also felt a lot less safe there than we do in Salto - but nothing happened. We stayed in a cheap (-ú10 for a double room with breakfast) but lovely hotel, and wandered around the sites there. At some point I'll probably add some photos of the castle we went to see, and the cathedral, which looks quite different to any other Catholic cathedrals I've seen.

This explains the gap in blog entries - we were without a power supply for our laptop for quite a long time since being in Salto - so we've been just about keeping up with e-mails using Gilberto's computer, and the internet cafe. But I've not got round to updating this - hopefully I'll be able to fill in a few of the major events, but things should get more interesting from now on!

Today we went to the 'double service' at Espíritu Santo, which is a service in Spanish, followed by a service in English. It was really helpful to be at both, and interesting to see the differences. We then went for lunch with the Carters. After lunch, Steve taught me how the guitar chords are done differently here. All the chords have different names as follows: C is DO, D is RE, E is MI, F is FA, G is SOL, A is LA, B is SI. For minor chords, sometimes lower case is used, and sometimes an 'm' is added. I'm starting to get used to it, but it's very tricky.

In the morning we went shopping at Montevideo Shopping - we found it this time with the map - it was much easier by foot. In the afternoon, we watched Bad Boys 2 at the cinema there. It was really empty and we thought we were going to be the only people in there, but another couple came in part way into the film. It was so different watching a film in such an empty cinema!

Today we went to Colonia (an old town opposite Buenos Aires) for the day. It was a really nice place to visit for a day, but there wouldn't have been much more to see if we'd been there much longer. The sea views were really nice.

We went to visit Heather in the hospital this morning - she still seemed to be quite weak, but should be going home tomorrow. Then we tried to find one of the other shopping centres nearby - either Portones or Montevideo Shopping. We caught a bus, which was going to one of them, but missed the stop, and ended up at the Rambla. We then walked along for 3-4km before we got to a bus stop where we could get a bus back home.

This morning we had a time of prayer in the chapel, which I found very difficult. After this we went for a Spanish lesson with Gerry, which was really helpful and we did a lot. We then helped him to get things ready for the Alpha course. We stayed for the start of the Alpha course and then went home. It was interesting to see the way they ran it here - they started of with the food, then had a couple of songs before the talk and afterwards split up into smaller groups to discuss things.

We had another Spanish lesson with Daniel and then we went for lunch at McDonalds. After lunch we went to Tres Cruces to have a look round, but there didn't seem to be much there.

We got our flights changed first thing at the American Airlines office by the seafront, so we will now be travelling back at the start of July and having a one-night stopover in Miami on the way back to break up the journey. We then went down to CASA to meet Daniel and have a Spanish lesson - which was interesting as he was teaching one person English, and 3 of us Spanish at the same time! After the lesson we went for lunch together.

We went to the English service at the cathedral this morning - it was strange, as it seemed to take more effort than the Spanish ones we've been to! We got the bus back home, and then had lunch with Miguel, Martha & Gonzalo. In the afternoon we went to the dedication of the new church building for Espíritu Santo. It was a really nice service, with so many people that there were lots of people standing outside!! After the service, there was a reception with lots of food where we met Gilberto.