It was very odd to hear the news of early snowfall in the UK – coming as it did, on the 1st December, when we were at the beach. Uruguay is famous (amongst Argentinians and Brazilians at least) for the quality of its beaches, and feeling in need of a bit of a tan before we head home, we headed east for a few days.

Our first stop was La Paloma, a little beach town about 4 hours from Montevideo. We did little but lie on the beach, nap and read during our 2 days there, although the timing of our visit was notable in that it coincided with the 'Day of the Gnocchi.' This occurs on the 29th of each month, the day before payday, when people were usually so poor that they couldn't afford to eat anything other than these cheap potato dumplings. Today, often gnocchi is only available on menus on this day, so we had to sample some. Coupled with bolognaise sauce and a 1 litre bottle of Pilsen, one of the local beers, it was absolutely delicious.

From La Paloma we headed west to Punta del Este, the “party capital” of Uruguay, where the beautiful people come to dance at the nightclubs and gamble in the casinos. Or at least, they do in high season, which, we discovered, only really lasts between Christmas and Carneval in February. James had a vague desire for us to go out but his plans were foiled: most of the clubs only open on weekends in low season (and we were there mid-week). Just as well really, considering a) our regular bedtime of 11pm is a good 3 hours before the clubs even open and b) after 9 months on the road, I am not sure even our smartest remaining clothes would pass muster with any self-respecting bouncer.

The centre of Punta is meant to be a little like Surfer's Paradise in Oz, so we decided to stay in Manantiales, a small suburb 20 minutes out of town which is home to Bikini Beach (sponsored by HSBC Premier). The upside of being here in off-season was there were no crowds: in fact, we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. The area is pretty good for surfing but our desire to hire boards for the day was quickly overpowered by a stronger desire to just lie on the beach and soak up some sun. I did rouse myself enough to go for a paddle in the sea a couple of times, but the water was so icy cold I didn't last long.

Away from the empty beaches Manantiales was a hive of activity, with lots of businesses preparing for the official 'seasonal re-opening' next weekend and lots more in the process of construction – we were very sad not to be able to pay a visit to “Glam Coffee” which offered take-away drinks, a fairly new concept in these parts. Presumably the 'glam' part refers to the models who will be acting as baristas. We were there however, for the opening of Cactus and Pescado, a gorgeous fish restaurant overlooking the beach. We only meant to stop in for a quick lunch before catching the bus into town, but the restaurant had a 3 course menu del dia which included a free glass of wine – clearly too good a deal to pass up. After washing the meal down with an additional bottle of wine, we realised that we had accidentally had another Quality Lunch, decided that the town probably wasn't worth the effort, and collapsed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.