Our bus trip to see Debs and family.

Pete woke at 04:15 before the alarm went off and we showered and did the last of our packing just in time for the arrival of our welcome breakfast tray at 05:00.
Alison was sniffling most of the night and seems to have caught Pete's cold.
 We left our packed suitcases in the room and just took our backpacks with us into reception.  Our car arrived on the dot at 05:30 and whisked us into the central coach station, where we arrived at 06:00, before much of it was open!  We reckon we could have had another half hour in bed, but better early than late, as they say.
We soon found the waiting area in Zone E and our coach was shown on the screens at 06:45 and arrived 5 minutes later.  The driver studied our tickets in great detail and even wanted to see the return tickets as well as the outward ones and both passports, before letting us on.
We had been allocated seats one and two on the top deck and right at the front, giving a superb view and opportunities for some video photography en route.
It was fine so long as you didn't look down as it seemed every time the bus turned a corner it was going to crash into both sides of the road!
We drove past the Puerto Wilson and containers stacked high on either side of the road, and then onto a main autopista out of the city.
We were going nicely and then left the main road to our first stop, where we were given our lunch box (which contained four different varieties of biscuit).  After a short time the urbanscape was transformed into lush green, especially once we had crossed over the river bridge into Entre Rios.
Every now and then there was a toll stop or a slow down at a Police checkpoint.  At one of these the bus was pulled over and the police entered and started examining ID's and passports.  After much rummaging, Alison found these and had them ready, but the policeman ignored the front row and so we could put them away again and were soon on our way.  There was water on tap, which was needed, as the sun was streaming in through the windscreen, but we didn't want to close the blinds; we could see buzzard eagles, who had built their nests in the electricity pylons lining our route.
After about 4 hours we saw the first sign to Colon and then we turned off to Concepcion del Uraguay, a large town, where we spent some time navigating the streets before finding the coach station.  Back out on a different road and we sailed past the turning to Colon, only to find ourselves driving down unpaved tracks in San Jose, arriving there at about 12 noon, the time we were due in Colon.
However Colon was only 10 km back down a different road and we soon arrived at the coach station to be met by Ann & Bob who walked us back the short distance to Debs' and Hugo's house.
The girls were a little shy and were getting ready for school, but hunger overtook shyness as we all tucked into empaladas before Hugo took them to their afternoon session.  Debs then drove us the short distance to our hotel, which is pleasantly situated near the banks of the river, but sufficiently far away and high enough to have avoided the recent floods.
A brief chill-out before Debs arrived again to pick us up and take us back home for a celebration BBQ.

Debs picked us up at 18:00 and took us back to their house; Olivia and Mia had lost their shyness and great fun was had by all.  Hugo gfot his barbecue going and what an excellent meal that was - pork and beef ribs and oh I forgot sausage to start off.  Some salad to accompany the meat.  Paulo, Hugo's business partner,  arrived bearing ice cream which we had for dessert.  We all ate far too much and drank not a little red wine, finished off with a shot of whisky!  it was past midnight, we could not keep our eyes open any more, Debs took us back and we crashed out on the bed!