Two reasons the boys didn't like Montevideo.....

Louis and Frankie weren't too sad to see the back of Montevideo. 

Firstly, Louis lost Lemmie, his little fluffy ring-tailed lemur keyring toy that Grandma had given him before we left.  Frankie had Rudi, another lemur, and the boys whiled away many happy hours on long journeys playing with these guys. Louis had taken to giving Lemmie a more independent experience lately, so for example on the previous day, Lemmie enjoyed a long coach journey attached to the curtain, by his seat.

You can just see Lemmie's tail on the seat next to Louis.......

And on the fateful day, Lemmie was in fact enjoying his own seat in a dodgem car beside his master, when sadly Louis, in his excitement to get out and tell us about the dodgems from his perspective, left poor Lemmie behind.  In fact we have a picture of Louis and Lemmie's final happy moments together.

About 30 minutes later, we were walking along La Rambla, a pleasant area of grassland separating the coast from the city, when Louis suddenly shouted out "Oh, no!"  He was in tears before we could even find out what was wrong, and as he explained and we began to retrace our steps, he felt it was a hopeless task. On the way back we tried to give Louis some hope, I thought it was a great opportunity for an impromptu lesson in probability, and we eventually reasoned together that there was only a 20% chance that he was still where he'd left him, 40% chance that he had been taken, and kept, and a 40% chance that he'd been found and handed in.  That gave us a better than evens chance that we'd find him. 

Well regardless of the apparent favourable probability, we searched thoroughly, even looking back at the photos to ensure we searched the right dodgem, but to no avail.  We had to be content with the fact that if someone had gone to the lengths of keeping him, it was probably a child that really liked Lemmie and would look after him very well. Not much comfort, but the best we could do in the moment.

We were walking along together looking for Lemmie, and I looked ahead and could see that the whole area ahead had been cordoned off.  The cordons were simply made up from scaffolding poles. A policewoman explained that there was a Nike 10k running event taking place later.  It happened so fast but as I looked across at Frankie, I shouted "Frankie watch out!" Too late.  He walked straight into one of those metal posts, face first.  Ouch. Poor Frankie, who was already upset on Louis' behalf for Lemmie, and now had another reason to cry.  

It certainly wasn't Montevideo's fault. But if you happen to be there, let us know if you see Lemmie.......