No Fixed Plans

We had to get on a bus at 7am to be able to catch our flight from Medellin to Cartagena. The hotel provided us with breakfast before we left to eat on the bus. 

When the flight actually started, notebook got passed around so everyone could sign it (the ceo happened to get automatically placed 6 rows in front of the rest of us- the two in the same row as him I got to sign before). 

We got to the hotel at about 10 but weren’t able to check in. We got given time to change and stow our luggage before heading on a walk around town. We then went to a fancy restaurant as a farewell lunch. Once we finished, our rooms were ready. Upon entering the hotel, we gave him the group tip as the plan for that night was to go drinking so we didn’t want him to have to carry that much cash around. 

We met at 5:30 to go to a rooftop bar. We had a few drinks there and before leaving, two of the guys did speeches and then the notebook was given to him. He got really happy and exited and said no one had ever done something like that for him before. 

We then moved to an empanada place to have some dinner before going to a street bar. We were playing drinking games for a couple hours before heading to a karaoke bar. While most of the group stayed until closing, I went back an hour earlier with the 16 year old and her dad as she had had a lot to drink so I helped him get her back to their room. 

The next morning, no one wanted to get up (breakfast finished at 10:30am and our ceo had to message our group at 10:15am saying that the hotel staff told him they had seen none of us and that it was almost over). Later that day, we took Ubers to a local market to buy fruit and (ideally) to have lunch, however due to the smell (which was caused by the vendors selling unrefrigerated meat) and none of us wanted  to eat there. Instead, the ceo bought some fruit from there while we took an uber to a different restaurant closer to the hotel to all have lunch. 

After this, our CEO said goodbye to us all, let the hotel staff know we were all ok to take the fruit he was leaving in the fridge, and then went home. 

We all then relaxed the rest of the afternoon before 6 of us meet for dinner at 6:15. 

We went to an Italian restaurant and then headed back to the rooms to go back to sleep. 

The next morning most of the group went on an 8 hour boat ride that visited a few islands around. I instead decided to have a chill day, had late breakfast and then went down at 10am to say bye to two of the people leaving. I then chilled in my room for a bit, went out to get coffee and tiramisu, and then went to a coffee tasting tour. The tour went to 3 shops. The first shop I got to taste a honey wash using a pressure brewing method (an espresso machine). The second shop it was a natural bean using a pour over method. The third shop was a washed bean using an immersion brewing method (a French press). 

The tasting lasted about 2 hours. Afterwards I went back to my hotel. Those in my group still in Cartagena informed me they were meeting for dinner at 6:15 so I went to meet them then. We had dinner at a burger place, 4 of them getting burgers and the two of us who don’t eat beef both got something else. They all then went to get drinks after and I went back to the hotel to pack for the early flight the next day.  

We had to leave villa de Leyva at about 7am and drive 4 hours back to Bogota, where we then boarded a flight. While we were waiting at the gate, we were planning on listening to our ceo talk about the history of the currency and who was on each of the notes, but instead there was a Christian group there and their leader decided to start giving us the same sermon and recommending a book for us to read. After the flight, we had about a 30 minute drive to our hotel. We all had 20 minutes in our rooms (which is when I realised that my only cord for my phone had broken and my phone was on 40%). We all met in the lobby and went to Frisby’s (Colombia’s local fast food chain) for lunch. After this the ceo took us on the metro to go to a local shopping centre/ art gallery. While there, he took me across the road to buy a new phone charger and then we went back. The top two floors were both art galleries which we walked around before meeting the rest of the group. 

We then went back to the hotel, relaxing a bit before redeeming our free cocktails on the hotel roof. The only one being offered was a mojito, which we all could’ve sworn had no alcohol. 

After this we went to get empanadas/ pastries for dinner (I didn’t get any) before heading to a strip of local bars. While majority of the group stayed out until 4am, 3 of us went back at 1am, all pretty happy. 

The next morning we had a tour around Medellin, however only 5/12 ended up not being too hungover to wake up and go. We got taken to government building, saw some street art, went to the local square and finished within a local market. After this, I went with one of the women to check out her room at a local school that teaches Spanish that she had booked while everyone else went back to the hotel. Upon getting there, we both decided it was really sketchy and bad vibes so she decided to cancel it and continue on the tour with the rest of us. We then went back to the hotel, chilled in our rooms for a bit, and then went to a close by restaurant that mainly focused on vegetarian and vegan food for lunch. After this, we went back to the rooms for a bit before meeting half the group in the lobby to go to Comuna 13 with our ceo. He first took us on the cable cars to see the neighbourhoods from different angles, and talked about how different governments and gorilla groups impacted the areas. 

We then took a bus to the neighbourhood and walked through it. We then met with the rest of our group at a bar and had a few drinks with them, as well as taking photos on the roof. 

After this, we all went to a dinner closer to the hotel. Afterwards, majority of the group went to a pub to get drinks but myself and the 16 year old on the tour decided to go for a walk instead. We did a loop around the block and were sitting on stairs a 7 minute walk from the hotel. We knew if we wanted to keep talking that we would have to stay out due to the time (about 11:30pm) and the fact that the hotel made voices echo all the way up. When we decided to go back we saw a guy who was clearly homeless and on something walking up to us and saying something. We assumed he’d behave like everyone else we had encountered and leave us alone when we ignored him but as we were walking up the street we heard a large leaf snapping behind us (despite knowing no one was walking other than him and us) and it sounded like running. As the 16 year old was walking slightly ahead  of me she turned to look at me, noticed it was the same guy coming. This is when we decided to run until we knew we lost him. 

We got back to the hotel with no further issues. 

The next day we had a free day while half the group had booked a Guatape tour. Our ceo had decided to take those of us who didn’t go to the house that Pablo Escobar was shot at and then to the memorial park for his victims and give us a lot of more information at 2pm. I decided to use the morning to find a card for him. After about 2.5 hours of looking, I still had no luck but I did have luck finding a small A5 notebook and stickers, as well as a pouch for us to be able to tip in. 

After this, I messaged the rest of my group telling them, decorated the front of it with some of the stickers and then chilled out until 2pm. 

The ceo took a lot of time explaining things about the Pablo Escobar period in a lot of detail, so much so we ended up finishing back at the hotel at 6pm. We all decided to go to a sushi place for dinner, one of the people from the Guatape tour joining us. 

After this, we all went back to the hotel and those who were choosing to go out drinking again did (however many didn’t due to our flight the next day)

Most of us made it to breakfast before needing to be ready so we decided to eat together. Once most of us were down there, one of the guys who had gotten the uber the night before had come down and told the ceo that his roommate, one of the other guys who had went, had never actually made it back to the hotel. That when the left  him, he was dancing with a Colombian woman and was prewarned that if he didn’t come back that all of his stuff would get packed but we were going to leave him behind. While the guys did make sure to take his wallet off him before leaving (earlier in the night he had put his phone in the woman’s pocket, forgotten, and then accused her of trying to steal it), no one had heard from him and were just assuming he had gone back to her place. 

The ceo sighed and started to do the paperwork for him not coming on the bus with us. We did end up getting proof of life from him before leaving but the bus did leave without him. 

We started with an hour drive to the Colombian salt cathedral which we walked through, the local guide from the day before explaining everything to us. We were given 30 minutes to explore the market area by ourselves before starting to head back to the bus. We drove about 10 minutes to a local restaurant to have lunch. The place mostly focused on smoked meats but also had a few things that you can’t find outside of Colombia. One of these things was coconut lemonade (which is something a few of us started ordering with every meal). 

After this we had about another 4 hours until Villa de Leyva. On the way we made one stop to get more food and the bathroom. 

When we arrived it was about 6pm so we got our rooms straight away and then had 30 minutes before an orientation walk. 

We ended up at a restaurant to have a few drinks. After this we decided to move to a different restaurant to have dinner. After ordering we noticed a bunch of police offers coming in and starting to blow up balloons. They started making an archway and quickly realised that it was for someone’s birthday. 

They all had party hats on and a few had the party whistles. They all let us get in a group photo with them and one let us get a photo with her putting handcuffs on one of the guys. 

While there we noticed that one of the workers look like Don King and he let us get photos of him pretending to punch one of the guys in my group. 

After this we started the 25 minute walk back to our hotel, noticing a bar that was the Simpson’s themed and made mental notes to go there the next day. 

The next morning we all decided to take it slow and go to breakfast late-ish. About seven people from the group went to do quad bikes that finished at about 1pm. While they were doing that I walked around the town, trying to find a card my ceo for the end of the trip with no luck. After a few hours I gave up and went back to the hotel. When I was about to enter, six of the seven quad bikers came out and said they were going to lunch and then the terracotta house and offered me to join so I went with them. On the way they told me about how bad the activity was- they paid extra to go to a national park which they never went to and they got told they were going to the blue lagoons but instead went to two little ponds that looked like they were dyed blue. 

We went to a place that our ceo recommended for lunch, after which we took about 10 minutes to walk around before walking 30 minutes to the terracotta house. It was 70,000COP just to enter. We spent 20 minutes here before taking Ubers back to the hotel. 

We all relaxed for a bit before meeting with everyone to go the Simpsons bar and dinner. The guy who got left in Bogota had taken a taxi and was complaining to us about how expensive it was ($295USD). 

For dinner we went to the same place we went for lunch, after which a few of the guys went to drink at a bar while the rest of us took Ubers back. 

I had an overnight flight connection, having the first one leaving at 7:45pm and the second one arriving at 4am. I got lucky and was told my bag was checked through the whole way (which I wasn’t expecting as it was a domestic flight followed by an international flight) but upon picking my bag up I realised that the airline had broken the zipper on the front bag off and when I tried claiming it through the airline, they told me that they weren’t responsible for it. 

I was able to get to the hotel straight away and check in (as I had booked a room for the night before) and was happy to realise I was in a single room. 

Given I had gotten my tattoo two days before (and was told I was supposed to clean it 10 hours earlier) I showered before breakfast. This was when I realised there was no hot water which the receptionist forgot to mention when I checked in. 

After this it was time for them to start serving breakfast so I went down to eat my first proper meal in over 24 hours. 

I relaxed in my room for a bit and right before I was about to head out for a walk, the phone in the room started ringing. It turned out to be reception, wanting to change my room so they could fix the hot water (something about needing access to my bathroom). 

After I moved, I went out to try finding something to help heal my tattoo, but gave up after the first chemist said they didn’t have it so gave up and decided I could ask my ceo later that night after the meeting. I ended up walking through a few markets before ending up at a supermarket where I bought a small yogurt for lunch and a replacement bottle (they took mine during security for my international flight) and then headed back to the hotel to rest until the meeting (which also resulted in a 3 hour nap- which I luckily woke up before the meeting). 

During the meeting we had complimentary wine that the hotel gave, did introductions, listened to our ceo rant about Colombia for a bit and then agreed to meet downstairs for dinner in 10 minutes. Before going down I asked my ceo about the tattoo cream where he said he’d message one of his friends to see where as the specific brand that the tattoo artist sent me wasn’t common in Colombia and he had never seen or used it (he had almost a full sleeve of tattoos) and that he’d get back to me. 

When we got downstairs to meet, one of the guys asked who was going to fess up to be Hanky Panky (we had seen that one of the guys had his name set to that in the G adventures. It had turned out that it was one of the two people who had turned up late due to traffic and that his real name was Ben and that his friend had hacked into his G account and changed it. 

We all had dinner together and spoke about a few of our last travels before going to the hotel. Half of the group had gone up to bed while the other 6 of us (plus the ceo) went out to have a few drinks together. After this the ceo and two others went back to the hotel while the remaining 4 of us went to see if we could find a club. It turned out locals one of the guys had been talking to weren’t lying when they said the nightlife in the area was non existent on a Tuesday so went back to the hotel (on the way back we did see a homeless guy looking through rubbish and someone selling drugs). 

The next morning we had to be up and ready at 8:30am to go on a walking tour and tasting throughout the city. We walked around, stopped at a local market and had an opportunity to buy fresh juices. We then headed to an art and coffee shop where most of us bought a coffee and a couple bought an art piece. We then went to a local museum from a famous artist who never drew anything to scale and always drew everything fat (although the artist always called it voulumetuious) 

We then headed to the city centre with all of the government buildings before heading to our included lunch. Most of the group tried the local chicken soup whereas me and the other vegetarian had the vegetarian option (which was basically paella but with avocado instead of any meat) and we all had a juice included too. 

We were warned that all of the portions were big and filling but the ones who got the soup were very skeptical of how filling a soup can be. We all soon realised we weren’t being lied to and most of the group couldn’t finish. 

After this we went to a local coffee shop where we got shown a of a bunch of different coffee beans (washed, natural and mixed beans) and got to smell some of the different beans that were ready to be used. 

We chose as a group the one that we wanted to try and then the guy showed us how to make it using a pour over method. 

We all then tried the coffee. After this the guy showed us a few more of the different beans before leaving, getting the opportunity to buy a bag first. 

We were then walked to the gold museum where our guided tour finished and we had a few hours of alone time before meeting in the lobby for drinks and dinner. 

40 minutes before leaving I decided I should probably go to a big chemist and find something for the tattoo (which thankfully I did) and got to the hotel 5 minutes before the meeting time.

We were having drinks on the rooftop for about 3 hours before deciding to move inside and actually order food. 

After this, 4 of the guys decided they were going to uber to a more lively street whereas myself, one other woman, and the ceo decided to go back to the hotel (the rest of the group had already started trickling back to the hotel before this). 

I ended up on the phone with my mum for about 2 hours before realising it was midnight and I needed to back my bag and be ready to leave the hotel at 8:30am the next day. 

We had to meet at 8:30am to head down to the port. We had a 45 minute journey back to the mainland where we then got on a semi private transfer (there was 3 people we didn’t know who were going somewhere else) close to our hostel in Rio. For whatever reason the van itself couldn’t go right up to the door so we all had to walk up a steep hill with our bags to get to the door or the hostel. None of us with heavy backpacks were happy about it. We then learned that the hostel doesn’t have an elevator so we had to walk up 3 more flights of stairs. In this hostel, the girls had rooms of 6 and when we entered the room, we realised that there should’ve been a max of three in the room. The room had no space, housecleaning had decided to only half do our rooms so most of the beds were stripped but none of us had sheets, blankets or towels and we saw what looked like mould on the ceiling. We told reception about the sheets so while they were doing the beds we were sitting on the stairs near our room. This is when we noticed that the vent in the hallway was leaking. Everyone felt gross in the hostel so 12 out of 18 of the group decided to book accommodation elsewhere (most of them were staying extra days so they just extended their booking) with 5 of us only staying because we were checking out pretty early on the departure day. 

After our beds got made, we went down for an orientation walk before most of us ubered to the shopping part of Rio. We all walked around for a while and shopped before heading to a rooftop area for dinner. After dinner 5 of us planned to head to a club for a few drinks before bed but we couldn’t find the club we were looking for (it wasn’t where maps said it was) so we took it as a sign that it was time for bed and went back to the hostel. 

The next morning we had to leave the hostel at about 8:30am to go to this Favela experience. During this experience we learned about different plants the community grows in their garden, met a woman who made jewellery and other things out of donated trash, saw music making equipment and then 3 adults and 2 children started trying to teach us how to do their dances (spoilers, we were all really bad). We finished the experience off with a 15 minute yoga experience before going off to our starting point.  

It was after this that I was supposed to be doing hang gliding (about an hour and a half after this experience ended) but the tour operator had been messaging me asking to reschedule to the next day as the wind was going to be too bad at 2pm so I agreed. Instead I went back with the 8 of us who wasn’t doing the city tour and was planning to go back to the hostel for a bit. 

I went with the girls in my room who were moving to check into their new hotel and then we went out to lunch at a local Asian restaurant. After which we all separated to do our own thing for a bit. Four of us met back up at five as two of us had appointments to get a tattoo. The other girl went first and got a tattoo of two dancing stick people. Right before I went up to get the stencil done, our ceo had come to check on us. After she saw the other girls tattoo and how calm and pain-free I was while being tattooed, we were able to convince her to get a matching tattoo with the other girl. 

While the ceo felt we had lied about how painless it was, in the end she was happy she got it. 

Myself and the ceo had to go back to the hostel and then uber to dinner. We found two others in the hostel who hadn’t left yet who came in the uber with us. We ended up being an hour late however as we had about 4 Ubers cancel on us at the last second. 

We had our farewell dinner with our group and then most of us went out for drinks after. 

Myself and my roommate ended up back at the hotel at 12:30am where we wanted to pack before going to bed. While my roommate decided to actually stick to that plan, I decided to keep getting distracted and even ended up in the other girls room for about 15 minutes talking to two of them in that room about some stuff (and stealing an earring back off one of them). 

My roommate however didn’t mind this cus after I came back I actually decided to focus and finished packing 5 minutes after her. 

We had to get up at 7:30am but we both for some reason woke up at 7. We did the last bits of packing that you can only do in the morning, checked out, then headed to our friend’s hotel to leave our stuff in their room. The initial plan was to quickly do this and then uber to Christ the redeemer however their hotel wasn’t too happy with the idea of two girls not booked at the hotel going up to the rooms so we had to get our friends to come down. After one of the friends talked to reception for about 20 minutes, they finally agreed to allow us to leave our bags in the rooms under the condition that we didn’t actually go up, so one of our friends took our bags up for us. 

In the uber we initially thought that we may be charged again by Christ (we had booked our tickets online for a 9am train) but after getting there and waiting in line for about 40 minutes, they gave us the physical tickets and put us in a new line no problem (even though it was 9:45). We then had to wait for the trains to come which took about 35 minutes. At this point we were both starting to get hungry, which is where we got happy that I had brought a bag of snacks with me (I had a pretty fair idea I’d need them through the day) so we were both able to enjoy a row of rice crackers and a cookie before the train. 

The train ride up there took about 25 minutes. We both took our time heading up the stairs and had taken a free ribbon to tie on the gate near by. 

We then went up to see Christ, took photos (individual and perspective) and took some time to look at the views. 

We stayed until 11am when we then decided we wanted to head down. As we saw how long the line was (and heard our friends say it took them 3 hours to come back), we decided that we didn’t want to wait for the train to come back. Instead, we decided to go for a 30 minute walk down the van path. On this path there is no service and no footpath so we were both just hoping we got to the right place in the end (and almost had a few close calls with vans coming down the path). 

After getting to about the half way mark, we had service again and then both booked Ubers, her to the beach and mine to the start point of hang gliding.

We both got motorbike Ubers as they tended to be cheaper, easier for them to come down to where we were, faster and more fun to ride on. 

I ended up being a bit late to my hang gliding (my tour operator knew as I had messaged him before) but it was no issue. 

We went up to the park where you jump off (we made a pit stop at the guys house first for some unknown reason) and as another guy set up the equipment, the operator put both of our harnesses on and then we practiced running at the same time. 

I ended up being in the air for 7 minutes before landing on the beach. 

I then got to see the footage from the different cameras and decided to buy the footage from the 360° camera. By the time the footage was updated to my phone, it was about 2:45 so I needed to head back to the hotel. When I got there, it was too late to have an actual lunch so I had some more of my snacks before myself and the roommate from before grabbed our bags from our friend’s room and got into our uber to head to the airport. 

We got their around 5:15 and separated to check in, not saying a proper goodbye as we assumed that we’d be able to stay together until our flights, not realising that we’d be in different sections of the airport as my first flight was domestic and hers was international, something we were both upset  about. 

As I was boarding though, I realised that one of the other girls from our tour was on the same flight so we were able to stay together until we actually got on the plane as we were sitting in different sections. 

We arrived on the island around noon after a 45 minute ferry ride across the ocean. We then had a 10 minute walk from the port to our hotel, where we were able to check in straight away. We had about 10 minutes before meeting the group back outside where we did a short orientation walk. Towards the end, we had a choice to go to a restaurant we were standing right in front of for lunch or walk a little further. We all chose to not walk further and quickly separated onto different tables as they had none to accommodate 19. We all ordered on iPads and were happy when the food arrived, as was a local dog. One of the tables had a sharing platter that had a lot of meat and the dog quickly found the weakest link and sat with them all throughout lunch, continuously whining for food (he was successful a few times). 

After lunch we all split off, myself and my roommate going with my ceo to visit the black beach. 

When we got there we realised that the whole beach wasn’t black, only parts of it were. This was a result of the last active volcano erupting all over the beach. 

After relaxing for a bit on the beach, we slowly started heading back to the hotel. We made a pit stop at an ice cream/ açai place and took them back to the hotel. My roommate then decided to go out shopping while myself, the ceo, and a few others that were at the pool all were laying on the beach chairs talking. 

We all had some time in our rooms before heading off for dinner at a local pasta restaurant, after which we all headed off to bed. 

The next day we were all free to do whatever we wanted so I decided to have a late start and go to breakfast 30 minutes before it ended. After breakfast I set for a wonder by myself around town for a few hours, seeing all the nearby beaches and mountains. I then went back to the hotel to sit by the pool for a bit before heading off in the direction of the black beach again with my roommate. This time though, we went to see the aqueduct ruins and the remains of an old prison that are still there. We chilled on the beach for a bit before heading to the restaurant we ate lunch at the day prior for an early dinner. We took about an hour at the hotel to relax before meeting the majority of our group to go canoeing to a bioluminescent part of the ocean. The whole experience took just over two hours and when we got to the bioluminescent areas they let us all jump in (however only 6 of us took them up on the offer). Every time we swam or anyone else moved their paddles in the ocean the plankton became really easy to see. 

After finishing some of the group went out to grab dinner while the rest of us had an earlyish night to get ready for the next day. 

We finished our stay at the ranch by having breakfast at 9am, and hanging out with their dog and sheep-dog until our 11:30am transfer arrived. 

We all knew we had roughly 24 hours of travel ahead so we were enjoying our last bits of fresh air for a while

It was about an hour to the Argentinian boarder. After we got through, we drove about an hour to supermarket so we could all load up on snacks. 

We then drove about 10 more minutes to where we could get lunch.

We then carried on for a while where we then stopped at the side of the road, waiting for a public bus to pick us up. While waiting, we noticed a hitchhiker and one of our Spanish speaking group members went up to ask him how long he had been waiting, to which he responded a few hours. We were able to see him get picked up before our bus arrived though. 

We all settled into the bus, expecting to be there until 10am but being surprised by arriving at 7am. 

This did mean though that we had to wait for about 30 minutes at the bus terminal for our private transfer to arrive. 

We had about a 20 minute ride to the Brazilian boarder, which took us 20 minutes to cross. 

We then had 30 minutes to our hotel, learning that we had to leave our bags and take everything we wanted for the day as we wouldn’t be able to check in until 2pm. 

We all headed to a buffet breakfast and then walked to a different place to get coffees. We all then took Ubers to see the Brazilian side of iguazu falls and the national bird park. We were all in seperate groups as we all had to take separate Ubers. The girl I was with and I ended up in the bird park first (which wasn’t intentional but lucky in the end) where we walked around for roughly two hours, looking at all the birds, turtles, crocodiles, snakes and butterflies before heading over to the falls. We took the bus over to the falls and walked the trail down the whole falls. The trail finishes with a bridge where you get really close to the falls and end up getting soaked. 

After we had taken enough photos we went back on the bus, which helped us dry off a bit. We then went over to where our uber that morning had dropped us off to order one back to our hotel. When we got back to the hotel, we were able to check in and shower straight away as it was 4pm. We both also got lucky with needing to do laundry anyway so our wet clothes got put straight into the laundry bags. We then had about 2 hours before dinner at 8pm for a different girls birthday. The girl I had been with all day ended up at the shopping centre with about two thirds of the group whereas the other 6 of us went to the place where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet before dinner. We then all went to dinner, which lasted a few hours. We all got to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl who got a brownie. We then went back to the hotel and got ready for our 6am start the next day. 

We left at 7am the next day to head to the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. We got there around 9am and walked around for a couple of hours, making sure we saw them from all different angles

We then went down for a boat ride that went right into the falls. 

We got given waterproof bags for our bags and got given warnings for when to put our phones away. 

After the boat ride, we gave our bags and lifejackets back and took a bus back to the cafeteria where we got picked up from. This is where we all got changed into our spare clothes that were in our bags and then we were able to get lunch before leaving. On the way back, we stopped at a local community. It’s the biggest group that lives around Iguazu with 70 families living there. We got shown around, explained the festival like event they were currently having (it was basically a party for all of the kids- something that they don’t get to do often). We got shown how they used to build their houses and shown into their greenhouse where there was a bunch of plants. We then got to pick a tree we were to plant as a group and give it a name. We chose the name “meow”, which made the guy laugh. We then were able to buy some locally made things before heading back to the hotel. 

We had about two hours from getting before majority of us were heading into Paraguay to shop duty free and have dinner. 

We got back around 10pm, everyone picked up and paid for their laundry and we all packed bags for our departure the next day, using our group chat to figure out who’s spare laundry we had

We all enjoyed a slower morning, having breakfast available from 7am-10am and then having to checkout at 10:30am. 

After breakfast, we all made sure to go the atm 70m from the hotel as Montevideo was our last major city in Uruguay and we wouldn’t be able to in Mercedes (Uruguay is also one of the only countries in South America where you can withdraw USD). 

Our transfer arrived a little bit early so we were able to leave a bit earlier. 

The bus took about 1.5 hours to get to the ranch I was staying at. We all worked out our rooms, dumped our bags and then went into the dining room (which is seperate from the main house) for lunch. Everyone got Uruguayan sausages in bread (the celiac in the group getting gluten free bread and myself getting veggie patties), and self serve rice and salads. 

We all then got about 2 hours of free time before we went back to the dining room to get a demonstration on how they make mate and got to taste it. After this, we went on a walk of the ranch, getting to feed their chickens (along with their sheep who believes he’s a dog as he doesn’t stay in the area with the other sheep) and then saw their cows and horses. 

We all then quickly headed back as we could see the clouds filled with the rain for the thunderstorm coming. 

We all hung out in the house together, playing cards and pool until dinner. 

After dinner, half the group went to play pool while the other half of us stayed at the dining table to play uno and bingo, however we did notice that some of the cards it was impossible to get bingo given their was balls missing. 

After this we all went to bed for the night. 

We had breakfast in the house the next morning at 9am. After breakfast, we all had the opportunity to milk one of the cows, however because the cow had a fowl that had already eaten, we weren’t able to get much. 

After the cow, we went into the dining room to make empanadas from scratch. Everyone had capsicum, tomatoes and onions. The rest of the group had sausage while I had soy protein. After we made our empanadas and took the trays to the main house (where the proper kitchen was), it was almost time for lunch. 

We had self serve salads and rice, the group had different brisket like meats and I had a capsicum filled with vegetables and soy protein. This lunch is where I learned that I strongly dislike soy protein and couldn’t eat most of it. 

After lunch, we had a few hours to sit in the sun before some of the group went horseback riding. 

After they came back, we had the empanadas we made earlier. 

We all then chilled for a bit before we had dinner in the house again, which everyone had spaghetti with tomato sauce. 

Everyone then went to bonfire that they had lit before heading to be, making sure to get ready to leave for the next day

We all got to enjoy the included breakfast at the hotel before checking out to go back to the port at 8:45am. This time we were taking a public bus. The bus was supposed to be leaving at 9:30 and while usually we could start loading the bus earlier, the bus hadn’t arrived yet. Once it got to 9:30 we were then informed that they still weren’t loading the bus as they were waiting for the latest ferry to arrive. They arrived at about 9:45 so we didn’t pull out of the station until just before 10am. 

The bus was only a few hours. We collected our bags and headed to get taxis to our hotel. 

When we got to the hotel, we learned that we were staying in the posh part of Montevideo, unusual given we’re on a cheap tour. 

We all went to get lunch before heading out to explore the city a bit. 

After, most of the group went to dinner together but a few of us stayed behind to do our own thing for dinner and bed. 

In the morning we all went down the included breakfast, happy to see that it was a lot better than most of the breakfast’s that we’ve been getting. 

6 of us then booked to do a hop on hop off bus to be able to see the city a bit more. They have two different buses that you can get on, we got onto the bus that just takes you around the coasts and lets you get off at the Montevideo sign. This wasn’t initially our plan, but we were struggling to find a starting point for either of the buses and it was the first one we saw- and we didn’t want to wait 30 minutes for the other bus. 

We all split off afterwards, agreeing to meet in the hotel lobby at 7 to go the new Spider-Man movie together. 

After the movie, we all headed off in the direction of the hotel to go to a restaurant for dinner. 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel, tired given that it was after midnight. We did, however, remember to stop at a convenience store to grab snacks and extra water for the bus the next day

We took a bus to a port at about 6:55am for our 8am ferry but had to wait until about 7:15am to be able to check our luggage on. 

We all got coffee before getting onto the ferry (the coffee being nice but extremely overpriced) and then all boarded the ferry. 

We had to do immigration for leaving Argentina and entering Uruguay before getting onto the ferry and it was insanely faster than all the bus crossings, only taking about 15 minutes. 

The ferry ride itself only took about two hours and we headed straight for the hotel. None of the rooms were ready however so we left our bags in the breakfast room and went an a small orientation walk (Colonia’s a really small town). We all went to look at some of the souvenirs that a few shops were selling and then we all split off to look around a bit more. 

About 7 of us went to lunch to a restaurant that the ceo recommended. Afterwards we found out that the majority of the rooms were ready for us to check in so we headed back to the hotel (I got lucky and got the single room again). 

We all did our own thing until 1:55 when majority of the group met in the lobby to walk over to the wine tasting place. We got offered about 5 wines (a few of us only having 2-3) to try and all got given a cheese board to have with it.

We spent about 2 hours here before finding a bar for us to drink at until dinner. 

All par two of the group had dinner together before we all went back to our rooms for the night.