No Fixed Plans

We started with an 8:30am departure to Quepos. This was about a 5 hour drive but we made many stops along the way to look at the wildlife. Our first stop was about an hour in to a crocodile park. We then drove another hour or so to a buffet style lunch. After this we drove for about another hour and stopped at the side of the road as it was a good spot to see red-capped manakin birds (otherwise known as Michael Jackson birds). When then drove the rest of the way to the hotel. Myself and my roommate stayed in the room for about 30 minutes before going on a walk to the beach side and back, taking about 45 minutes. We then stayed in the hotel for about 45 until it was time to go on the mangrove tour that we signed up for. This tour included dinner after. During this tour we saw many spiders, birds, bats, and we finished the tour with seeing an owl. We then went to have dinner, which a local cat decided to join us for before heading back to the hotel for showers and bed. 

The next morning we took a local bus at 8:15am to go to the Manual Antonio national park. We took about 1.5 hours to walk the trail before having 3 hours of free time to walk some of the other trails or stay on the beach. After walking back, we went to a restaurant for lunch which the bus to head back also happened to make stops at. We took about 2 hours here to eat before heading back to the hotel. 

When getting back, I quickly showered, went to an atm to get more usd out and then headed off with my ceo to get a new tattoo. Between getting there, getting the tattoo, and getting back to the hotel it was only about 45 minutes. We got back at exactly 6:15, which also happened to be when the rest of the group had decided to go to dinner so it was perfect timing. After dinner, 5 of us went to ice cream while the ceo and one group member went back to the hotel. We ate the ice cream at the resort place that the shop was in and then took the long way back to the hotel to stop by the local farmers market. 

The next morning we all took it slow as it was the one morning where we didn’t need to be up early. We all spent most of the morning sitting on rocks close to the beach talking and watching locals fish. We had to be back at the hotel at 1pm so we went to get ice cream at 12, took our time eating it and then headed back. We then had a 3 hour drive back to San Jose where we stopped once for bathrooms and to look around a massive souvenir shop. 

Upon getting back to our first hotel we took 15 minutes to put our stuff away before heading to dinner. On the way we stopped at a celebration for Costa Rica’s African background. We all walked around for about 30 minutes, got some food from the stands and listened to the live concert for a bit before heading to dinner. Afterwards we all said our goodbyes to each other. 

We started early with a van ride to then get on a boat for 45 minutes. After this, we stopped off to get breakfast (which was empanadas) and take a break from the travelling. They had a butterfly enclosure too which we all checked out before leaving again. We had about 45 minutes to our next hotel. Upon getting there, we checked in and then headed straight to the town. We all split off in pairs to go to go get coffees and souvenir shop. After 45 minutes one of the pairs went off to do horseback riding while the rest of us stayed. After two more hours me and the woman I was with headed back to the hotel to rest a little before our guided night walk. This started at 5:35. When we got there we waited a little for the horseback riders before starting. This tour lasted about 2 hours where we saw a lot of  iguanas sloths and spiders. After this we grabbed dinner before heading to bed. 

The next morning 4 of us got up to go do ziplining at 8:30. There was about 18 lines, 2 of them being really long ones where we could go in a superman position. The last one was essentially a massive giant swing. After this we went back to the hotel, arriving at about 11:30. We all relaxed for about an hour before heading in to town to grab lunch and walk around a little bit. At 2pm we all got picked up in town to go to the hanging bridges. We got about halfway through the 3KM walk before it started bucketing down with rain and we all essentially ran the last 1.4KMs. We all wanted to shower when getting back to the hotel so we took about 40 minutes before heading off to dinner, 4 of them to a pizza place and the other 3 of us to a cheaper pasta place. 

We all then went to bed for our 8:30am departure. 

We started with an hour and a half drive to a spot to have breakfast and coffee if we wanted it and to take a break from driving. 

We then continued on, stopping to take photos at La Paz waterfall. We then went to Mi Cafecito, which is a coffee plantation that G adventures supports. We got a guided tour through out the plantation, got to taste coffee liquor and then had an included lunch. During this lunch, we had to decide on some activities for the next few days. After lunch we got to try some coffee from the plantation as well as some local treats. We then continued on to La Fortuna. We only made one more stop along the way, and that was due to our driver spotting sloths in the trees. 

Our CEO’s also a national geographic guide so he had some professional equipment to pull out. We spent about 25 minutes watching the different sloths and a few toucans. It was at this moment that one of the women mentioned that she was happy this happened on her birthday, which none of us knew about before. 

We then continued, making one more bathroom stop along the way before reaching our hotel. 

Once checked in, everyone bar me got ready to go to the hot springs. 

While they were there, I had a wander around town and bought a card and sloth as a present for the woman’s birthday, however as I didn’t meet them for dinner she received them the next day. 

The next morning 4 of us had to be up and ready to go canyoning at 8:30am. 

This included us rappelling down 4 waterfalls and walking through the jungle. On the way back up, we saw a tree snake. Initially our guide told us it was harmless and to just move around it, but he seemed more scared than us when the snake went to go at the third person in line. 

After this encounter, we all dried off, changed, purchased the videos and then went off to lunch. After this we were dropped off at our hotel. 

The four of us hung out in our rooms for about an hour (while the other two headed off for a guided waterfall walk) before heading into town to have beers at a local brewery. They gave us a sample of 10 beers to try, and the server threw in an extra sample for free and some free chips for us to eat. We stayed at the brewery for about 2 hours, as we were waiting for the other two in our group to join us before heading to dinner together. This is where the birthday girl from yesterday received her gifts. 

After which, we went out for ice cream for dessert (as per her request) before going back to the hotel to rest for our early start the next day 

I left the hotel in Cartagena with one of the guys from my group (his flight was 15 minutes after mine) and while at the airport we spotted someone else from our group. She had initially thought her flight was 2pm but realised early that morning that her flight was actually at 10:30am. As it turns out we were on the same domestic flight. 

The flight was 2 hours, after which we were able to stay together throughout immigration but then had to split after as our gates were at opposing sides of the airport. 

For the second flight I had to take a bus from the gate to the plane. On this bus I met two cowboys. Their friend confirmed that they were actually cowboys, but didn’t admit to being one too, but rather a volleyball player. 

After the flight landed, I got my things, went through immigration and then called an uber to the hotel. 

The drive that’s normally 25 minutes took an hour due to it being peak hour. 

This first night I had the room to myself as the tour didn’t start until the next day. 

As it was already dark I ended up at the maccas close by for dinner and then settled into the room for the rest of the night. 

The next morning I got up to have breakfast at the hotel. I then took a walk around, and ended up at the national theatre. When realising there wasn’t much else going on nearby I went back to the hotel to relax. 

I had gone into the common area of the hotel to read when I noticed someone about my age walked in, went up the stairs where my room was and was struggling with the door. Turns out she was also apart of the G group and was my roommate for the trip. We talked a bit in the room before heading down to meet the rest of the group and our ceo. 

The ceo had a presentation set up for us and after we went out for dinner. During the presentation we learned that our start the next morning was 7am (one of many early starts). After the dinner we went to look outside the national theatre as a group before heading to bed. 

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.