No Fixed Plans

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. 

We all had to be ready to leave at hotel at 5:30am in the morning and no one was too happy about it. 

We had a short ride to the airport, where we were all expecting to have a long line through checking the luggage and immigration (given our flight was at 8 but our ceo wanted us there at 6 for that reason), however we all got through in about 15/20 minutes and had over an hour and a half to wait. We were all really tempted to go back to sleep but we waited until we were actually on the plane. 

The plane ride went smoothly until we landed, there was an announcement in Spanish and we realised that no one was getting off nor was anyone standing up waiting to get off.

We got a message from our ceo saying that there was a red alert from the airport due to the thunder and we had to stay on the plane until the rain cleared. She also stated that this was normal procedure, she had never been on a plane while there was an active red alert. 

In the meantime, she had sent us some activities to do in Buenos Aires to look at while we waited. We ended up being stuck on the plane for an extra hour until we could disembark. 

We got to our hostel at around 11, explained the hostels house rules and then given our rooms (multi share rooms that we’d be sharing with 5 other people, however we didn’t have to until the new people started the next day). 

We all put our stuff away then made our way downstairs to the coffee shop next door where we could get a 10% discount just by showing our wristbands proving we were staying at the hostel next door. 

We then went on an orientation walk with our ceo (getting drenched along the way due to rain starting to bucket) and we finished at a pizzeria, famous for their traditional Argentinian pizzas. We all tried before heading off to walk around. 

3 of the boys in our group were set on finding a local football jersey as they were planning to go to a local game on the Sunday night so we went into a few shops selling them but the consensus was that they were all too expensive so we started making our way back to the hostel, stopping on the way to get a card for our ceo. 

We all chilled for a bit before our farewell meeting and tango dinner/show that night (there was also a group peer pressure to all go to the football match on the Sunday, which it worked with all of us). 

At the dinner we had the choice between 3 entrees, 7 mains and 3 desserts, one of each being included. We also had unlimited wine, beer and soft drinks being included. 

We were being served for about 2 hours before all the plates were cleared and the 1.5 hour long tango show began. The show went through all the different eras of the tango and had 4 people playing live music for it. 

We got back to the hostel at about 11:30pm and went to bed, knowing we could say goodbye to our ceo in the morning. 

There was 8 of us who had booked a walking tour for 11am for the morning so we all met at about 10:30 to start booking the Ubers to go to the neighbourhood and to make sure we had all said bye to the ceo. 

We all found the tour to be not great as we didn’t really do much walking in the areas and the guide spent much too long talking about each place, however we all got to meet the South Korean president (by chance) so we counted that as a win. 

We ubered to lunch and met with 4 from our group that had done a biking tour, 2 existing people and 2 of the new people. 

We all then went a cemetery tour, during which we made friends with a solo traveller and helped her to sign up to the football game that we were all going to. 

We went back to the hostel, peer pressured some of the other new people that we found to go to the football with us and then had our welcome meeting where we met the rest of our group and the new ceo. We had a group dinner together before heading off to bed. 

The next morning we all ended splitting up to go explore more of the city. I ended walking around by myself, seeing the outside of the theatre and going into the local market before going to enjoy the quiet room for a little bit. 

The one girl who I was sharing with that was continuing came in and after a few minutes we set out to try and find an empanada place that would accept card (we had no cash as all the atms charged about 100USD to withdraw money). 

We had to be back at the hostel at 4 but we arrived at 3, with the girl hoping to shower with no one else there but we found one of the other girls already there and planning to shower (the one I was with did end up getting a bit annoyed she had asked her to try and be quick, the new one said yes and then took over 30 minutes). 

We met everyone in the lobby to be picked up and made our way to an outdoor bar near the stadium to eat before going (although I chose not to) 

We were here for about an hour before making a 20 minute long trek to the front of the stadium. We were following one of the providers on the bus, but it became very clear to us that he couldn’t care less about loosing us as he was with his partner and was only looking back if to see if she had made it through the crowd. 

We all got into the stadium and watched the match, unfortunately the team that we see going for loosing. 

We had a 30 minute walk back to the van and got dropped off at our hostel at about 11pm. 

Given the fact that I hadn’t eaten dinner, I went across the street to get something to eat, one of the girls in my room coming with me to smoke outside and then sit with me for a while in the lobby (she stayed longer). 

We all had to set out alarms early for a 6:30am departure the next day. 

This next day consisted of heading to a public bus at 6:30am, getting on it at 7:30am and not getting off the bus until 7:15pm (8:15pm Argentinen time). We were all ready to get off the bus at hour 9, especially since it wasn’t like it was a long boarder crossing (1 hour and 5 minutes, our shortest yet)

After getting off the bus, we had a group dinner together before majority of us headed to the hotel for bed (a few stayed out for drinks)

The next morning, 3 of us were up and ready for a get your guide tour we had booked that went through more of the countryside of salta and stopped at a winery (the rest of the group booked a ranch activity)

It was a 12 hour activity that made many stops for us to take photos of different mountains, cliffs, lakes and two cove like things (one of which we could climb up). 

We then had a guided tour through the winery, although we couldn’t really understand what was being said as she was only speaking in Spanish. 

We got to try three different wines before getting the opportunity to buy some. 

We then headed to the street where we were having lunch and was given two hours to eat and explore. While here, we adopted a stray German man who was travelling by himself and stuck with us the whole two hours. 

After getting back onto the bus, we had about 4 hours back to the hostel, making two stops along the way. 

Upon getting back to the hotel, the three of us went to get dinner, running into 3 people from our group and grabbing a drink with them before heading to bed for our flight the next day

Prior to getting to the boarder, we had all been pre warned that there was to be no talking out of turn, hats to be worn, or any sign that we weren’t taking things seriously as the Chile boarder tends to be the strictest in all of South America. 

Upon exiting Bolivia (the easiest in the whole trip), we had to wait for a Chilean guide to meet us to help us get through the Chile boarder, which went smoothly once we could actually start the process. 

All up, the crossing took 2 hours and 45 minutes, coming in second for the longest boarder crossing (but still an hour off first). 

We had the Chilean guide until our hotel, who was telling us about the best shop for empanadas (which happened to be 60m from our hotel) and then left us at the door. 

Our ceo got us checked in and then gave us about 10 minutes to put our stuff in our rooms and meet her for the orientation walk. 

She pointed out the street to exchange cash and showed us to the atm and gave us all an opportunity to take our money as our next stop was to pay for our optional activities. 

Everyone in the group had to pay them for the stargazing we were doing that night and a few of them chose to opt in for the valley of moon visit. 

We all then separated to shower and have dinner before the stargazing. 

The activity started at 10pm that night, ending at midnight, however we happened to be there a bad night as the activity was almost cancelled due to all the clouds in the sky. When we got to there, we could point out about 4 stars in the gaps. However, the provider was still able to make it an enjoyable activity and provide lots of information. By the end of the night, the clouds had almost completely gone and we could use the telescopes properly. 

The next day we were all choosing our own thing to do. 

San Pedro’s mainly just three streets so I had gone to the empanada shop to eat breakfast, walked around the streets for a little bit and then headed back to the hotel to relax the rest of the day. 

I saw the group doing the valley of the moon tour before they left, spoke to them for a bit and then once they left, went back to the empanada shop to get a snickers cheesecake that was recommended on google and headed back to the hotel continue updating my notes (the cheesecake tasted exactly like a Reese’s). 

We had a meeting that night to talk about activities in Argentina and then 9 of us went together to exchange cash and go to dinner. 

We all then went back to the hotel to get ready for our bus the next day 

We were meant to be leaving the hotel at 8:30 but we didn’t leave until 8:45 due to me accidentally sleeping in and only waking up to reception calling my room phone at 8:35 (oops 😬)

However this didn’t end up affecting anything as we still arrived in Uyuni at 12:30. 

Everyone but me had signed up to take professional photos on the reflective parts of the salt flats (our route for the next few days didn’t go to the part) so everyone still had time to go and eat before the 2:30 departure. 

After they all left I had went to go and eat- I went to a place that my ceo recommended and had pancakes and a banana peanut butter smoothie, all for about $7.50AUD (it’s really hard to find a meal in Bolivia for more than $10AUD) and then went back to the hotel to shower and reorganise my bag as most things just got quickly shoved in that morning. 

After then waiting for it to hit 5pm (7am Melbourne time) I tried calling my mum, who took a few times to answer. Confusing, given it was 7am on a Saturday. 

We got off the phone at 7:30pm Bolivian time and I decided to go get takeaway pizza so I knew I’d be back when the group got back (they were due back between 8:30pm and 9pm and the ceo was doing a meeting after everyone ate- they were getting pizzas delivered). 

We all ate, listened to the plan for the next few days and they all showed me the photos they had taken on their phones before we all went to bed. 

The next morning half of us had a late-ish breakfast in the hotel before going to repack our stuff for an 11am checkout. Most of us then went to look at a souvenir shop and to the grocery store for snacks for the next few days before looping back to the hotel, stopping for coffees on the way. 

At 11:45 our ceo showed us the folded map she had properly and explained where we would be stopping before the 3 jeeps that had been hired turned up and we all split to go onto the salt flats. 

Our first stop was at these abandoned train tracks where we could all climb onto the trains and take photos. We then walked over to these sculptures that had been made from recycled train parts before attempting  to get back into the jeeps. The issue was is that one of the cars was having engine problems and when we went over, all three of the drivers were attempting to fix it. The 4 that were in the car revealed that they had stopped on the way there and the driver had picked up something for the car before they continued. After about 20 minutes (and our ceo making a few angry phone calls to the provider with no answer), they finally got the cars fixed.

We then made a stop at a place that had a labyrinth for us to go through and sculptures made out of salt. After the labyrinth and taking photos, we all then headed off to take perspective photos on the salt. 

We took about 1.5 hours doing this as we were all having fun setting it up. 

We then went on this solid dirt mountain that was a pretty common walk/hike while on the salt flats. On the way down, our ceo showed us the way to an archway that wasn’t as well known about. 

We then headed to an area near the hotel where we could watch and take photos of the sunset. Before the sun started setting our ceo did a meditation exercise with us and had brought some alcohol for us to cheers with but it turns out that at one of the stops, the drivers had bought some local alcohol and 7up as an apology for the start of the day and prepared us all a drink. 

We then headed to the hotel, had dinner and we all played a few games before going to bed. 

The next morning we all had to get up early as we were leaving at 6:30am to start crossing the desert. 

The first stop was at a local quinoa place where we all looked before continuing. 

We then went to an abandoned railway track where the ceo took a video of us all pretending to be a train. 

We then went to a shop near a local volcano that sold llama sausages which most of the group got. 

We then continued driving into a protected area that had hundreds of flamingos in the lake. 

This is where we had lunch that the drivers had set up for us. 

We kept going, stopping at a mountain and all of us quickly getting back into the cars due to how windy it was. 

We continued on to a lagoon that between 3 and 4pm looks more red than any other part of the day (which is the reason we left so early). We saw more flamingos, took advantage of the bathroom stop, and then continued on to the hotel. 

After getting to the hotel, we all chose to pay for the wifi before showering (the previous hotel didn’t have hot water whereas this one did). 

We all had dinner, played cards then went to bed

The next morning we packed up the cars for the last day and headed for the hot springs. On the way we stopped as we saw a heard of llamas on the street so we stopped to say hi. 

We then continued, spent about an hour there and then set up for lunch. 

After lunch the ceo set up the envelope for the tipping, majority of us choosing to just give majority of our left over bolivianos to them and just saving a bit for the bathroom stops. 

We then headed for the Chile boarder, stopping at the green lake and the white lake for photos. 

We had a four hour private bus from Sucre to Potosí. On the way we made a stop at a brick built bridge that seemingly had no purpose anymore as there wasn’t much water below it. Our ceo explained that when it was built it had use but now due to global warming and the fact there was less rain, there wasn’t as much water in the lake anymore. 

We got to the hotel at around 6pm and were given an hour to settle into our rooms before dinner. One of the girls and I decided to go on a little walk around together before meeting the others for dinner. 

Afterwards, about half of us went to go find the posted map of the area before heading back for bed. 

Next morning 6 of us had to get up early to head to the silver mines activity we had booked. We left the hotel at 8:30am and went to get gifts (juices and gloves) for the local miners. 

Afterwards we then went to get protective stuff for our clothes and a helmet with a flashlight attached. Unsurprisingly, everything was too big for me other than the boots which we received based on our shoe size. 

We then headed up to the mine where we learned how people in the area start working at the mines at 14 but are prohibited from going inside until they turn 18, therefore only doing work with the stuff others are bringing out. 

After heading back into the city, we met 3 of the others at a local restaurant for lunch (however I just sat with them due to them being out of everything but burgers) before we all split off again. 

I ended up meeting the two other girls at a local coffee shop where we were doing a printed word search for about an hour. Upon realising the store sold tiramisu, I went in to buy one. It was only $2.21AUD and was huge for the price. 

We went back to the hotel for a little bit before then going for frozen yogurt. 

Afterwards, we went to the supermarket as that night the hotel was letting us use the kitchen and the ceo had bought everything to cook us a traditional Argentinian stew for dinner- the only thing she said to bring was any drinks we wanted. 

When we all met in the kitchen that night, we all were helping to cut everything and then stir the pots with the stew (there was one that was getting meat and one for the three of us who weren’t eating meat). 

We all ate, helped with the dishes before half went to bed and the other half of us stayed talking.

We arrived to our hotel in Sucre at around 8am. There was 11 in our group and our ceo had told us that there’d be one single room for boys and one for girls and that she wouldn’t be deciding who got it and we could decide amongst ourselves who got it and if we wanted to swap it around. Due to this, I’ve ended up with the single room, seemingly for the next 2 weeks. 

We all settled into our rooms, changed and headed off to breakfast together. 

Here, most were excited to see hashbrowns on the menu for the first time in over 5 weeks. We also learned from the one Dutch woman that hashbrowns aren’t really a thing in the Netherlands as she didn’t know what it was or that they’re normally smaller than what the cafe gave us (they were the size of a small plate). 

After breakfast we did an orientation walk, where we all got high-fives from the zebras helping people to cross the road. We headed to the local market, tried some local fruits and ended the tour back at the hotel for us to go our seperate ways. 

I stayed in the hotel for a bit before going up to the local cathaderal, messaging one of the guys in the group who I knew was still at the hotel before leaving (though he was asleep). 

He woke up right as I was headed back in the hotels direction (prepared to go somewhere else) and we ended up meeting some of the rest of the group at the local park. 

We were with them for about 20 minutes walking around before they decided they needed to rest before dinner. The guy I had walked over with wanted to go up to the cathedral and since I didn’t want to go back to the hotel yet I went with him. 

We got back to the hotel around 4:45, giving us about an hour before we were meeting the rest of the group at a local rooftop bar/restaurant to watch the sunset. 

I had went earlier with the two girls who joined in La Paz and we ended up getting lost a few times before finally finding it (the restaurant was atop a hotel). 

Due to high prices we went to a local pizzeria for dinner that was a recommendation from a couple from the first leg of our tour, who were now doing the same tour as us but starting two days earlier. 

After which, a few went to do a tango class (they told us the place wasn’t actually doing tango when they got there but rather playing cards) while the rest of us went to bed. 

The next morning the 4 boys and two of the girls had gone to the gym, while the rest of us went for coffee and breakfast instead.

We all made sure we were ready to leave the hotel at 11:45 though as 9 out of 11 of us were catching a Dino bus to go to the Dino museum. 

We paid the 10bolivianos and all headed up to the rooftop. One of the guys was a lot more excited than everyone else, and in turn kept singing the tune to Jurassic world but replacing the hums with rawrs and some of the rest of us kept joining in. This made one of the three people not in our group turn around and yell at him, however not for the reason we initially thought. She was speaking Spanish she we all just assumed she was telling us (however it was just directed at the one guy starting it) to stop being annoying, however we ended up realising that she was mad because we were speaking in English and not Spanish (her last sentence was “In Bolivia España). The guy didn’t care much, just annoyed because rawr is just talking like a dinosaur, not necessarily a language. 

No one, however, let her put a damper on their mood and (thankfully) didn’t see her again until the bus ride back. 

We all went in, saw all the dinosaur statues and had a free guided tour through the park where we finished at the gift shop and two of the guys bought Dino shirts. 

We all had lunch, went back to look through the museums, took photos in the eggs and played in the park (clearly designed for little kids) while waiting for the bus back. 

After getting off, two of the guys split off while the rest of us went inside the grocery store, three of us to just to get ice creams. While we were waiting for everyone, one of the guys got approached by a child on the street asking for him to buy him ice cream, which he chose to buy her two. 

We all then went back to the hotel and prepared for a 5 course traditional style meal we signed up for. 

We had a meeting with our ceo about activities to do in upcoming cities before leaving at 5:30. 

Here, went got to try 3 different types of traditional alcohol before making a traditional Bolivian drink with our choice of liquor (half of a lime juice, 2 ounces of the liquor, and topped with ginger ale). 

We then got taken into the kitchen where we got shown a demonstration of how they make their traditional sauces and got shown all of the ingredients that were going to be used for dinner. 

We then got to watch our first course get prepared. The first course was a marinated beef and mushrooms that were engulfed in flames and then the mushrooms and beef got mixed in bowls (mine however was just the mushrooms and a few had bowls with just the meat) that already had salad in it. We also had a side of peanut sauce in the bowl to go with it. 

Upon sitting down at the table we all had a glass of water and got to have a local traditional juice. 

The next course that was brought out to us was a peanut soup. 

The third was fish with locally grown potatoes and a peanut looking sauce. 

At this point there were local bottles of wine brought out. 

Then the next course was pasta with sweet curry like sauce and chicken (however mine was tofu)

And then for dessert it was vanilla ice cream with a local crushed plant (almost like cocoa) over the top. 

The whole night we had a local tour guide eating with us, translating, and giving us extra information about sucre. It was later revealed that he was not hired through G like we initially thought, but rather the people running this activity were his parents. 

I had been sitting next to him the whole night and he told me that if I ever came back to Sucre to make sure I joined a rafting activity and was showing me videos from the place he worked. 

This concluded the evening where we took taxis back to the hotel and went promptly to bed. 

The next morning we had all separated for breakfast and did our own thing as we all had to make sure we were checked out of the hotel by 11am. 

After checkout time, we all met at the coffee place we had been at the morning prior. 

After the coffees, most of the group wanted to go up to the cathedral but three of us split off (all of us had gone up the day prior). We wandered the main streets a bit and ended up finding a few claw machines, the guy being obsessed with winning of the toys in particular and me and the other girl giving him the coins to keep playing. 

We then went to the streets closer to our hotel, initially looking for one that sold warm clothing but getting distracted by an ice cream shop and promptly giving up after getting some and went back to the hotel. 

While we were in the ice cream shop however, the child from the day before recognised the guy and came up to us to ask him to buy her ice cream again, with this time him saying no. 

After finishing the ice creams at the hotel, we went back out to look for a shop and immediately found one. After the others all buying something we had to head back to the hotel for our bus to Potosí.