Ol' McDonnald had an estancia, E-I-E-I-OOHHHH

Well, its been a while since I've graced y'alls presence so let me mention a few big events. #1 Estancia!!! Estancia is one of the spanish words for farm, so guess where we got to go to... AFARM!!! It was a perfect day, the sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and not a cloud in the sky :) To get to this estancia, we had to ride a 2 hr bus to the middle of no where, literally.

To us, it looked like the bus just decided to drop us off on the side of the road...

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Fortunately, we were very wrong. This place had 2 pools (one indoor and one outdoor), a lake to canoe in, horses to ride, a sauna, a man made forest, lots of land and cattle, cute dogs, and great food. We were able to enjoy this for only $50! The first thing we all did was hitch a ride to the horses. I didn't realize how much I missed riding with my Pa! I just knew that he was smiling in heaven when I was riding that horse. Being able to ride in Uruguay brought back many memories of him, which I found kind of ironic because I was in a completely different country, culture, you name it. It was refreshing to feel so close to him and not have sadness overwhelm me.

Next we hit the indoor pool. I brought my brand-new waterproof camera to test it out...

Needless to say, we had fun practicing with underwater photography :)

Next we enjoyed a lovely lunch. They served us barbecued ribs right off the grill, salad, cheese rolls (like Red Lobsters), and other little snack foods. Then came desert... Let's just say that they like alcoholic deserts and that the ice cream was amazing lol. After lunch the group split

up. Some of us decided it would be fun to canoe so we found some life jackets and started heading to the lake... We had no idea how to get there and after about 20 minutes of walking in a field covered with cow patties and thorns (in sandals), we unanimously decided to head back. No one was too pleased and it became the ultimate fail...

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after that, it was round 2 with the horses! I got a horse that loved to run and be in front of the line... Let me just say that it was fun/scarry/thrilling/nerve racking all at once. What was the problem??? Well, you see the saddles were not the "normal" ones that I'm use to. They were mostly made out of sheep wool, which is more comfortable but has no butt grip (if ya know what I mean). Then, it also had no horn so if I did need to hold on to something (as in if I was slipping off) then I was outta luck. Another major factor was my horse was not afraid to race with the other horse next to me. If Leah's horse decided to speed up a bit, then my horse would speed up a bit more. Next thing you know Leah and I were clinging on for dear life. I have never been bucked off a horse, but I just knew that my record would break if I let that horse have its way. I made him slow down but there for a while, I thought I had lost control completely. once everyone caught up with us at the stable area, they were all saying "Oh my gosh, y'all looked so legit!" haha if they only knew ;)

We joined everyone else to eat a snack (that was more or less like a meal) and then gathered our stuff and hit the road. We thought we were

gonna have to walk to the bus stop but the people were kind enough to give us a lift. We all separated into 2 pickup beds and headed for the bus stop. It was kinda scary because it was probably a 10-5 minute ride with constant stopping and accelerating. Audrie almost fell out and also almost lost her bombilla (even worse)! Here is a pic of her clinging on for dear life after she almost lost it...

Once we arrived at the bus stop, it was pretty much uneventful the rest of the way home. I will say we waited for about 45 minutes for the bus to pick us up, but no one really minded cuz we were making eachother laugh by singing random songs.