Updated Jan 10, 2024 with pics and details.
Literally thousands of Sea Lions, awesome day, with quite an adventure and trek to get out to the island. Would definitely come back to Uruguay and felt like we only got a very quick taste.
Arrival and Port
Upon waking up, I went topside to find that we were still navigating our way into port. Really interesting space, as we got some panoramic views immediately into the city as well.
On the other side, there was a seeming pile of shipwrecked ships? Maybe?
Punta del Este
We boarded our bus (only 8 of 10 people showed up, so had plenty of room), and we made the trek out to Punta del Este, which we discovered from our guide is a vacation destination for Argentinians (their version of Miami Beach).
Video might take forever to load to YouTube…so if it’s not available and you care, check back later.
We got to the harbor and boarded a boat, which was an adventure in itself. Good times. I’m sure the distance wasn’t terrible, but it looked intimidating being held up by just two strings.
Lovely views of the city as we left the harbor for the 20+ minute boat ride out to the Sea Lions.
Isla de Lobos
The ride there was no joke, we were going through some pretty big waves. Some people were concerned, but I wasn’t super concerned cause the two crew didn’t look terribly concerned (maybe I should have been…and I’m just too trusting).
We saw our first sea lion and everyone got super excited, but then we turned the corner and saw literally thousands of sea lions everywhere, jumping in an out of the water, lounging on the beach, it was really nice.
As an added bonus, different from other tours like some whale watching ones I’ve been on, there wasn’t like a million boats circling and chasing the animals. We mostly just drifted about and enjoyed the views.
The pictures are great, but they really don’t do the view justice, there were SO MANY sea lions. Really amazing to see nature without human influence and destruction (although arguably, still human influenced to force them all onto a small island).
Back to the City
We headed back to the van and the city, and on the way people stopped to buy some food, but I noticed some birds in a tree, so went to go take photos, cause…priorities.
Food
Dinner was delish, cause it was prime rib (my fave).
The Great Tripod Debacle
As I was picking up my passport, it turns out that I *possibly* can bring the tripod to Iguazu Falls tomorrow. They may or may not allow it to be carried on, so if they don’t allow it, they’ll make us CHECK IN the tripod and have to wait for it in baggage claim — but I’m not even sure that small a piece would make it through the conveyor belt safely.
Great debate now, whether to risk it, or to just leave it.
Vibe Check
4 parts joy
1 part fear (for my tripod)
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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