Our trip to Uruguay and the Amazon began with a relaxing, 3-day stay at an estancia (ranch) just a couple of hours outside Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo.
Instead of “relaxing” we might have said “recovery” since the journey to South America took 18 hours of flight time over three flights in three days as we worked our way backwards through five time zones. We had planned a longer stopover in Toronto in order to catch up with family and to allow for the possibility of snow delays. Fortunately, the big snowstorm had been the previous weekend so no flight disruptions and our flight to Rio de Janeiro and onward to Montevideo left on schedule. (Right after a great dinner in Air Canada’s Signature Suite lounge!) However, the -17⁰ Toronto temperature made arriving to the mid-summer heat some 50⁰ higher quite the shock. In a good way; since escaping the rain and snow of Canada’s winters was obviously one objective of the trip!
The scorching mid-day temperatures dictated the rhythms of our stay. Activities such as tours of the property, horse riding, and walks were done either early in the mornings or in the evenings, while entire afternoons were devoted to siestas (which suited us just fine as we recovered from jet lag).
The onsite activities at Estancia El Ceibo were low key. On our first day, our host, Joselo, took three couples out to the pastures and river to learn a bit about the flora and fauna of the area. Unlike many Uruguayan estancias there were only a few cattle but instead a sizeable flock of sheep. The pasture lands were also shared with the ranch’s dozen or so horses that are kept for riding (as opposed to being working horses for gauchos). We took advantage of those horses the next morning, before breakfast to beat the heat, with a leisurely ride though the pastures down to the river and back. Very enjoyable to see the field birds exploding out of the grass, while in the treed areas there were flocks of noisy, green parrots. We aren’t bird watchers, but we are assuming that the field birds were Uruguay’s national bird, the Southern Lapwing known locally as the Tero, and that the parrots were monk parakeets. On the third day, we walked through the grazing sheep and horses at the end of the day, just in time to see the sheep being herded into their corral for the night. In contrast to sheep herding in Ireland, at El Ceibo they mostly used a pick-up truck rather than relying upon their dogs!
The relatively low activity level did not stop hosts Carmen and Joselo and their staff from producing four meals a day to keep guests happy and well fed. The crowning glory on our last evening was an “ asado uruguayo” or Uruguayan barbecue, featuring pork, sausage, bacon, and beef (with an afterthought of some salad and vegetables) followed by a huge crème brûlée. The asado isn’t just a meal, but a Uruguayan tradition and social occasion; Joselo took obvious pride in personally barbecuing kilos of meat over an open fire in the farm kitchen despite the temperature in the high 30⁰s.
After the great asado on our last evening, the next day it was time to catch a bus in the nearby town of Florida and make our way to Montevideo to see a bit more of Uruguay.
See our pictures from the estancia on Flicker: www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720331902408
Visit our Uruguay and the Amazon page to see all of our posts from our first trip of 2026!