On the 19 September, 13 students and two teachers left Dunedin to go to Argentina and Chile.

The trip was split into two different parts and the first being in Argentina where the students spent 10 days in the capital (Buenos Aires) living with a host family to experience real South American culture. Each morning the students did some sightseeing activities around the city and then returned home with their host sisters in the afternoon.

After the mild delay of a cancelled flight we arrived at our first location - Buenos Aires. Some of the highlights included exploring the La Boca neighbourhood, visiting the Recoleta cemetery, shopping on Florida street, attending an Argentine cooking class, San Telmo’s vibrant Sunday market, and spending a day in the high school with our host sisters. The students had to quickly adjust to very late nights and early mornings.

In the afternoons and the weekend the students got to experience different aspects of Buenos Aires with their host sisters. The girls did many different activities like attending a quinceanera, visiting attractions like the botanical gardens or chinatown, seeing the countryside or meeting Argentinians of a similar age. The relationships and friendships that were created with the host sisters was a special part of the trip for all the girls.

The food was a major highlight especially the ice cream, pizza, dulce de leche and empanadas that Buenos Aires is famous for. We also got to try many typical dishes and desserts with our host families such as milenasa, panqueque con dulce de leche, choripan and mate.

Buenos Aires is a huge city with 12 million people. Because of this, there were many different public transportation like metros and many buses. We were lucky enough to experience the metro but we had to push our way onto the subway and sometimes we got lost. You had to move quickly to get on or you were left behind.

On the second week of our trip we flew over the Andes to Santiago in Chile. This is where we got to practice our Spanish with lots of shopping and ordering food in restaurants. We also spent two nights in the port city of Valparaiso with it’s funky street art.

The last week saw us flying north into the Atacama Desert – the driest place on earth where we stayed in a town called San Pedro. During this part of the trip we got our first taste of high altitude at 2408m above sea level and that was only in town. When we got to the Tatio Geysers we were 4320m above sea level which is higher than any point in New Zealand. The highlights from the second week included sandboarding, stargazing, visiting the geysers, relaxing in a natural hot spring in the Andes, watching the sunset in the Valley of the Moon, and floating in the salt lakes (where there is more salt than in the Dead Sea).

If you ever get the opportunity to travel to South America you shouldn’t let it pass.