Argentina

Since I have little to say today I've decided to post my article for the Gower about the Argentina trip. I was really pleased with the reaction it got but at the same time I learnt that I'm far too willing to go out of my way to simply please people. I say that because when I agreed to write it I was struggling to keep up with work. Anyway here's the short article.

UCS pupils are lucky enough to have a foray of exciting and unique opportunities before them. A perfect example of this is last summer's geography trip to Argentina, which was undoubtedly one of the most memorable trips that many of us have ever had. An intimate group of eight students accompanied by Mr Miller and Miss Bradford made the long journey to South America and, over a period of eleven days, travelled across Argentina. There is so much to say about our short time there but sadly I cannot go into all the intricate details – so here is a brief synopsis of our travels.
When we reached Buenos Aires, our first destination, we met our tour guide. Marcos is a man best described as 'tank-like' and it was unanimously decided amongst us that he would probably be able to successfully wrestle a bear. Two bears in fact, depending on his mood. He proved a massively helpful guide and extremely pleasant character who added an extra dimension to our brilliant trip.
The Argentinean capital is one of the most unique places I've been to. Its blend of a New York-esque atmosphere and South American culture gave it the feel of a city that is incomparable to others. After a tour of Buenos Aires our eyes were opened to the darker side of the countries history – that of a brutal dictatorship and oppression. This trend, of learning about a culture that the majority of us new nothing about (apart from Mr Miller who apparently is head of Geography or something), carried on throughout our travels and proved highly rewarding. During our time there we also went to a Tango evening (which sadly didn't call for audience participation), visited the Urugurian town of Colonia, were verbally abused by an angry busker and toured La Boca. From our experiences we soon realised just how different Buenos Aires is to a city like London. One afternoon, keen to eliminate stereotypes, we elected to tour the Boca Juniors football stadium whilst Talya and Miss Bradford went shopping. It was intriguing to see that even the Argentinean culture towards football is totally different. For one, Diego Maradona is seen as a god, not the handballing, drug taking cheat we all know in Britain. A better example is of the rivalry between River Plate and Boca. This is so intense that Coca Cola were forced to advertise in black and white (the only place where they do this in the world) as Boca fans wouldn’t allow the red and white colours of River Plate shown in their stadium.
In our few days staying in the capital we gained a real feel for the city and the country as a whole. We were there in the middle of Argentina's winter, which to us still warranted t-shirts and shorts, presumably to the surprise of the locals who were mostly dressed in full winter clothing. We probably didn’t indulge in the culture as much as we should have as going to MacDonald's in our free time limited our experiences of the national cuisine - unless, of course, you count Elliot Lowe's discovery of the 'Triple Mac'. We genuinely had to talk him out of taking one home due to difficulties of getting it through customs.
Our next destination, Iguazu, was a place far removed from the bustling metropolis we visited previously. Our day in Iguazu National Park was truly incomparable to anything I’ve ever done. Originally I wasn't convinced the magnificent waterfalls would become a main highlight for me but was soon proved wrong. I doubt many of us on the trip had seen anything like them before. The largest waterfall, The Devil's Throat, was so powerful and loud that it seemed to give off some sort of living energy and staring it was almost hypnotising. Mr Miller, Elliot and I decided to buy plastic ponchos in attempt to keep ourselves dry during the boat trip underneath the waterfalls. The ridicule for wearing these from the Upper Remove boys and Marcos (who solved the issue of keeping dry by going topless for the ride) was eventually justified after we all got completely soaked anyway. I’ll never get those twenty Pesos back. We did get one thing right though. Mr Miller somehow concluded the women sitting ahead of us would have a loud scream when we went into a waterfall. His prediction proved accurate. She sounded like a cat, on prozac, being electrocuted continuously. Fortunately Ben Norton captured the whole thing on film and the memory of the cat-screeching lady can be preserved for years to come. The boat outing itself was great fun. It was like nature’s answer to Tidal Wave at Thorpe Park – a unique water ride - so wet that opening your eyes became an impossible task.
The last few days are a blur on my part. I got rather ill and so I spent most of our trip up the Andes sleeping and deliriously purchasing odd coloured scarves from a market 10,000ft above see level. I skipped dinner and soon discovered that in my absence I’d been collectively given the nickname ‘swiners’ by the rest of the group, who jokingly decided I must have come down with swine flu. I doubt they were far off.
Next came the delays. Suffices to say that I’m never flying Air Aregentinos again. Ever. We were delayed by just under twenty four hours (including seven hours delay in Madrid) and got painfully close to pitching up a small UCS campsite in the airport before deciding to stay in a hotel.
It says a lot about a trip when illness or ridiculous delays do little to mare it. I kept a journal that I wrote in several times a day and rereading it for the purposes of this short report drew countless laughs and memories which speaks leagues for how brilliant the entire trip was. Plus I’ve had to miss out so much.
Overall it’s actually quite tricky to choose the right words to convey how fun the whole thing was and what a good job Miss Bradford, Marcos and of course Mr Miller did throughout our time there. If this opportunity arises for any current Upper Remove or Transitus pupils then I highly recommend taking it.