To begin the second week of our stay in Argentina we took a field trip to “La Serranita” hills. We all arrived at school at the normal time except for Haley who we later had to pick up at her hosts house on our way to the hills. We left the school around 9:00am and got to the hills about an hour later. We immediately saw a small shack that held our food and our tour guides. We then begin our tour straight up the hill with a pre-determined path. Several minutes later 2 walking sticks chose me and Keivan. One tour guide called me Gandalf.
After a lot of walking, climbing, jumping and ninja like material we arrived to the place in which we would repel down. We would only be repelling halfway down the hill. The tour guides took groups of five to put on their helmets and hook up to the rope. We learned that one hand is used for feeding the rope and the other can be used to push away from rocks. Finally it was my turn and he hooked me up to the rope and gave me a quick debriefing. The start was the worst but once you started it was much easier. Once everyone made it safely to the halfway mark we all sat around on a rock with some shade to enjoy our two sandwiches and water. After our quick lunch one by one we where able to rock climb if we wanted to. Will Whitmore being the fastest one to the top in 60 seconds made it look easy. Indeed it was not easy. I tried and failed along with many others because the middle had no place to put your feet.
Once we were finished with that we got our bags and continued our journey back to the top where we originally started. We all made it down at around 3:00pm to give us 30 minutes to catch our breaths and buy some water. We got on the bus and arrived an hour later just in time for their school to be ending. As usual we dispersed into our families car and headed out to our host houses. ¡Adios!
– Josh Kemp
Today we ventured to La Serranita to hike and to propel down the mountain. We arrived around 10 in the morning and were all amazing by the height of the mountain, it was incredible. We started our trek immediatley while walking through a man made path through plants and rocks. The clOser we got to the mountain the steeper the steps were, but the more challenging it was the more fun we had. Getting to the top was one of the most amazing feelings I’ve had this entire trip and seeing the view was so rewarding.
After we made it to the top we hiked around the mountain and propeled around 50ft to the ground. When we all finished we enjoyed lunch and spent time together until we had to leave. Getting to experience the view and the gratitude of hiking a mountain made this exchange extremely unique and an opurtunity of a life time.
– Hannah Brown
