Our Arrival in Chile!

Hola Amigos! Today, Saturday the 13th, we arrived in the beautiful country of Chile. While we were sad to leave Buenos Aires, we are all so excited to be embarking on an amazing adventure in this new and exciting country.

Beautiful view from the plane!

We landed safely at Arturo Merino Menitez Airport in Santiago, Chile. We all made it through customs and luckily, no one lost their luggage!

Above are some photos from our arrival in the Airport. Students filling out their forms to get through customs, and some other students waiting for their luggage!

We were happily greeted by our Chile Program Coordinator, Valentina Pirez. Once everyone was together, we walked to the bus, where we were introduced to our bus driver, Mauricio. Mauricio helped us all get our luggage stored away, and we boarded the bus. 

Our new bus, which many students (including myself),

were very impressed with!

Half of the group waiting on the bus for everyone to finish 

loading their luggage.

Valentina was so kind to hand out snacks to all of the students and make sure everyone was settled in. She talked to us a bit in preparation for our time in Chile. Valentina concluded her speech by saying, “Welcome to Chile!” to which the whole group clapped and cheered in excitement. As we were driving to our hotel in Valparaiso, I noticed the beautiful mountainous landscapes Chile has to offer. I was speaking with Angie Perrone, who said “Driving through the mountains on the way to the hotel was increíble! I've never seen anything like that before.”

Mountainous landscape view from the bus ride to our hotel.

Although the ride from the airport to the hotel was somewhat long at about an hour and a half, it went by very quickly with great conversation among the group. Caitlin McCosh said, “I thought that the ride went by a lot faster than I was expecting and although it was long day of traveling it was a lot of fun with our group!” We spent the bus ride reflecting back on the eventful week we had in Argentina, having a group discussion about each event whether it was a business visit or the day we spent at Hogar el Alba. It was great to hear the varying opinions on each of these events, to provide a different perspective from my own. It was especially interesting to hear what people had to say about each of these events, specifically about the day at the orphanage. I knew that this day had a large impact on myself, but I loved hearing about other students’ individual experiences that day, and how it truly impacted their way of thinking as well. Our whole group was so passionate about these topics, we ended up spending just about the entire bus ride discussing them, leaving us with just a few short minutes until our arrival at the hotel. We arrived shortly after this discussion at the Hotel Best Western Marina del Rey.

Our new rooms at the Best Western Marina del Rey hotel.

Although we’ve only been here just a few short hours, it is easy to see the visual and cultural differences from Argentina to Chile. Hannah Mason summed it up well by simply stating, “Chile is a lot different from Argentina.” Once we got to the hotel we all checked in to our rooms and settled in before heading out for a night of dinner on our own. So far, Chile has been amazing and our arrival here was smooth and easy. We can’t wait to see what this country has in store for us!