EFT, Part 1

I've decided to write about the EFT (educational field trip) in parts because I want to remember and write everything I remember.

First, the whole week was amazing!!! The whole Pepperdine group flew down to Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southern city in the world. Also it's called the end of the world. We spent a day in Usuaia and then a 4 day cruise around Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan. Our cruise ended in Punta Arena, Chile and we spent a day there before flying home to Buenos Aires. The beauty of the cruise was comparable to Greece or Sea of Cortez....After living in a big city for almost a month and then going on this trip, I realized how much I appreciate nature and could spent a large part of my life just looking at a landscape.

We started the trip off at the Buenos Aires airport. When traveling with 60+ people, we definitely make a scene and it's a little embarassing. It was pretty fun to have us all on one plane. We arrived in Ushuaia and took a bus to our hotel. Jessica and I were roommates and the hotel was amazing!!! The view from our room was spectacular. We overlooked the ocean and the view was absolutely breathtaking. All of the Pepperdine programs get to spend the same amount of money on the EFT's, but it is a lot cheaper for a big group to travel in S. America, than in Europe. That means that our group in BA gets to travel in luxury and stay at the nicest hotels available and take expensive cruises. So the hotel we were at was gorgeous. The hotel had a pool and hot tub too, all indoors because it is pretty chilly at the end of the world. We went swimming in the pool, which had a portion outdoors where you had to swim under a little strip of plastic to get to. Again, we had a really nice view.

The next morning we woke up to do a day off-roading trip in Ushuaia. We piled in 7 or 8 jeeps and headed towards lakes. Zach, Bill, Kelsey, Jessica, Mariah, Becca, Alyssa, and I were in the same jeep with a crazy driver. He was the owner of the tour company and knew English pretty well. He forgot his iPod that day, so we listened to his cassette tapes, we had two options, Vivaldi's 4 seasons or Beastie Boys. He was 35 and had traveled around the US and had a rat tail (from when he had long hair). He was hilarious because he told us jokes, but the only ones he knew in English were dirty jokes. On the off-roading, we stopped at several look-out spots and lakes. We even drove through the edge of a lake. It was windy and cold at some spots, but sunny the whole time. It was a long day of driving and we drove in really bumpy areas where I thought our car would flip. Overall, very fun and we saw many beautiful lakes. That afternoon, we headed toward the boat for our cruise.

Ushuaia Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047117&l=f268c&id=8505998
I'll continue on Part 2 soon.