Spanish Language Immersion Tour – Argentina

For the next six nights, we will enjoy the Argentine spirit with our warm and welcoming host families.

Buenos Aires is the capital of the Argentine Republic. The name means fair winds in Spanish. It is one of the largest cities in Latin America with a lot of cultural offerings and is the point of departure for travelling to the rest of the country. Inhabitants of Buenos Aires are called porteños, "people from the port". Buenos Aires is a destination that allows the visitor not only to view the city but also to have an exceptional urban adventure.

We will participate in an orientation session, covering Health and Safety aspects of the week ahead.

This evening, participate in a cooking class to learn more about Argentine cuisine, and afterwards, enjoy what you cooked for dinner.

"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey On every evening of the program, we will set time aside to update our Reflection Journal and share thoughts and impressions that have come to the fore in the course of the day.

Enjoy free time to shop and enjoy the beauty of Buenos Aires at your leisure with your host families.

With the use of a private coach and driver, we will take a comprehensive Buenos Aires city tour, which highlights many of the important landmarks and buildings in the city, as well as the various neighborhoods including La Boca, San Telmo, Recoleta, and Palermo. During our tour we will explore the Colonial Center including Plaza de Mayo, the Cabildo, Casa Rosada, the Cathedral, the Obelisk, the Congress, Government House, the Colonial Theater and the wide 9 de Julio Avenue, as well as the Puerto Madero Riverfront.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

Spend time exploring all that the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes has to offer. Argentine painter and art critic Eduardo Schiaffino was the first director of the museum, which opened on December 25, 1895.

Visit Recoleta Cemetery, which contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. In 2011, the BBC hailed it as one of the world's best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN listed it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

Enjoy a guided tour of the Museo Evita, dedicated to Eva Perón, one of the most important historical figures in Argentine history. The museum displays articles from her childhood, memorabilia relating to her profession as an actress, accounts her ascension to first lady and unofficial saint to millions and culminates with the legacy of her rule and death.

Feel the passion as professional instructors teach you the tango, Argentina's favorite dance. Discover the tango's origins in 19th century Buenos Aires and learn about its place in today's culture. Later, relax and watch the pros perform in a dramatic show.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

Take a graffiti tour of Buenos Aires to see the different stories local artists tell around the city with their art.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a movement of Argentine mothers who campaigned for their children who had been "disappeared" during the military dictatorship, pursuing the government for answers between 1977 and 2006.

We will take an internal flight from Buenos Aires to Iguazu. Our accommodation for the next two nights will be in Iguazu. While here, breakfast will be included. Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. Together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the world.

We will enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

The park offers up to 8km of trails to enjoy Iguazu Falls (Argentinean side). We will take three different circuits: the upper circuit to enjoy the falls from the highest views, followed by a walk along the lower circuit, to enjoy the falls from the forest and stand under the cascading water. Then take a short train ride along the circuit, ending with a 20-minute walk across the river bridges to the Devil's Throat, to enjoy without a doubt, the most important cascade of Iguazu. Water level permitting we also cross to the Isla St. Martin for a different view of the Falls.

We will enjoy dinner in a local restaurant.

We will take an internal flight from Iguazu to Buenos Aires. Leaving the airport, we will travel to Villa Ocampo on the way to returning to our host families.

We will make a pit stop in Beccar, a town north of the B.A., to pay a visit to Villa Ocampo, the former weekend retreat (and then main residence) of Victoria Ocampo, one of Argentina's most prominent intellectual figures of the 20th century. Many world-famous writers, philosophers, artists, and musicians have spent time there. Villa Ocampo is an impressive manor built in 1891 in the English Picturesque style. Following the death of its owner, the house was donated to UNESCO, and upon extensive restoration, it was finally open to the public in 2003. There, we'll see how the wealthy Argentine aristocracy used to live in the early 20th century.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

We will visit Colon Theatre, one of the world's famous Opera Houses. For decades, visitors to Buenos Aires have marveled at the Colon Theater, a world-class facility for opera, ballet and classical music, which opened in 1908 with a presentation of Aida. Occupying an entire block, the seven-story building has seating for 2500 spectators and standing room for another 1000. Learn about the Colon's colorful history and the special features that make it among the world's greatest.

After the tour, we will enjoy a show at the theatre.

We will have the opportunity to participate in a language class that will enhance our cultural understanding and linguistic skills.

This museum houses the private art collection of art collector Eduardo Costantini. Highlights will include artwork from Antonio Berni, Pedro Figari, Frida Kahlo, Candido Portinari, Diego Rivera and Antonio Sigui. Many of the works confront social issues and explore questions of national identity.

The city of Tigre (35km north of BA) and the surrounding delta region is one of the most popular weekend getaways for weary porteños. The city itself has a few pleasant attractions, but it's really the delta just beyond Tigre that everyone's after. The Puerto de Frutos is a veritable open-air market, known for an area where vendors sell a variety of artisanal goods such as furniture, ornaments made of cane and wicker fabrics and crafts, clothes and leather, mate and typical souvenirs, delicious homemade sweets and honey, a variety of meats, fruits and food.

Spend time in Remembrance Park, which is situated in front of the Río de la Plata estuary in the northern end of the Belgrano section of Buenos Aires. It is a memorial to the victims of the 1976-83 military regime, known as the National Reorganization Process, during the Dirty War, a period of unprecedented state-sponsored violence in Argentina.

This evening we make the final entries in our Reflection Journal and share some of the most significant observations and perspectives that have taken shape in the course of our language immersion trip in Argentina and how these experiences may be most relevant for us all as we return home.

Our rewarding and enjoyable Spanish Language Immersion Tour in Argentina comes to an end as our Tour Director accompanies us to the airport on our final day.