Students from a high mountain school in the Calchaquí Valley, in Tucumán, accustomed to horseback riding or walking for several hours to attend classes, managed to fulfill their dream of traveling to the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires to discover the sea, within the framework of the National Program Tourism Education promoted jointly by the Ministries of Education and Tourism.
The 27 students from the 350 school in San José de Chasquivil traveled to the hotel complex in the Buenos Aires town of Chapadmalal, located 26 kilometers from Mar del Plata, and after enjoying almost a week on the beach and the sea, they began this Monday the return to Tucumán with a special stopover in Buenos Aires to see the stadiums of the River Plate and Boca Juniors clubs and the Tecnópolis mega exhibition.
“The boys and girls are making one of their dreams come true, which was to touch the sea, a wish that arose from the teacher Pilar Bellido, who watched them grow up and dreamed that they could travel to the Atlantic Coast to fulfill that wish” , told Eliana La Madrid, secretary of the school in statements to Télam.
And he added: “I feel a great satisfaction to see them smile and see how they play on the beach. They are boys who daily make a lot of sacrifice to learn and train at school, which they access by horseback or walking between 3 and 8 hours, depending on where they live, in places where there are no roads or routes, where many of them have to cross the same river 20 times”.
The director, María de los Ángeles Saavedra Ybarra, recounted the journey: “This trip began on Sunday (last week) when the helicopter of the Aeronautical Directorate took us from the Calchaquí valley to the aeroclub in the town of Horco Molle and from there by bus to the Bicentennial hotel, where Social Development gave them a backpack with a kit for the beach: mesh, flip flops, chinstraps, toys and sunscreen.
“The next day we undertook the trip to the Atlantic coast to fulfill the dream, thanks to the coordinated actions carried out by the national agencies of Education, Tourism and Sports and the provincial ones that are under the orbit of the governor of Tucumán (Osvaldo Jaldo) “, he stated.
And he added: “We arrived in Chapadmalal and all the teachers and coordinators of the educational tourism program were waiting for us.”
“We are experiencing something unique and since we arrived we can see how the faces of the boys outline happiness,” said Saavedra Ybarra.
The school directives indicated that “on Monday we will stop in the City of Buenos Aires and on Tuesday they will take us to see the Boca and River fields, and to Tecnópolis and then leave for San Miguel de Tucumán”.
Rodrigo, one of the boys who make up the delegation that traveled to Chapadmalal, told Télam: “I am very happy, very grateful for the people who managed this trip. We are getting to know the sea, the sand and the geography of this place” and added : “It’s a new and unique experience, it’s more than I expected, it’s not what I imagined.”
“Despite the fact that I get into the water every so often and we play soccer in the sand with my teammates, I have time to talk to my parents and tell them that I’m fine, that I’m happy,” he stressed.
Juan also thanked the possibility of having known the sea: “At first I was afraid of it, but not anymore and I like it”, he confided and added that “luckily my parents, who hesitated to send me, were encouraged and today I can be enjoying everything this. Everything is very nice, the water is salty, the sand, everything is great”.
For Miguel, everything is also “wonderful.” “I didn’t imagine it would be like this. I like the sea, the landscape, the games, the food, I’m happy and very grateful to be here,” he said.
The group of students from the rural school in Tucuman, who finally got to know the sea, are part of the 2,000 boys and girls who during this summer enjoyed the Chapadmalal and Embalse tourist units (in Córdoba), within the framework of the National Program of Educational Tourism.
“This program is a pedagogical proposal that tries to open the school and that it be the school that travels and comes to learn in other contexts, in other scenarios. We put together a pedagogical project based on the culture of each community and province,” he explained to Télam Bárbara Ruiz Díaz, a member of the program’s coordinating team, who specified that it works during summer and winter vacations focused on recreation, games and art.
After lamenting that this project “had disappeared in 2015”, during the government of Mauricio Macri, the coordinator stressed that “we are very happy that it has been implemented again so that all public schools in Argentina travel, claiming that it is a right know the country.
