LivingInPatagonia.com

The Graduation Trip of the Country

Written by Shanie 

There is a something about the Bariloche area that I have never seen or heard of else where in the world…

It is currently and traditionally, the one place in the country that all graduating classes of every school of every town, village or city in the nation visit to celebrate the end to their secondary education.  Otherwise known as the egresados.

It is a crazy spectacle of class loyalty and youthful excitement.  The 50 to 150 teens can be witnessed in any major tourist spot, walking the main drag or hiking deep in the Andes.  The classes come to Bariloche year round and seem to take advantage of all that Bariloche has to offer; we have seen hundreds of kids dressed up in costumes getting ready to party and dance all night long, only to be playing in the wilderness the next day.

They always move in pack form and are known to take over a trail or sidewalk.  Their exuberant energy is a loud presence and it is easy to hear them coming from far away.

One of the aspects that I find most interesting to the class trips is that the students all travel around in rented, matching outfits.  The colors can range from bright orange to camouflage.  The tour groups that rent out these outfits and shuttle the kids around on large buses have chosen such poignant business names as Travel Rock, Live! or Fun Tour.  The outfits usually shout the business logo and have seen their better days.  Group after group joyfully sing and parade around town in their matching attire.  Despite the lack of fashion that is executed by the appearance of these outfits, the rebellious student that doesn’t go along with the crowd is non-existent in these student packs.  They seem to wear the colors with pride.

A couple of days ago we were up at Catedral showing some friends the area.  There were about four different schools that were enjoying the last melting patches of snow.  Groups were huddled together, chanting their school anthems and taunting others to retort back.  Instead of games of soccer, snow ball fights and body sliding races set the rival schools in competition.  It was obvious by the smiles on their faces and the camaraderie felt in the air that this is something that will be with them forever.

And that has been shown to me in another way while living in Argentina.  If you ask pretty much any Argentinian, no matter what their age, if they have been to Bariloche the answer is always the same…

“Yes, for my graduation trip.  It was fun and beautiful.”

It is good to see that this tradition is alive and strong.