Remko’s Adventures

This blog is about Remko and his trip through South America with the motorbike. Remko is a 25 year old Dutchie who studied with us for the last 4 weeks. He had a lot of stories to tell and was good company for both staff and students! He improved his Spanish a lot and even learned how to play the guitar while here!

Trip

Remko’s trip started in Santiago, Chile. Here he bought a motorcycle with which he would drive around almost whole South America. He went up first, through Peru to Colombia where he stayed a while studying Spanish as well. During his trip he passed by some amazing places like; Laka Titicaca in Peru/Bolivia, The salt fields of Uyuni and of course the beautiful landscape of Argentina before settling in Buenos Aires for some weeks of Spanish at Elebaires. He, sadly, left us past weekend to drive his motor back to Santiago where he hopes to sell it before going back to Holland.

Tip

If you want to do a kind of trip like Remko, please do enough research beforehand. Remko told us that he bought his motor in Santiago because he found out that if you buy a motorcycle in Argentina, you are not allowed to leave the country with it! Please check these kinds of things and save yourself the disappointment. He also gives the advice to be aware of dogs; driving a motor near dogs will make some dogs go after you and possibly bite you. It happened to Remko twice; once in Colombia and once in Chile. In Chile it was fortunately not that bad because there is no rabies here. But if something like this happens, I advise you to go to a doctor anyway!

Studying Spanish

As he was already studying Spanish in Colombia and during his trip, Remko was already on a decent level when he arrived in Buenos Aires. After two weeks with another student and two weeks more of private classes, Remko improved rapidly. He said both the group lessons and the private lessons helped him a lot since he had enough time to speak and later enough time to customize his classes to what he wanted to learn more. Eventually he passed his exam on a C1 level!

Guitar

His time in Buenos Aires has definitely not only been about studying Spanish. At Elebaires we do a lot of excursions and extracurricular activities and encourage our students to profit from everything this amazing city has to offer. During his weeks of private classes he had some more spare time and Laura hooked him up with a guitar teacher and even arranged a guitar for in the school so he was able to practice and we could enjoy his music!