The Abingdonian 2019

70 The Abingdonian Rugby Tour In the early afternoon of 8 August, 51 students and five members of staff embarked on the trip of a lifetime: a rugby tour to South America. After meeting at school and taking a quick group photo, we made our way to Heathrow Airport by coach with everyone excited to finally begin the tour. After checking in and wading through security, we enjoyed some free time to roam the terminal and have dinner together before the flight. After a 15-hour and very smooth flight, we met our tour guide and set off for the Costanera Center, while being able to get our first impressions of Santiago from the coach journey. Upon arriving at the tallest building in South America (a staggering 302m) we were in awe. We took a lift up to the top of the building, which is an open topped 360 degree viewing spot from where you can see the entirety of the picturesque city of Santiago. After a quick look at the centre itself, we set off for the Atton El Bosque hotel, which we were to stay in for one night. We checked in and enjoyed some relaxing time in our rooms before visiting the site of our first fixture, The Grange School, for a quick runout training session. We then returned to the hotel where we had our first tour dinner, which was also a first real taste of South American cuisine (also known as ‘lots of very tasty meat’). We set out the next morning to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. Valparaiso was a beautiful city to visit, with brightly coloured houses all overlooking the mighty port on the south-west of Chile. We then travelled to Vina Del Mar where we had lunch and then explored the surrounding area, before returning to The Grange School to meet our hosts. We arrived at The Grange courtesy of our hosts for a 9am local time ahead of a 10:30am kick off for the 2nd and 3rd teams, with the 1st team kicking off at 12pm. All three teams put in a fantastic, passionate performance, showing great promise, especially considering that they were the first games of the tour. The Grange were very strong opponents who achieved victory in all three games. We then enjoyed lovely post-match food with our opposition, before speeches from coaches and captains. Tour 1st team captain Jimmy Strainge even gave his speech in Spanish, which would be a trend for all four fixtures on the tour, much to the approval of The Grange. After leaving the school site with our hosts, we spent our last evening with them before heading for Cajon Del Maipo. Following the wonderful experience with The Grange, we set out for the glorious region of Cajon Del Maipo, Vitacura. We visited the Ave Fénix project, an attempt to recover part of what was the El Volcán Military Railway, which went from Puente Alto through Cajon del Maipo. We heard about the history of the site, and were fortunate enough to be able to ride the recovered railroad on a one carriage train. We then made a short journey to Craighouse School to meet our new hosts in preparation for our game the next day. After meeting our hosts we spent the evening with them and got plenty of rest before our last game in Chile the following afternoon. The next day we had a morning tour of Santiago. Highlights included visiting the presidential palace, an enormous, pristine building surrounded by Chilean flags and armed guards, and the Santiago public library, another beautiful building. We had some free time to explore the shopping areas in the city, before returning back to Craighouse with time to warm up and prepare for our second fixture. We once again were able to put out three sides against our opposition and once again played great rugby across all the teams, with the 1st team victorious, courtesy of a last phase try to seal the win. After once again enjoying a lovely post match BBQ, and hearing some speeches from both schools, we left with our hosts to get some rest before our morning flight to Mendoza. Taking in a final view of Chile, we boarded our plane for a short flight over the Andes to Mendoza, and after landing, left for a quick tour of the local area, including going on a walk uphill to experience a fine view of our surroundings. The next day we had a tour of a glorious vineyard in Mendoza, where we were shown how wine is made and were allowed to sample wine and grape juice. We then had a training session at the Liceo Rugby Club, the destination for our third match.