Coyhaique and Oyster

I was part of the same trip as Tom, one of the previous reviewers, and on the whole I would say that he has summed up well the issues with this program. On the whole, I entirely recommend doing a program similar to this, but not in Coyhaique, and not with Oyster.

Whilst of course Patagonia is stunning, this natural beauty is in my opinion more than offset by the dangerous levels of pollution in Coyhaique itself; indeed, by the end of our stay in May, almost every other day was a city wide state of environmental emergency. This meant that we were simply not allowed to exercise, and even walking to the schools was a challenge. Since one of our group was an asthma sufferer, not to warn us about this was somewhat irresponsible from Oyster.

My Spanish did undoubtedly improve, and the experience of living with host families, whilst challenging at times, was fantastic. Whilst of course Oyster did provide the link to these families, I feel that merely putting us in contact with a family was not worth the sum paid for the trip. Furthermore, the support offered by Oyster was minimal to say the least, and whilst I personally preferred this hands off approach, I feel the amount charged by Oyster for what is limited support is unjustified. Not only this, but as Tom has explained the initial Spanish lessons were almost entirely pointless. Again both of these facts make me question why we paid so much to Oyster.

The initial trip to Laguna San Rafael was also something of an annoyance. The trip itself was fantastic, but I think I speak for all of us on the trip when I say that we felt very taken advantage of. It subsequently became clear once we arrived with host families that the amount we paid for the trip was more than was necessary, and was perhaps a cost that could have been avoided had the trip been done even a week later, since we would have had greater knowledge of the available options. However, since we were pretty much straight off the plane we felt we had little option but to immediately commit to this trip. I am not saying this was a deliberate attempt to deceive us by Oyster, but I feel it could have been done in a way that didn’t pressure us or seemingly take advantage of our lack of knowledge.

Essentially, the program was good, but Oyster had very little to do with this on the ground. For me the costs of the trip and Oysters value added simply do not match up. Therefore, I would strongly recommend doing a program similar to this but not in Coyhaique (there are plenty of far more interesting places in both Chile and Argentina), and not with Oyster, unless the costs of the trip are reduced to a level that corresponds with their value added.