I asked Troy Peden, one of the founders of GoAbroad, what was fueling the trend. He cited the desire for a résumé builder and lust for a fun foreign excursion. Sexy one-liners about meaningful travel — “Gain Practical Experience in an Adventurous Setting!” — entice undergraduates to work for free or less than minimum wage. Forget internships at home; the great unknown is so much more appealing, not to mention adding an international credential to one’s C.V.

But wanderlust fantasies can be just that: fantasies. Some of my friends have told me about a lack of purpose in their internship experiences. One Ivy League student complained about working for a tech giant in China and being given almost no work. She spent her days reading the news, scrolling on Facebook, and researching things to do in the city.

After two weeks in La Paz, it was apparent my internship was not a good fit. I was working on three articles, but my subjects were sociopolitical, ambitious and over my head. Scheduling conflicts kept getting in the way of promised training sessions. I felt I was wasting my parents’ and my school’s money and, off hours, involving myself in dangerous situations.

We lived in the BX House, two floors of an apartment complex in the trendy Sopocachi neighborhood. The gate was locked, our quarters not. On my second weekend, as the sun rose, the interns trickled in after a night of partying. The teenage staff assistant tripped through my lockless bedroom door, accompanied by a local he had met at a bar the week before. I returned from my morning shower to see both in my trundle. As I stood nearly naked in front of a stranger snuggled in my cot, who had access to all of my possessions and me, I decided I didn’t want to be scared anymore. I returned home two days later.

Though I had to eat the cost of my flight, I received a refund of three-fourths of my tuition — and apologies. The assistant, a volunteer, was let go, according to Ivan Rodriguez Petkovic, who took over as general director in the fall. (The editor in chief had been juggling jobs, and has left.) They convened a meeting to remind the interns of the rules, particularly that drugs are prohibited within the BX House. But the organizers made it clear to me: They would not police the behavior of young adults.

They emailed me a string of glowing testimonials. I, too, put out a call for reviews. Joel Balsam interned there in 2012. Just graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, he had wanted to backpack through South America — “Let’s be honest, telling family and friends you are going for an internship is far better then saying you are going just to see the world.” He acknowledged that his colleagues had shared an affinity for having fun, but he called it a “superior” internship that led to another one at a Canadian media outlet.