An announcement...and more pictures

As I've mentioned in my last few posts, NOLS Patagonia, while undoubtedly amazing and beautiful, has also felt a bit frantic at times. In turn, every time I look at the calendar I'm amazed to see that I've been here for nearly two months already! My personal goals to explore the region, get a grasp of the language and culture, learn about the inter-workings of NOLS, and build relationships, often with people I cannot easily communicate with, are all challenges that require significant time and effort. With all that in mind, I was getting concerned by how quickly I seemed to be running out of time.

Puerto Aisén and Invac!

There hasn't been a ton of free time for me to travel around the region since I arrived at NOLS Patagonia. However, a few weeks ago I was able to take a leisurely Sunday drive with Dave and Martin to a local town on the Pacific Coast called Puerto Aisén. It is at this port that we often send out and receive students on the kayaking portions of their NOLS courses. Below are some images from the trip.

Lunch with a view

4 Courses in the Field!

9/30 NOLS Patagonia SSPM-2 Course

Once again, I apologize for the delay since my last post. We've sent 4 courses into Patagonia over the past two weeks - two into the mountains and two, armed with kayaks, into the South Pacific Ocean. Each course has consisted of approximately 17 students and 5 instructors and, since they're in the field for approximately 12 weeks, the Equipment Team (with whom I've been doing most of my work) has therefore just finished organizing and issuing gear for nearly 7,400 field days. It's been a bit hectic. Yesterday, the latter two of those four groups left El Campo, leaving an eerie silence in place of 34 late-teen/early-twenties adolescents who aren't quite sure what they're getting into...