Overview

Explore the mountains and meet the people of Chile’s Aysén region. On this course, you’ll start by getting to know this region on foot, backpacking in the mountains as you learn skills like map reading, minimum-impact camping, and navigating off trail.

Start your days savoring a breakfast you cook for your group on a camp stove. Learn about the area’s ecology as you hike through temperate rainforest and steep granite ridges. Settle into your tent at night ready to explore the next valley. After honing your backpacking skills, you’ll spend the rest of your course living with a Chilean family. Host families live in rural communities, and while you’re there you might work on projects like mending fences, caring for animals, and practicing your Spanish language skills.

Leadership will also be a strong emphasis of this course. Living with a Chilean family becomes an opportunity for you to learn self-awareness and cultural competence. A challenging day of hiking in the mountains is a lesson in resilience and tolerance for adversity. Forming a community with your group becomes an opportunity to practice communication and peer leadership. You’ll go home from your course with real experiences to inform your own leadership style and ready to be a thoughtful international traveler, wilderness explorer, and leader in your community.

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