Heading to Patagonia

Some of you may be wondering why this blog is titled "Puffy Jacket Paddling" and some of you have already figured it out.  I'll get to that later.  In a little over a week I'll be heading down to Patagonia Chile to work for two and a half months leading a sea kayaking expedition and a backpacking expedition.  This is not the first time I've been down there to work for NOLS.  But this is the first time I've decided to blog about it.  Lately I've been feeling like I could be more effective in my life and work by keeping my friends and family better informed as to what I'm up to--mainly so that you all can be praying for me.

So, what is this fall in Patagonia looking like?  On October 6th I will fly from LAX to Santiago, Chile.  From their I'll catch another flight down to the town of Coyhaique, which is in the southern part of Chile.  I'll have a couple of days to rest from the travel, and then I'll start my first contract on October 11th.  My co-instructors and I will have a couple of days of prep before students arrive. 

These students have signed up for the "Patagonia Year."  What is that you ask?  Well, it's the longest course that NOLS offers.  These students will essentially spend two semesters in Patagonia participating in several expeditions.  I am planning to be with them for three of them.  In October we will begin with a 25 day sea kayaking expedition.  Then the students will participate in a Wilderness First Responder course (10 days) and I will supervise them when they are out of class.  Next we will do a 25 day backpacking expedition.  At this point it will be mid-December and everyone will have three weeks off either to travel in Chile or South America or to go home to spend Christmas with family.

After the Christmas break the students will return to the NOLS base in Patagonia and participate in a 20 day rock climbing course followed by a 10 day cultural section where they will live with a rural Patagonian family.  After those two sections I plan to join them again for a Mountaineering expedition for another 25 days.  Then the Patagonia Year will culminate with a student led expedition without direct instructor supervision-- the students will be divided into teams of five and they will plan their own 8 day backpacking trip and conduct it on their own.  I will be their contact person during that time in case they run into any difficulties.  Each team will have a satellite phone and they will be able to contact me in case of emergency.  Otherwise they are on their own!!

So, that is a brief overview of what I have ahead of me in the coming months.  I will post some specific prayer requests and more details of some of the things I've been learning recently in my future posts.  Thanks for reading.