Chile

It’s official. We’ve symbolically planted a National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) flag in the ground and established a basecamp for our South American operations in Southern Chile/Northern Patagonia. What does that mean to you?

It means that — as of the final days of last year — we officially have a base of operations from which we can now run our future trainings and outdoor courses when in South America. Fittingly, the basecamp was established at the outset of one of our Patagonia-based 24-day Outdoor Educator courses, witnessed by a group of students we took down from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Located alongside a river, the basecamp offers unique accommodations that include a treehouse dormitory, hosteria (which is an inn-like facility), eco-friendly domes, a riverside group kitchen area, and quiet forested areas for camping.

Among the highlights of the property is a treehouse dormitorio offering sleeping quarters nestled within the forest trees. Constructed over, around, and in between the forest, the result is a building that incorporates reliable cool summer breezes, an abundance of shade, and neighbors that include (more…)

The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has forged an academic relationship with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) that will see UNCW students earning up to six academic credits for participating in and completing educationally-focused backcountry expeditions thousands of miles from campus and lasting up to a month.

Beginning next spring, UNCW students can study in magnificent outdoor classroom settings that include Chile, Patagonia or Alaska. As a result of this accord between the university and our North Carolina-based outdoor adventure organization, these adventure courses are now counted among the approved academic activities for the university’s Department of Environmental Sciences (EVS) students.

The trio of field courses — timed to coincide with scheduled breaks during the University’s 2018/19 academic year — provide UNCW students with some serious hands-on outdoor activities and lessons that are pretty much guaranteed to (more…)