Article by Ann Beman
Photos Courtesy of Chilean Adventures. Studying abroad doesn't have to mean old-world libraries. Get credits, a suntan, and survival skills with these programs in the great outdoors.
You can study abroad, and you can adventure abroad, but are you aware that you can study adventure abroad? Challenges like whitewater kayaking and elephant riding add another layer of perspective on journeys to places you couldn't have imagined, with characters you couldn't have made up. Below are five nods for specialized outdoor education, ranging from one-week jaunts to full-semester journeys. All offer some form of academic credit, either through an associated university or through a student's own institution. (Check with an academic counselor to make sure your school accepts the credits.)
Chilean Adventures
Adventure junkies flock to Chile for the slap-you-across-the-face beauty of Patagonia , with its pristine, glacially sculpted rock, ancient forests, and cascading whitewater. The rivers of South America 's longest, thinnest country lure whitewater kayakers the world over, but most paddlers focus on the south rather than on central Chile , the country's orchard, vineyard, and breadbasket, its economic and political heart, and the home where its cowboys roam. Based about 90 miles south of Santiago in Los Queñes, a village at the confluence of the orchard-watering Teno and Claro rivers, Chilean Adventures offers intense outdoor instruction with customized Spanish-language study and gap-year programs at a Chilean university or institute. The owners/educators, American Todd Ericson and Chilean Eduardo Doerr, specialize in whitewater kayaking and offer guided kayak vacations on Central Chile 's most spectacular rivers, surf-kayak safaris on the Pacific Coast , horse packing, trekking, and rafting expeditions. In 2006, they added to their schedule the first commercial raft descent of the Rio Colorado, a technical, small-volume river with red basalt columns towering above Aegean-colored waters. If you sign on, don't forget a cup and spurs, because the trip cooler's full of local wine and your shuttle's a horse.
http://www.studenttraveler.com/mag/02-06/scoop.php
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