Patagonia Cultural Expedition

Spend 31 days backpacking 80-150 miles on foot through some of the most remote wilderness in Patagonia, learning the landscape from the people who have called it home for generations. 

Your route will follow paths cut by sheep and cattle ranchers or it may venture off trail entirely, through terrain home to fox, puma, condor, and guanaco. You’ll start with the fundamentals of backcountry travel — camping, cooking, navigation, and Leave No Trace principles — before moving into more advanced topics like first aid, risk management, and natural history. Leadership is woven into every day. As competence builds, instructors hand more responsibility to the group, and your course may culminate in a multi-day independent student expedition.

Cultural immersion runs alongside the wilderness travel throughout. Any time your route passes a campo, you’ll stop to interact with the poblador family, sharing a cup of yerba mate, helping with a project, and learning from people who live and work in this remote place. Spanish language skills are part of the curriculum from day one.

Weather in Patagonia is variable. Hot sun, strong winds, rain, and snow can all show up in the same week.

You’ll leave having learned two ways of life: Patagonian culture and NOLS expedition culture. Both will change how you travel and how you see the world.